Jusuf Nurkic, Portland Trail Blazers.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Portland Trail Blazers must continue to build this roster around the strengths of Damian Lillard and Jusuf Nurkic and their abilities as a tandem to take this team to the next level. Keeping Norman Powell was huge. Adding big bodies Larry Nance Jr. and Cody Zeller to help back up Nurkic improve the teams’ bench from a defensive standpoint. I also look forward to seeing the impact new head coach Chauncey Billups will have on Nurkic both defensively and offensively.
The elephant in the room that I have not mentioned is CJ McCollum. As I’ve written in past articles, McCollum is playing out of position as a two-guard. As a result, CJ won’t truly maximize his capabilities in this league until he anchors his own team as a starting point guard. Additionally, McCollum is actually better defensively than Lillard when toughening up against opposing point guards rather than guarding larger shooting guards.
Obviously, health is a big factor, and Nurk missed significant time the last two seasons. But as constructed, this roster can compete for a top-four spot, but until they go all-in on having a starting five that compliments what Dame and Nurk can do on both ends of the floor, the Portland Trail Blazers won’t be a true NBA title contender.
Do you think the Portland Trail Blazers need to do a better job building around the duo of Lillard and Nurkic? Let us know in the comments section below or on social media.