Portland Trail Blazers: Nurkic is the real Robin to Dame’s Batman
Defensive Impact
Portland’s biggest impact on the defensive end is often tied to whether or not Nurkic is on the floor. As good of a defender Robert Covington is, he was only a bandaid on a gunshot wound. If not for the Brooklyn Nets’ historically bad defense last year, Portland might have been setting records for historically bad defenses.
After returning after his injury, Nurkic brought the defense up to a near respectable level. Unfortunately, that changed in the playoffs with his ankle chained to Denver’s Nikola Jokic for a seven-game series. His defensive impact diminished as the Nuggets larger wing players feasted on Portlands’ smaller, defensively anemic lineups.
A team should not be that reliant on one player for defense. It might be a good idea to build a better supporting cast of defenders to help if they are. Imagine Damian Lillard on offense when he doesn’t have floor spacers or teammates with the ability to get points in the paint.
The Portland Trail Blazers then become too reliant on Lillard, and he exhausts himself scoring 55 points in a losing effort. Those games don’t have moral victories. Instead, they are demoralizing for the player carrying too much of the load. Portland absolutely needs Nurkic to be effective defensively, and they must do what they can to surround him with defensive-minded teammates.
Building a roster around Nurkic and Dame
When Damian Lillard and Jusuf Nurkic have even moderately healthy seasons, Rip City saw this team go from fighting to reach the playoffs to hovering around a third or fourth seed. Filling out the rest of the starting lineup with players that impact both sides of the ball needs to be the next move in turning this team into a legit contender.
Adding Covington and Norman Powell are the right kinds of moves the Trail Blazers needed. I’m still on the bandwagon that Powell is the more effective player at shooting guard than small forward. Moving him to the backcourt and adding more size at small forward might be the final move to put this team over the top. Until it happens, the roster will continue to be more catered towards helping Lillard on offense and less towards helping Nurkic on defense.
"We're always going to be here for him."
Damian Lillard shares how Jusuf Nurkic's teammates will make sure their guy is cared for but not smothered as he deals with yet another brutal injury pic.twitter.com/kDdyjgwfha
— AJ McCord (@AJ_McCord) January 15, 2021
Next: Page 3 – The wrapup