Should Nurk spend time in the weight room this summer?

[mook]

A little weight lifting is fine to stay in condition, but really it's hard to say he really needs to focus on any one thing. He does so many things well for a 22 year old, you just want him to continue to work on the whole package of skills.

If he were to focus on one area in video sessions, it'd be to make him realize he doesn't need to make the clever pass that often leads to a turnover. This isn't Denver. Between him, CJ, Dame and Turner, we have a lot of guys who can create. Don't throw the risky pass--the offense will still generate high percentage looks without him doing so. He's giving up 3 turnovers a night--that's probably a 4-6 point swing we're conceding that we really don't have to.

 

[BeastModeXXL]

Of all the big guys in the NBA right now he probably has spent list time in the gym and has lot of space for improvements there .You can tell by the look of his arms and shoulders that he has barely spent any tome of the upper body strength at least. There are only 2 or 3 players in NBA that had caused hime a problem physically . So there is lot more improvements to do on this part , gaining strength without adding up to much of mass. With that will should probably come improved rebounding too ... With some more strength he will be real white man Shaq ..

 

[Pinwheel1]

If he were to focus on one area in video sessions, it'd be to make him realize he doesn't need to make the clever pass that often leads to a turnover. This isn't Denver. Between him, CJ, Dame and Turner, we have a lot of guys who can create. Don't throw the risky pass--the offense will still generate high percentage looks without him doing so. He's giving up 3 turnovers a night--that's probably a 4-6 point swing we're conceding that we really don't have to.

To be fair a lot of those turnovers are offensive fouls. ( 2 of his 3 last night) But I agree that sometimes he gets a little too cute and tries for the spectacular pass. But at the same time I have to give him credit last night for the times he did not attempt the tough pass....he held back when it looked like he was thinking about it.

 

[Wizard Mentor]

Here's Nurkic this past summer against Russia (and Mozgov.) He's pretty close to being in this kind of shape now, but yeah, look at that first play for example and how runs the court. There are probably less than 5 centers in the league that can do that.

Hopefully, he doesn't demand his number back! (It's "0")

 

[Sinobas]

Muscular arms don't do much for you in basketball. Pushing and pulling people is a foul.

He should do basketball related sports-functional exercises. Leg and core strength is much more important. But I don't believe in having pro athletes doing olympic weights and body building style isolation training. That's bullshit. It's a waste of their energy.

If you think having muscular arms is so important, look at pics of the greats of all time, Jabbar, Walton, Russell...they weren't jacked muscle bound men.

 

[BeastModeXXL]

Muscular arms don't do much for you in basketball. Pushing and pulling people is a foul.

He should do basketball related sports-functional exercises. Leg and core strength is much more important. But I don't believe in having pro athletes doing olympic weights and body building style isolation training. That's bullshit. It's a waste of their energy.

If you think having muscular arms is so important, look at pics of the greats of all time, Jabbar, Walton, Russell...they weren't jacked muscle bound men.

I agree to a certain degree .. but his arms and shoulders are so underdeveloped .. for a big guy using hook shots it is important .. typical east europe training philosophy where weight lifting is not good for basket ball game ..

 

[H.C.]

Sheed never did. Rip Hamilton either.

Sheed kept his weight down though, I have questions about Nurk being 7', 285 and being able to hold up over 82+ games on 30+mpg for the next 4-5 years.
I don't know of many Centers in todays nba who thrive being so close to 300.
Drummond is the only one? Gasol brothers/Lopez brothers are around the 250-260 mark. Andrew Bynum was listed at 284.
I think weight lifting is just a way for Nurk to drop weight that is low impact on the knees. Unless he wants to jump in the pool(which is even more low impact on the knees) I think the Blazer training staff will attempt to get him to the 250-260 mark.

 

[H.C.]

Muscular arms don't do much for you in basketball. Pushing and pulling people is a foul.

He should do basketball related sports-functional exercises. Leg and core strength is much more important. But I don't believe in having pro athletes doing olympic weights and body building style isolation training. That's bullshit. It's a waste of their energy.

If you think having muscular arms is so important, look at pics of the greats of all time, Jabbar, Walton, Russell...they weren't jacked muscle bound men.

There is a ton of pushing in basketball for big men. Howard for many years relied on his strength and athleticism alone to in Orlando.
Core strength is one of the most important things any human can have.

 

[Sinobas]

There is a ton of pushing in basketball for big men. Howard for many years relied on his strength and athleticism alone to in Orlando.
Core strength is one of the most important things any human can have.

If you get caught it's a foul though, you can't push people in basketball with your upper body. Howard had big arms, but it didn't do him much good. That's not why he had success.

 

[Sinobas]

NBA athletes waste time and energy doing traditional weight training. I think more trainers are realizing this, training needs to be sports-functional related.

 

[H.C.]

If you get caught it's a foul though, you can't push people in basketball with your upper body. Howard had big arms, but it didn't do him much good. That's not why he had success.

If it's called it's a foul. But usually it isn't called. Every basketball play involves pushing and holding for bigs at every level. Arms are included in this.
If you don't believe me, go to your local gym play a game of pickup or join a league. Then come back on the forums and speak about how it feels to have arms/elbows in your back as you're boxing out, only to have it not called as a foul.
Happens in every NBA game you watch.

Howard was more athletic and so much stronger than 95% of the players at his position. Both of those directly lead to his success.
Regardless you're splitting hairs with me. As core strength is more important than arm strength.

 

[tlongII]

It worked out well for Karl Malone.

 

[MickZagger]

That's why I said stay around the same weight. He is big but not that toned. Look at his arms...not a lot of definition. His body is still maturing. Keep the weight, just tone up.

Tim Duncan and Pau Gasol have put together HOF careers with zero muscle tone.

 

[dviss1]

If you get caught it's a foul though, you can't push people in basketball with your upper body. Howard had big arms, but it didn't do him much good. That's not why he had success.

NBA athletes waste time and energy doing traditional weight training. I think more trainers are realizing this, training needs to be sports-functional related.

I'm not trying to be condescending here, I'm just asking a question did you play at least JV (not sure if you played or what level you made it to) Basketball?

It really doesn't seem like you know what you're talking about. Because there is so much use of upper body strength in basketball and SO MUCH contact that is not illegal. I'm not sure what you know but all contact is not a foul. There's plenty of pushing that is not a foul that you simply don't put a whistle on. Many times a referee will say "hands off","stop pushing", or something like "get your hand out his back". Typically the player complies and there is no foul called. This happens at least 50% of the game. It's called pre-reffing. You tell a kid what to do so you don't have to put a whistle on his contact.

So, you are completely wrong when you say that weight training is wasted on basketball. It takes upper body strength to get a shot up with contact. Lots of upper body strength is used to gain and keep position in the post. Upper body strength is key for hanging onto rebounds. What if someone guarding you, while holding the ball and without a dribble, attempts to snatch the ball out of your hand? No upper body strength = turnover.

Then you cite the some of the great players for their body types . Well you need to understand also that that was back in the sixties seventies and eighties. We didn't have weight training programs like we do today. So again I'm not trying to be an ass but you're not making sense. But if you think these cats weren't doing bench presses:

I'd say that you're speaking from conjecture and that you're sadly mistaken.

Are you seriously saying that upper body strength didn't help this man get as many rebounds as he did?

Did arm strength help this guy?

I strongly disagree with your sentiment.

 

[Sinobas]

I'm not trying to be an ass here but you really honestly don't know what you're talking about. There is so much use of upper body and basketball that is not a foul. What you don't understand it seems is that all contact is not a foul. You are completely wrong when you say that weight training is wasted on basketball. Then you cite the some of the great players for their body types. Well you need to understand also that that was back in the sixties seventies and eighties. We didn't have weight training programs like we do today. So again I'm not trying to be an ass but you're not making sense.

Ok, Mr. Referee man, when can you shove a player utilizing your shoulders and triceps, or when can you grab a player and pull themplayer towards you, utilizing the power you've gained by pumping your biceps? I never said that "all contact was a foul", but you don't need powerful arms for the type of legal upper body contact that takes place in basketball.

And stating that they didn't emphasize weight training programs in the 60s through 80s does not support your point. That explains WHY that were not as muscular, but does not support the idea that they were less effective on the court because of it. So your argument makes no sense.

The big men of the 80s were much better than they are today. You think Jabbar would be any less effective because he didn't have jacked arms?

 

[handiman]

Of all the big guys in the NBA right now he probably has spent list time in the gym and has lot of space for improvements there .You can tell by the look of his arms and shoulders that he has barely spent any tome of the upper body strength at least.

There's natural strength and there's weight room strength. It's clear which side of the equation Nurk is on. Much of it is genetic. Just look at pictures of his dad. If you didn't have a sense of scale, you'd think he's some frumpy old guy, not a 400 lb bad ass.

Nurk has a bit of the Danny Manning physique, where it defies reason that there's any strength there.

The only real advantage to him adding muscle mass is intimidation.

 

[Sinobas]

It worked out well for Karl Malone.

He had muscular arms, that doesn't prove his success was due to having muscular arms. He actually put up a lot of jump shots. McHale is one of the best post men ever, and he had no muscular tone. It's about skill, footwork, length....

 

[Sinobas]

If it's called it's a foul. But usually it isn't called. Every basketball play involves pushing and holding for bigs at every level. Arms are included in this.
If you don't believe me, go to your local gym play a game of pickup or join a league. Then come back on the forums and speak about how it feels to have arms/elbows in your back as you're boxing out, only to have it not called as a foul.
Happens in every NBA game you watch.

Howard was more athletic and so much stronger than 95% of the players at his position. Both of those directly lead to his success.
Regardless you're splitting hairs with me. As core strength is more important than arm strength.

I'm not talking about unofficiated games. I've seen guys try to get away with pushing underneath to get position for a rebound, and it's just a nudge, a lot of times when the player is already moving in the position of the nudge or is in the air. You don't need weight room strength for that. If you used extreme force the refs will almost always catch you. Nor do you need it to stick out your forearm and hold position.

I'm not splitting hairs, because this thread was about Nurkic going to the weight room, citing his arms didn't look muscular. If he got jacked arms, how would that make him better?

 

[dviss1]

Ok, Mr. Referee man,

I didn't read shit after this Don't fucking condescend me when you don't know what the hell you're talking about.

 

[Sinobas]

Dviss, look at the battles that took place between a young Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlin. Wilt Chamberlin did work out and was immensely powerful. Jabbar had noddle limbs, and yet, Jabbar got the better of him down low. How do you explain that?

You're whole argument about there being legal upper body contact isn't relevant. It's not at the level that requires weight training.

 

[Sinobas]

Don't fucking condescend me when you don't know what the hell you're talking about.

You don't know what you're talking about. You're making very poor use of logic and reason. Look at the video I posted Jabbar vs Chamberlin, it's a perfect example.

 

[dviss1]

You don't know what you're talking about. You're making very poor use of logic and reason. Look at the video I posted Jabbar vs Chamberlin, it's a perfect example.

Don't insult my intelligence slypokerdog...

 

[dviss1]

And you still didn't answer the question about whether or not you play JV Basketball or higher...

 

[dviss1]

Also, your debate style leaves something to be desired. You create a straw man and then ask us to argue against it. Nobody saying Nurk needs to go and get "jacked up" arms. We simply said he needed to tone up. But you're acting like having jacked up arms is a detriment. It's not.

 

[Sinobas]

Did arm strength help this guy?


I strongly disagree with your sentiment.

Well, a basketball weighs 22 ounces, so I think he'd have been able to handle it without those huge arms.

You know I could show you a long list of players with less muscle that were much better rebounders than this guy.

 

[Sinobas]

Also, your debate style leaves something to be desired. You create a straw man and then ask us to argue against it. Nobody saying Nurk needs to go and get "jacked up" arms. We simply said he needed to tone up. But you're acting like having jacked up arms is a detriment. It's not.

No it's not, my response is right on point. Does Nurk need to spend more time in the weight room? What evidence have we seen that that would benefit him? Is he getting pushed around in the post? Why put time and energy into trying to get arms like Dwight Howard? Dwight Howard is not as good as Nurk is at this point in his career.

A lot of great MMA fighters are cutting back on the weight training, because they realize it's the functional skill and movement of the sport that gets them more benefit, and that's fighting, how much more true would that be in basketball?

 

[Sinobas]

 

[Orion Bailey]

Nurk doesnt need more muscle. He needs cardio.....

 

[blue9]

I've always felt that the Blazers should incorporate tai chi into their strength/conditioning program. I think it would be great for everyone, but especially someone like Nurk. Imagine someone that big, who knows how to move people without using his strength!

 

[blue9]

Nurkic is already stronger than like 98% of the players in the league, if not more. What I think he needs to tap into more is his athleticism. You can tell he's not maxing out in that department, and a lot of it has to do with conditioning. If he gets into top shape cardio wise, watch the fuck out. I watched some of his games with Bosnia this past summer, and he was in top shape just running up and down the court like it was nothing.

Yeah, I agree with this - strength isn't an issue. Conditioning is.
I also agree with MM - footwork is more important than adding strength.