Portland Trail Blazers: Nurkic is the real Robin to Dame’s Batman
While some may say it’s CJ McCollum, the numbers make it clear Jusuf Nurkic is the Portland Trail Blazers’ second most important player behind Damian Lillard. Portland won’t be a contender until they build around the star duo.
Another NBA offseason winds down as training camps next week. The Portland Trail Blazers are left pondering whether or not they did enough with the coaching changes and roster moves to pacify Damian Lillard. I’m going to challenge the idea that CJ McCollum is the second most important player on this roster and instead make a case for Jusuf Nurkic. Dame and Nurk are the stronghold tandem that makes or breaks this current team.
The numbers
Since Jusuf Nurkic arrived at the trade deadline in 2017, the Blazers have seen a sharp contrast in win percentage based on whether he and Lillard are playing together. In that time, Portland is 132-73 in games in which Nurkic and Lillard are both on the court. That is a winning percentage of 64%, or an average of 52.5 wins a season. In contrast, they have a record of 88-94 in games where Nurkic and Dame haven’t played together. Again, that is a winning percentage of 48% or 39.4 wins per season.
We can compare those stats to when Lillard played with LaMarcus Aldridge, arguably regarded as the best big man Lillard has played with as a pro. Between 2012 and 2015, Portland had a record of 126-87 in games where Lillard and Aldridge were active, for a win percentage of 59%, or 48.4 wins per season. During that same time frame, in games Lillard played in without Aldridge, the team was 12-21 with a win percentage of 36% or 29.4 wins per season.
Dame is a better player now than he was seven-to-ten years ago. But as a team, Portland is much better when the All-World point guard has Nurkic as his number two.