Newly-arrived Hornets center Jusuf Nurkic has definitely simmed Orlando and Portland through the trade machine.
In his postgame comments following the Hornets’ recent loss to the Orlando Magic, Nurkic quipped that the Magic are missing a player… one specific player from the Portland Trail Blazers. As transcribed by Orlando Sentinel reporter Jason Beede:
“I think they are a really good young team and they are doing a really good job. They have a really good coaching staff, but I think they are missing one player. I can’t name it, but that’s my little fella from Portland, but I love my Portland people. But I think they are waiting and missing one player to be a really good team.”
Beede confirmed the accuracy of Nurkic’s comments in an email with Blazer’s Edge, which leads one to wonder… who specifically was Nurkic talking about?
Using the power of deduction, by “little fella” we can assume Nurkic is talking about one of Portland’s guards. And by “my little fella,” we can infer that he’s talking about someone he played with. That leaves three possibilities for guards who played with Nurk on the Blazers during the 2022-23 season: Matisse Thybulle, Shaedon Sharpe, and Anfernee Simons.
…so who do YOU think Nurkic might be talking about? Because certainly there’s not one of those players who has been repeatedly linked to the Magic in fake trades and who is also from the Orlando area.