Nurk's Minutes/Role on the Team

[B-Roy]

So Nurk played 35 minutes last night. I went and checked his game logs, and this was the most minutes he's played in a non-overtime game since a game in San Antonio on 3/15/16, the year he was traded to us at the deadline. He had 21/14 along with 4 blocks and 3 steals.

My question is, is it time to stop looking at Nurk as a complimentary piece and more as part of a big 3 with Dame and CJ? And if so, is it time to start upping his minutes and role accordingly? Not saying he should be getting 35 minutes every night, but closer to Dame and CJ's 33-34 MPG than his current 25-26MPG.

I'm glad Zach is coming into his own and Meyers is starting to show rotation player potential but Nurk is just flat out better right now. He's not just better than the guys on his team, he's better than most centers in the league. Here is some context:

Per 36:

22.1 PPG/15 RPG/2.6 APG/1.7 BPG

He's brought his FT% to 80% on 4 attempts a game

25.3 PER which is 5th among centers and 14th in the league (PER favors big men)

.225 WS/48 - 9th in the league

5.5 Box +/1 - 11th in the league

59% TS, not great for a big man, but on par or better than the following players who are probably considered "better" offensive players than him:

Anthony Davis 55%
Joel Embiid 59%
Nikola Vucevic 59%
Enes Kanter 59%

He's also playing defense:

101.9 DRTG - 11th in the league

The eye test also matches the stats. He's been playing a lot better, making less stupid decisions, slowing down at the basket which is helping him finish better than years prior. His pick and roll game with Dame is still great.

He's been far and away the second best player on the team, but always comes out in the 1st and 3rd around the 4-5 minute mark and doesn't get back in until around the 6-7 minute mark of the second/4th. My suggestion is, given how well he plays with the starters (Dame in particular), pull him around the 3 minute mark along with Dame and CJ and have him come back with Dame and CJ as well. May need to cut Meyers out of the rotation and just go 9 deep instead of 10, but this will probably win us more games.

 

[illmatic99]

I wonder if conditioning is an issue with the minutes but his play definitely warrants more touches on offense. The way he manhandled Chandler yesterday with his back to the basket was eye opening. That was an easy 2 on nearly every possession. Once he draws double teams, it will make Dame/CJ that much more effective. Get him more shots.

 

[Lukee]

He's our second best player. Fight me

 

[B-Roy]

I wonder if conditioning is an issue with the minutes but his play definitely warrants more touches on offense. The way he manhandled Chandler yesterday with his back to the basket was eye opening. That was an easy 2 on nearly every possession. Once he draws double teams, it will make Dame/CJ that much more effective. Get him more shots.

Not sure he should be getting more post ups necessarily. Post up bigs are a dying breed, and Nurk is only 58% percentile in terms of scoring off post ups. (Aldridge is only 50% percentile for reference).

But they should be including him in more of the offensive sets. His screening is a big part of his value. About the only thing the announcers talked about the Blazers last night was how good Nurk was laying people out on screens. I would also venture to guess that we score the most PPP on the basic Dame/Nurk pick and roll (not sure where to find these stats).

Sometimes it's like the guards (CJ and Turner in particular) dribble around and the run the weave for 20 seconds and get nothing out of it. Then shoot an awful jumper. I would love it if they could just default to a simple Nurk PnR.

 

[Scalma]

He's our second best player. Fight me

Easily the second best player on the team. Last year he really improved his numbers once his usage went down but now he’s looking like a real post threat so maybe we should start running the offense through him more instead of ring around the Rosie.

 

[tlongII]

He's definitely top 3 on the team. He's been playing great. He's just a HUGE dude.

 

[swish3]

Nurk plays best when he is not overextended with his best play in games when he played about 22-28 min. When he is fresh with full energy to run the floor and defend, we do well, as in the first quarter. The second quarter substitutions allowed the lead to grow. If there had been substitutions in the fourth quarter, Nurk could have been resting while Meyers scored the 3 additional swish3s that would have kept us in the game. It does not make sense to leave NBA top scoring talent on the bench when the alternation of Nurk and Meyers in previous games had been so effective.

Nurk is playing much better defense and is scoring well from close to the basket when he is not out of breath, and can continue to be a winner. I think that we should give him the advantage of playing at his best and gain the advantage of putting in Meyers for 18-24 min to add to swish3 scoring and keep up the consistent determined defense that has won over the Celtics and the Bucks.

 

[Gronk Brady]

Nurk needs to be the number 2 option after Dame... he give the offense balance to Dame’s perimeter game. Until Stotts realizes this, the team will be inconsistent... but maybe he is forced to make CJ the number 2 option to justify his contract... who knows

 

[PtldPlatypus]

I'm willing to bet that while Stotts is well aware of the fact that Nurk is the second-best player on the team, and significantly more effective than Collins and Meyers, he also still considers Nurk mildly injury prone, and intentionally keeps his minutes a little bit lower than he would like specifically to preserve his health. I doubt we ever see Nurkic average more than 30 mpg over the course of a season.

 

[ripcityboy]

I'd be interested to see if we feature Nurk a bit more in the offense whether he pivots out and goes for the mid-range jumper. He's still young and I think that shot has the potential to be a much more dangerous part of his arsenal.

 

[swish3]

Nurk is so effective right under the basket that we should continue to encourage him to flourish with dunks, layups, hooks, and powering to the basket. The 21 points and the high efficiency are notable and can be enhanced when he is kept fresh when alternated with Meyers.

 

[Scalma]

Nurk is so effective right under the basket that we should continue to encourage him to flourish with dunks, layups, hooks, and powering to the basket. The 21 points and the high efficiency are notable and can be enhanced when he is kept fresh when alternated with Meyers.

Shut up Meyers.

 

[BonesJones]

So Nurk played 35 minutes last night. I went and checked his game logs, and this was the most minutes he's played in a non-overtime game since a game in San Antonio on 3/15/16, the year he was traded to us at the deadline. He had 21/14 along with 4 blocks and 3 steals.

My question is, is it time to stop looking at Nurk as a complimentary piece and more as part of a big 3 with Dame and CJ? And if so, is it time to start upping his minutes and role accordingly? Not saying he should be getting 35 minutes every night, but closer to Dame and CJ's 33-34 MPG than his current 25-26MPG.

I'm glad Zach is coming into his own and Meyers is starting to show rotation player potential but Nurk is just flat out better right now. He's not just better than the guys on his team, he's better than most centers in the league. Here is some context:

Per 36:

22.1 PPG/15 RPG/2.6 APG/1.7 BPG

He's brought his FT% to 80% on 4 attempts a game

25.3 PER which is 5th among centers and 14th in the league (PER favors big men)

.225 WS/48 - 9th in the league

5.5 Box +/1 - 11th in the league

59% TS, not great for a big man, but on par or better than the following players who are probably considered "better" offensive players than him:

Anthony Davis 55%
Joel Embiid 59%
Nikola Vucevic 59%
Enes Kanter 59%

He's also playing defense:

101.9 DRTG - 11th in the league

The eye test also matches the stats. He's been playing a lot better, making less stupid decisions, slowing down at the basket which is helping him finish better than years prior. His pick and roll game with Dame is still great.

He's been far and away the second best player on the team, but always comes out in the 1st and 3rd around the 4-5 minute mark and doesn't get back in until around the 6-7 minute mark of the second/4th. My suggestion is, given how well he plays with the starters (Dame in particular), pull him around the 3 minute mark along with Dame and CJ and have him come back with Dame and CJ as well. May need to cut Meyers out of the rotation and just go 9 deep instead of 10, but this will probably win us more games.

59 TS% is actually pretty great for a big man or anyone. Big men don't really have a higher baseline for TS% since it's boosted by 3s.

 

[BonesJones]

Nurk plays best when he is not overextended with his best play in games when he played about 22-28 min. When he is fresh with full energy to run the floor and defend, we do well, as in the first quarter. The second quarter substitutions allowed the lead to grow. If there had been substitutions in the fourth quarter, Nurk could have been resting while Meyers scored the 3 additional swish3s that would have kept us in the game. It does not make sense to leave NBA top scoring talent on the bench when the alternation of Nurk and Meyers in previous games had been so effective.

Nurk is playing much better defense and is scoring well from close to the basket when he is not out of breath, and can continue to be a winner. I think that we should give him the advantage of playing at his best and gain the advantage of putting in Meyers for 18-24 min to add to swish3 scoring and keep up the consistent determined defense that has won over the Celtics and the Bucks.

Did you see Meyers turnaround takeaway airball out of the post against a player 9 inches shorter than him?

 

[H.C.]

Did you see Meyers turnaround takeaway airball out of the post against a player 9 inches shorter than him?

Something, something.
Nards wasn't encouraged to make that shot by the coaches.
Which directly led to Nards missing the shot.
If only our coaching staff would encourage Nards he'd never miss a shot.

 

[Gronk Brady]

Did you see Meyers turnaround takeaway airball out of the post against a player 9 inches shorter than him?

OMG... I thought I was only what that noticed that... so pathetic

 

[tykendo]

Nurk needs to get at least 30 minutes per game PERIOD! Between 30 and 35 minutes, unless he's in foul trouble, makes the Blazers a better team going forward. And he always (unless the team has blown out the opponent) needs to be on the floor finishing games off. And, to me, he IS the Blazers second best player. Nurk, Nurk, and more Nurk please.

 

[Driew]

Nurk is great I'm just afraid his skillset is a little outdated for this current era in the NBA. With fives being out on the three nowadays I feel like Zach will be more valuable in the long run.

If nurk played in the 00s he would be a building block of a championship team. Now his minutes get limited when he's matched up against a small ball lineup where he's not fast enough to close out on shooters

 

[Haakzilla]

...hey I know, let's establish the big fella early and often and then completely stop to end each quarter and never in the last 5 minutes of a game!

 

[H.C.]

OMG... I thought I was only what that noticed that... so pathetic

You're never the only one who notices things like that.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

 

[HailBlazers]

n

I think what we're seeing with Nurk's seeming underutilization is an approach opposite of last year's forcing the issue. It didn't work to pressure him to be featured in the offense as he's still young and under-skilled to a degree (not to mention our guards are abysmal at entry passes to the post). This year they're really letting the game come to Nurk naturally and he's thriving because of it. As he continues to develop and build more confidence I think we'll see him become a reliable weapon. If he could command a double team in the post it would open up a ton for our often stale/predictable offense.

 

[illmatic99]

Is it me or did we go thru Nurk more last night?

 

[PHXBlazer1]

I think if we had to sign him after this year instead of last, he'd be a max player. We, the Portland Trailblazers, got lucky!!!

 

[SheedSoNasty]

I think if we had to sign him after this year instead of last, he'd be a max player. We, the Portland Trailblazers, got lucky!!!

And we have a center that can do almost everything! When is the last time we had one of those? Sabonis?

People would have wanted to retire Joel Przybilla’s number had he averaged 15 ppg and could shoot from mid range.

 

[Lukee]

Jokic gets all the prais because of his assists, but if this team was built around Nurk, he could easily average 6-8 assists. Don't get me wrong, Jokic is great player, he's gonna be AS this season, but I would rather have Nurk on this contract and with his defense.