I hate to see guys get traded, just on a human level. I tend to keep an eye on certain players and root for their success on their new team. I was so bummed out when the Suns coaching staff used Nurkic as the scapegoat for all their disfunction. I know Nurkic has his flaws, however being a bad teammate was never one of them. In fact I’m pretty sure the opposite was true. Nurkic was their de facto point guard, their sole big body that kept a terribly constructed team functional despite its many shortcomings. And despite what Suns fans were led to believe, Nick Richards is not an upgrade over Jusuf Nurkic.

The team imploded, fired the coach, traded KD and Beal, and hit restart. Yet the basketball world somehow walked away still believing Nurkic was a “bad player”, a narrative I hated and opposed. So I wanted to show Nurkic some love for recording his 2nd TRIPLE DOUBLE in a row with the Utah Jazz, which hadn’t been done in Utah since Pistol Pete. Without Nurkic this season the Jazz are easily the worst team in the league, but when he suits up they are competitive every night. It’s very apparent that Jusuf Nurkic is still an awesome basketball player and Utah has really embraced him and he them.

So shoutout and much love to the Bosnian Beast, Jusuf Nurkic, for proving everyone wrong!

19 comments

  2. Man, the Jazz really plugged Nurkic in like a USB drive and suddenly everything started working…

  4. Bring Nurk home. Him under Splitter and alongside Deni has potential to be amazing. Not to mention the perfect mentor for Yang, he’s basically the exact player we’d hope Yang could become. NOT TO MENTION the dame connection. Just makes sense and could possibly solve our roster cut need at the same time if jazz want to go younger for their rebuild

  5. I like Nurk, but he has a shirt attention span. Stay on a team too long, and he loses interest. Glad he is doing well. Hope it lasts, but I’m glad we replaced him.

  8. I miss Nurk screens that’s for sure. He sets one of the best screens in the league.

  9. The biggest problem for Nurk was the loss of confidence after his broken leg. He became a very hesitant player, wouldn’t fight for rebounds, wouldn’t push through contact, and wouldn’t jump as high or as much. And that’s understandable! What happened to him was not only excruciating, it happened in front of thousands of people. Sure, we cheered for him and sent him get well messages, went nuts when he showed up on crutches during the playoffs, but it was still a profoundly embarrassing moment for him. No wonder his edge went dull.

    Seeing him finally come back to full form, that’s something few players get to do once they get an injury that bad. I’m genuinely happy for the guy. I always liked liked him, he was nice to me backstage before games.

  10. Good for him! Seriously I am happy for him as he seemed like he was probably a good dude, but he had been here too long and the last season or so he looked very sloppy and disengaged.

    All hail Cling Kong our new center of the Blazer universe.

    ![gif](giphy|BG6j6BzH9aMG6qYY4b)

  11. I always like Nurk. It was hard to seem him struggle after his injury. I’m really glad he’s finding success in Utah!

  12. I miss his passing and court vision. And when he was hyper confident, the stink faces he would give other players when he did them dirty. Plus the”popped in the nose” counter was hilarious. Kevin C always called it his beak

  13. Nurk was never the same after he broke his leg but I will always look very fondly at 2018-2019 and “Nurk fever era” Nurk.

    I will go to my grave believing that if Nurk never broke his leg that we would have had a pretty good chance in making the finals in 2019.

  16. I absolutely loved this dude no matter what I went to see the blazers vs jazz game back on the 5th and it was so Amazing to see him again and he has been balling this year nurk fever forever and nurk in a van forever 👏

  17. Elite screen-setter and rebounder and a really important part of a clear defensive scheme. Too temperamental and prone to bad fouls. But definitely a Blazers favourite for me.

  18. The sign of a true homer:

    Hate to lose anyone, even when the replacement team is way better

    Root for them long after they are gone

    Don’t watch games unless your team is playing

    I’m a homey.

  19. He was our second best player on the 2019 team, and after we added Kanter and Hood, we were legit contenders, and we would’ve beaten the Warriors had Nurk been healthy.

    I don’t care if KD was playing in the Conference Finals.

    Coach Stotts figured them out and Nurk dominated Draymond in that Overtime win in Oakland in 2019.

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