Playing through Nurkic

[Scalma]

What a concept! Portland is 5-1 when Nurk has at least five assists this season. During “Nurk fever” they were also 5-1 when he had at least five.

Last year there were only two (!) games where he had five or more assists. They won both. Against New Orleans in the playoffs he had four assists, TOTAL.

Coincidence? I think not. And I think the coaches finally realize it. He’s had 14 assists the last two games, but more importantly the offense is being run through him more often. Reminds me of when he first got here. Only took a year and a half. Better late than never I guess.

 

[Pinwheel1]

What a concept! Portland is 5-1 when Nurk has at least five assists this season. During “Nurk fever” they were also 5-1 when he had at least five.

Last year there were only two (!) games where he had five or more assists. They won both. Against New Orleans in the playoffs he had four assists, TOTAL.

Coincidence? I think not. And I think the coaches finally realize it. He’s had 14 assists the last two games, but more importantly the offense is being run through him more often. Reminds me of when he first got here. Only took a year and a half. Better late than never I guess.

Yeah but then he started thinking he was Larry Bird and tried too many difficult passes. He just needs to keep it simple.

On another note can Dame please cut down on his low bounce passes into Nurk? Good things do not happen when 7 footers have to bend down to get the ball.

 

[hoopsjock]

What a concept! Portland is 5-1 when Nurk has at least five assists this season. During “Nurk fever” they were also 5-1 when he had at least five.

Last year there were only two (!) games where he had five or more assists. They won both. Against New Orleans in the playoffs he had four assists, TOTAL.

Coincidence? I think not. And I think the coaches finally realize it. He’s had 14 assists the last two games, but more importantly the offense is being run through him more often. Reminds me of when he first got here. Only took a year and a half. Better late than never I guess.

I liked the action out of that play where CJ brought the ball up and Nurk and Dame were on the elbows. CJ passed to Nurk and then went to screen for Dame. They overplayed Dame thinking he was going to come off the screen for a 3 and CJ slipped it and got a layup (I think it might have been an And-1 too). There are so many options out of that. If they switch then Dame can just dive to the basket for the layup instead.

I don't know if you saw but during one of the timeouts Stotts stopped Nurk and was talking to him like he did something wrong. The next dead ball is when he pulled Nurk out of the game. I hope he's not in the dog house.

 

[Scalma]

Yeah but then he started thinking he was Larry Bird and tried to many difficult passes. He just needs to keep it simple.

On another note can Dame please cut down on his low bounce passes into Nurk? Good things do not happen when 7 footers have to bend down to get the ball.

I don’t mind the difficult passes. Or should I say, I accept it comes with the territory. Look at Jokic. He averages 3 turnovers a game. But you live with it because of how much it opens up the offense. I’ll never understand why they ever went away from playing through Nurk. It’s so obvious it makes the offense better, even with the occasional crazy pass.

 

[Labinot41]

What a concept! Portland is 5-1 when Nurk has at least five assists this season. During “Nurk fever” they were also 5-1 when he had at least five.

Last year there were only two (!) games where he had five or more assists. They won both. Against New Orleans in the playoffs he had four assists, TOTAL.

Coincidence? I think not. And I think the coaches finally realize it. He’s had 14 assists the last two games, but more importantly the offense is being run through him more often. Reminds me of when he first got here. Only took a year and a half. Better late than never I guess.

stotts should have realized that much earlier

 

[Scalma]

I liked the action out of that play where CJ brought the ball up and Nurk and Dame were on the elbows. CJ passed to Nurk and then went to screen for Dame. They overplayed Dame thinking he was going to come off the screen for a 3 and CJ slipped it and got a layup (I think it might have been an And-1 too). There are so many options out of that. If they switch then Dame can just dive to the basket for the layup instead.

I don't know if you saw but during one of the timeouts Stotts stopped Nurk and was talking to him like he did something wrong. The next dead ball is when he pulled Nurk out of the game. I hope he's not in the dog house.

Not surprising, He saves his “teaching moments” for Nurk since he’s too scared to ever confront CJ. Going to try and ignore the negative though.

 

[tester551]

I don't know if you saw but during one of the timeouts Stotts stopped Nurk and was talking to him like he did something wrong. The next dead ball is when he pulled Nurk out of the game. I hope he's not in the dog house.

I missed that (probably because I watch it delayed & skip all the commercials/time outs).
Thanks for pointing that out. It will be interesting to see what happens the next few games

 

[Chris Craig]

stotts should have realized that much earlier

I just hope he stays with it

 

[wizenheimer]

high post basketball has always been a fairly effective offense, and that high post concept can slide down to either block as well. , I'm old enough to remember Bill Walton in the high post in the Jack Ramsey offense, and it was a thing of beauty. Of course Walton came from the Wooden system so he knew how to play in the high post. More recently, Arvydas Sabonis spent a lot of time operating from the high post under Dunleavy. And that's how Jokic and Marc Gasol operate

but it requires good off ball action from cutters and screeners. Portland has some of that but I'd question if they would be consistent enough at it to make it effective. Maybe consistent is the wrong word...would they be disciplined enough? That's where Dame and CJ come into the equation. Over the last 4 seasons, whenever Portland encounters any decent defensive resistance, Dame and CJ will revert to the one-on-one stuff and over-dribble, especially CJ , and that tends to freeze-out teammates and stall off-ball motion (with Stotts blessing it apparently). And last season, Turner and Napier joined the traveling one-on-one circus and yuck, was it boring to watch....if I had some extra eyes I would have gouged them out several times when suffering thru that iso-madness

Dame is the best Blazer at one-on-one and he will, most times, keep teammates involved. But he isn't Lebron. and when an opposing defense decides to take Dame out of the equation and basically rope-a-dope CJ into going into his dribble-fest, he obliges...and he's not good enough to carry the team like Dame does; and you end up with something like the Pelicans sweeping the Blazers

so yeah, having another offensive tool like some high post sets with Nurkic would be good. I'm a little skeptical the team, or the coaches, would believe in it enough to stay with it

 

[Hoopguru]

I liked the action out of that play where CJ brought the ball up and Nurk and Dame were on the elbows. CJ passed to Nurk and then went to screen for Dame. They overplayed Dame thinking he was going to come off the screen for a 3 and CJ slipped it and got a layup (I think it might have been an And-1 too). There are so many options out of that. If they switch then Dame can just dive to the basket for the layup instead.

I don't know if you saw but during one of the timeouts Stotts stopped Nurk and was talking to him like he did something wrong. The next dead ball is when he pulled Nurk out of the game. I hope he's not in the dog house.

I saw Stotts in his ear and I think he was telling him to forget the ref's and focus on position.
Of late he and Dame are constantly on the refs in transition. I understand why they are frustrated, but it gets old.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

 

[Pinwheel1]

It does seem to depend on the opponent though. GS did not have a center in the game last night. Jerebko is their biggest guy until Cousins is healthy.
Nurk had a field day. Although he did miss one badly down the stretch.

 

[BBert]

What a concept! Portland is 5-1 when Nurk has at least five assists this season. During “Nurk fever” they were also 5-1 when he had at least five.

Last year there were only two (!) games where he had five or more assists. They won both. Against New Orleans in the playoffs he had four assists, TOTAL.

Coincidence? I think not. And I think the coaches finally realize it. He’s had 14 assists the last two games, but more importantly the offense is being run through him more often. Reminds me of when he first got here. Only took a year and a half. Better late than never I guess.

Many of us were baffled last year that Stotts wasn't utilizing Nurk's post passing skills in the offense. I can't believe it's taken this long to get back to it.

 

[hoopsjock]

Doesn't Marang hate Nurk?

 

[BonesJones]

Doesn't Marang hate Nurk?

Said he wouldnt pay him more than $10M or $12M a year last year.

 

[hoopsjock]

Said he wouldnt pay him more than $10M or $12M a year last year.

I used to always hear him say stuff like "you know how I feel about Nurk but I have to give him credit since he played well tonight"

 

[BonesJones]

I used to always hear him say stuff like "you know how I feel about Nurk but I have to give him credit since he played well tonight"

Yeah he's always seemed pretty negative... But not the type of negative where he actually will call out the team for mentality, or challenge Stotts on his coaching issues, or challenge Olshey heavily.

It's all "The Blazers didn't win, the Warriors lost"... Yeah, but we didn't lose in Oakland, so that's a win in itself. Or quotes like you said. And then after he finishes, the other two don't acknowledge anything he said and they bring up a facebook comment hahaha.

Sigh.

We might get a live post-game show going in a year or two once we're bigger and I think we'd get some decent viewership.

 

[BonesJones]

Yeah he's always seemed pretty negative... But not the type of negative where he actually will call out the team for mentality, or challenge Stotts on his coaching issues, or challenge Olshey heavily.

It's all "The Blazers didn't win, the Warriors lost"... Yeah, but we didn't lose in Oakland, so that's a win in itself. Or quotes like you said. And then after he finishes, the other two don't acknowledge anything he said and they bring up a facebook comment hahaha.

Sigh.

We might get a live post-game show going in a year or two once we're bigger and I think we'd get some decent viewership.

That way kids like me could hyper-analyze everything I say live.

 

[borim69]

The most under used center in the NBA.
You mean we got a center that can pass and facilitate plays? Who can shoot and block people out? Na lets just keep chucking it from the cheap seats and see what happens

 

[mook]

We really couldn't use Nurk to pass out of the post last year because he was so horrible at post ups. When a guy shoots 42% on post ups, you don't do anything to bend the defense to stop him from shooting them. There are no open lanes, no open men in the corner, nothing. Just 4 teammates watching as a guy fumbles with bad flip shots under the hoop. He passed on 21% of post ups, because there was nobody to pass to.

He's shooting 48% on postups this year, and suddenly he looks like we can run the offense through him (at least on the good nights.) He's passing out of the post 28% of the time. Guys are more open because he's a legit threat down there.

Somebody over the offseason beat him repeatedly in the head with a chair every time he took one of those finesse flip shots that only work for Zach Randolph. Zbo lived on them because he was too short and unathletic to do anything else much of the time. Get it up quickly and outhustle people if it misses.

Nurk has no such limitation, and he's finally realizing it. He's hurrying less to just get it up there, and relying more on his size and strength to take the shot he actually wants--dunks and dives to the rim where his shoulders are square to the basket. He's always been good at those. That is opening up the rest of his offensive game.

Nurk is only 24. He's still got a lot to figure out. But I'm really encouraged in the strides he's made this year on offense.

 

[stampedehero]

What?? (Dazed and confused)

 

[Chris Craig]

We really couldn't use Nurk to pass out of the post last year because he was so horrible at post ups. When a guy shoots 42% on post ups, you don't do anything to bend the defense to stop him from shooting them. There are no open lanes, no open men in the corner, nothing. Just 4 teammates watching as a guy fumbles with bad flip shots under the hoop. He passed on 21% of post ups, because there was nobody to pass to.

He's shooting 48% on postups this year, and suddenly he looks like we can run the offense through him (at least on the good nights.) He's passing out of the post 28% of the time. Guys are more open because he's a legit threat down there.

Somebody over the offseason beat him repeatedly in the head with a chair every time he took one of those finesse flip shots that only work for Zach Randolph. Zbo lived on them because he was too short and unathletic to do anything else much of the time. Get it up quickly and outhustle people if it misses.

Nurk has no such limitation, and he's finally realizing it. He's hurrying less to just get it up there, and relying more on his size and strength to take the shot he actually wants--dunks and dives to the rim where his shoulders are square to the basket. He's always been good at those. That is opening up the rest of his offensive game.

Nurk is only 24. He's still got a lot to figure out. But I'm really encouraged in the strides he's made this year on offense.

The more we go to him, play through him, the more comfortable he is going to get, and the higher his shooting percentage will become. Stotts has to keep going to him on a nightly basis, get him started. He is the reason we beat the Warriors. We didn't really go to him against the Jazz in those losses. He makes a difference. He is young and he will only get better. I believe Nurkic can be the next Sabonis for us.

 

[riverman]

The more we go to him, play through him, the more comfortable he is going to get, and the higher his shooting percentage will become. Stotts has to keep going to him on a nightly basis, get him started. He is the reason we beat the Warriors. We didn't really go to him against the Jazz in those losses. He makes a difference. He is young and he will only get better. I believe Nurkic can be the next Sabonis for us.

Gobert had about 7 blocks at the rim by halftime it seems.....Gobert gets credit for the Jazz rim protection in my book...he cancelled Nurk's efforts both games. ..trying chip shots against Gobert is not going to have desired results most nights...he blocked CJ about a million times it seems

 

[riverman]

The Warriors miss JaVale McGee more than they probably thought they would....rumor has them signing Robin Lopez soon to shore up the paint

 

[Chris Craig]

Gobert had about 7 blocks at the rim by halftime it seems.....Gobert gets credit for the Jazz rim protection in my book...he cancelled Nurk's efforts both games. ..trying chip shots against Gobert is not going to have desired results most nights...he blocked CJ about a million times it seems

They didn't go to Nurk much. He could have used his weight, pounded it inside, and got Gobert in foul trouble.

 

[Chris Craig]

The Warriors miss JaVale McGee more than they probably thought they would....rumor has them signing Robin Lopez soon to shore up the paint

They do. He destroyed around the basket on alley oops and put backs. He was a pest.

 

[Scalma]

https://www.nbcsports.com/northwest...hool-weapon?amp#click=https://t.co/Jvomtn3aM4

Coming into the season, Jusuf Nurkic was supposedly going add a three-point shot. Instead the latest addition to his arsenal is coming in the post where “New Nurk” is honing an old school game with recent flashes of effective, bruising post play.

In Oakland last Thursday, Nurkic roughed up Golden State for 27 points and 12 rebounds. Two nights later, in the rematch against Golden State in Portland he put up 21 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. Then on Sunday night’s blowout win over the Philadelphia 76ers, he added 17 points and 10 rebounds.

For the season, Nurkic averages 4.5 post ups a game, according to NBA.com. But over the past three games, the Blazers have fed Nurkic inside, giving him 14 post touches a night and allowing him to body smaller players with a his back to the basket game.

“I realized I need to be more aggressive,” Nurkic said. “And I have to be more patient when teams play really small and try to play in the post more.”

Obviously much of Nurkic’s success in the post is matchup-based. Neither the Warriors nor the Joel Embiid-less 76ers had a center who could match Portland’s big man inside. The fact that the Blazers, who have been mostly post up averse over the past four seasons, continually fed Nurkic inside is noteworthy. It’s an important change of pace for an offense that is heavily reliant on pick and rolls.

“I think it’s really good for Dame (Lillard) and CJ (McCollum) and the other guys to kinda free space,” Nurkic said. “Usually (the other team) is doubling them in the pick and roll. My job is just to help them with that.”

Nurkic has scored inside in nearly every way, spinning past Amir Johnson, plowing through Kevon Looney and going right over the top of Draymond Green. But he isn’t only looking to score on the block. Nurkic has commanded double teams and found teammates with passes when extra defenders arrive.

Nurkic has always wanted to post up more with the Blazers. Last season, he stopped just short of complaining about the lack of post ups on a few occasions. But truthfully, he wasn’t patient enough or skilled enough with his off hand to be a consistent low block option.

He has spent much of this season working with Blazers assistants on finishing with his left hand and scoring through contact.

“I think he’s slowed down a lot and he’s just playing a much smarter game,” Damian Lillard said.

The Blazers offense isn’t hopping in a time machine with a back to the basket behemoth leading the attack. But Nurkic has shown enough improvement with his skills and decision making on the block that the Blazers can rely on that option when they need it.

“Obviously the two games against Golden State he was very effective,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “And it’s very encouraging, but it’s part of his growth. He’s gotta continue it.”

 

[Sheldon Shape]

https://www.nbcsports.com/northwest...hool-weapon?amp#click=https://t.co/Jvomtn3aM4

“Obviously the two games against Golden State he was very effective,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “And it’s very encouraging, but it’s part of his growth. He’s gotta continue it.”

Kind of a dick. How about running the offense through him like you did in two games against the Warriors? For all the success we had against the 76ers, we didn't go through him like we did the two previous games.

 

[dviss1]

I liked the action out of that play where CJ brought the ball up and Nurk and Dame were on the elbows. CJ passed to Nurk and then went to screen for Dame. They overplayed Dame thinking he was going to come off the screen for a 3 and CJ slipped it and got a layup (I think it might have been an And-1 too). There are so many options out of that. If they switch then Dame can just dive to the basket for the layup instead.

I don't know if you saw but during one of the timeouts Stotts stopped Nurk and was talking to him like he did something wrong. The next dead ball is when he pulled Nurk out of the game. I hope he's not in the dog house.

They did this with Zach too and CJ got a 2 handed dunk over Jimmy Butler.

 

[wizenheimer]

this stat/tweet has been posted a lot over the last few days

"when Nurkic has a usage rate of 25% or higher, the Blazers are 12-2"

on the surface, that looks like a revealing stat. But it's context-free so I wanted to test those 14 games:

* Thu, Oct 18, 2018 - Lakers (home) - usage 36.6%; 17 minutes; 16pts-9reb-0ast; FG's 50% (Javale McGee) win

* Sat, Oct 20, 2018 - Spurs (home) - usage 27.9%; 23min; 12pts-8reb-2ast; FG's 50% (Jakob Poeltl) win

* Thu, Oct 25, 201 - Orlando (road)- usage 29.9%; 30min: 18pts-10reb-1ast-3blk-3tov; FG's 50% (Nikola Vucevic) win

* Sat, Oct 27, 2018 - Miami (road) - usage 28.7%; 24min; 5pts-7reb-0ast-3tov; FG's 29% (Hassan Whiteside) loss

* Tue, Oct 30, 2018 - Houston (road) - usage 30.5%; 24min; 22pts-10reb-2ast; Fg's 70% (Capela) win

* Sun, Nov 4, 2018 - Minnesota (home) - usage 28.7%; 23min; 19pts-12reb-2ast; FG's 73% (Taj Gibson) win

* Thu, Nov 8, 2018 - Clippers (home) - usage 29.6%; 23min; 16pts-9reb-3blks: FG's 33% (Marjanovic, Harrell) loss

* Sun, Nov 11, 2018 - Boston (home) - usage 29.5%; 28min; 18pts-17reb-3ast; FG's 57% (Al Horford) win

OK now....we are only 13 games into the season; Portland is 10-3. I've underlined the games where I think Nurk's usage rate had a major impact. That's only 4 of 8 games. Also, 5 of the 8 games were at home. In other words, I'd say that context at least brings into question how connected Nurk's usage rate is to blazer wins

* Fri, Nov 23, 2018 - Warriors (road) - usage 29.1%; 28min; 22pts-7reb-1ast; FG's 53% (Lonney, Jones) 28 point loss

* Fri, Nov 30, 2018 - Denver (home) - usage 28%; 29min; 17pts-11reb-2blk; FG's 47% (Jokic) loss

* Thu, Dec 6, 2018 - Phoenix (home) - usage 28.5%; usage 23min; 9pts-14reb-2ast-2tove; Fg's 33% (Ayton) win

* Sat, Dec 8, 2018 - Minnesota (home) - usage 30.1%; 29min; 22pts-11reb-4ast-3stl-4blk; FG's 70% (Gibson) win

* Fri, Dec 14, 2018 - Toronto (home) - usage 27.2%; 27min; 11pts-9reb-7ast; FG's 27% (Ibaka, Monroe) win

* Mon, Dec 17, 2018 - Clippers (road) - usage 25.1%; 29min; 20pts-3reb-7ast; FG's 67% (Gortat, Harrell) win

* Wed, Dec 19, 2018 - Memphis (home) - usage 27.3%; 21min; 8pts-7reb-5tov; FG's 33% (Gasol) win

* Thu, Dec 27, 2018 - Warriors (road) - usage 29.7%; 25min; 27pts-12reb-4ast; FG's 57% (nobody) win

* Sat, Dec 29, 2018 - Warriors (home) - usage 28.9%; 32min; 21pts-19reb-7ast-5tov; FG's 57% (nobody) loss

* Sun, Dec 30, 2018 - Philadelphia (home) - usage 30.6%; 21min; 14pts-7reb-4tov; FG's 64% (Amir Johnson) win

the first thing is the 12-2 mark was not correct. Blazers are actually 13-5 when Nurk has a usage of 25% or higher. That's still good though

however, 25% is a pretty high usage rate for a C and Nurkic is hitting that mark in half of Portland's games, so I don't see anything egregious in Nurk's usage. As I said earlier, I underlined the games where I thought his usage likely had a big part in wins. I imagine people could argue for other games like the Toronto game when he had 7 assists; but I tend to discount usage impact when a player has 4 or 5 turnovers or shoots under 35%. In other words, I'd say only 7 of the 13 wins really came from Nurk's usage. I'm open to arguments for other games though

another factor is that 12 of the 18 games were at home, and it's a lot easier to win at home. If it was 9-9 instead of 12-6 or the home/road ratio the usage stats would be a little more convincing

bottom line is, even though Portland is 13-5 when Nurk hits that usage mark and 8-11 when he doesn't, I'm inclined to think there are other important factors at work. But it is interesting that Portland generally does better when Nurk is a pivot point for the offense.