Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic is optimistic about his role on the team after the hiring of Chauncey Billups as head coach, writes Jason Quick of The Athletic. Billups mentioned Nurkic during his introductory press conference, telling reporters, “I want to get more out of Nurk this year. He’s a weapon that most teams don’t have.” The new coach talked about installing an inside-out offense that will take advantage of Nurkic’s low-post scoring abilities as well as the team’s shooting prowess.
It was welcome news for Nurkic, who felt like his relationship with the organization was “fraying” after last season’s playoff loss to the Nuggets, Quick adds. Nurkic wasn’t happy with the way he was used by former coach Terry Stotts and was starting to doubt his future in Portland. He met with Billups after hearing his comments and believes things will be different this season.
“It’s not a question anymore whether I want to be here or not,” Nurkic said. “When the team hired Chauncey and I have a conversation with him and (assistant) Roy Rogers, there was no doubt. I’m 100 percent committed to Blazers.”
There’s more from Portland:
- Nurkic has fully recovered from a left thumb injury he suffered in the playoffs, Quick adds in the same story. He hurt the thumb in Game 4 of the series and it continued to bother him into the summer. “I had that thumb thing to take care of, so I did a bunch of shooting to get my touch back,” Nurkic said.
- Second-round pick Greg Brown is relying on veterans to teach him about the NBA, notes Casey Holdahl of NBA.com. Brown played alongside Michael Beasley, Kenneth Faried and Emmanuel Mudiay during Summer League and he continues to seek advice at the team’s practice facility as training camp nears. “We had Larry Nance Jr. come in, I’m excited to see how he thinks about the league, pick his brain,” Brown said. “(Damian Lillard) for sure, CJ (McCollum) for sure, (Nassir Little) — I’ve been knowing Nas since high school, see how his transition is. Everybody has their story and you can pick something from their story and put it in yours to help you move further.”
- The Blazers’ offseason gets a C-plus grade from Zach Harper of the Athletic, who says the additions of Nance and Cody Zeller will help the interior defense, but he doesn’t see much improvement otherwise. Harper adds that questions about Lillard’s future will hang over the franchise until the situation is resolved.
Trade CJ and Covington for Simmons and Danny Green
Why would the Blazers trade anything right now? Just doesn’t make sense
I mean if we’re going to put trades out there that one team clearly won’t go for, then I say trade CJ and Covington for Embid.
That is the best offer 76ers can get
That is the best team Simmons can play
You can only take the best offer
Why did 76ers talk trade with 3 worst teams Kings, Wolves and Cavs？They don’t want to see Simmons success
They want Simmons to regret
They should talk with OKC about ShaiGA if they want to go that route.
I kinda like it, Blazers just roster wise are basically just running it back the same as last year and it won’t work out. All these rumours of Dame leaving will become more true next offseason when they struggle to make the playoff again.
Instead they make a trade swapping CJs complementary scoring for Ben’s elite defence and rebounding. Blazers sucked on defence so Ben would be a huge addition however you would lose a lot of shooting.
Not sure how interested the Sixers would be in CJ who is old and never made the all stars but who knows.
I hope Simmons comes back for his new team and shoots lights out!
Trade Cj for Pascal. Blazers must improve their forward talent and balance their roster.
Raptors aren’t going to trade a sometimes all star for a borderline all star. Also they don’t want to get older, they want to get younger. Also CJ wouldn’t move the needle for the Raports, well I guess it would move the needle (just backwards).
The Lillard “situation” IS resolved, except in the minds that don’t matter. Only Olshey has a situation, and he kept the players that produced last year.
If I was writing the article I’d at least state some facts / opinions. Such as this is the best team Portland has had on paper since Aldridge left