Jazz center Jusuf Nurkic will undergo a surgical procedure on his nose on Tuesday and will miss the remainder of the season, NBA on Prime insider Chris Haynes tweets.
Nurkic has appeared in 41 games this season, including 36 starts. The 31-year-old big man is averaging 10.9 points, 10.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists in 26.4 minutes per game.
Nurkic hasn’t played since the All-Star break. Earlier in the season, he missed time due to a toe injury and also had several DNP-CDs. He was a prime candidate to be dealt before the Feb. 5 trade deadline due his expiring $19.3MM contract.
The Jazz never found a suitable deal for him, so instead that money will come off their cap and Nurkic will be seeking a new opportunity as an unrestricted free agent. Utah is expected to have significant cap space this offseason to chase free agents and facilitate trades.
The Jazz raised eyebrows over the summer when they attached a second-round pick to Collin Sexton in a trade with Charlotte for Nurkic. However, Nurkic played a larger role than anticipated due to Walker Kessler‘s season-ending shoulder injury.
With Nurkic out of the picture, Kyle Filipowski, Kevin Love and Oscar Tshiebwe are the team’s options in the middle.
This one is creative. Gotta give the Jazz credit lmao. Also note that all the Jazz reporting is not done through ESPN and through Haynes instead
As someone who has had four broken noses and surgeries from contact sports, this is about as ridiculous as it gets for an overt tank job. A surgical nose procedure to repair broken bones or sinus related issues is day surgery. A conservative recovery time is days, not weeks. Certainly not months for a professional athlete. But hey, Adam … I guess you can fine the Jazz $5,000 and really make them hurt.
Teams only get fined if the player fits a star category. Nurk is far from that as no awards, all pros, or all star appearances.
Creative is one way to put it lol; nose surgery?!?He woulda worn a mask the rest of the year if a contender could’ve afforded his contract..I thought Silver was just over reacting about ‘tanking’, but he probably had some idea just how clownish the Jazz and Wiz were about to get so he had to get out in front of it
Honestly, this race to the bottom sure is interesting.
Each team doing something a little different to approach the tank
Fining teams for tanking is ridiculous! The only way to create any interest in teams that have no chance of winning a championship is indeed a race to the bottom! The team with the worst reserves should get the best pick. It all makes perfect sense. Why fine them, instead of provide them with tanking guidelines?
In fact, tanking creates a job opportunities for regular Joe’s.
Ordinary basketball players will go out there and compete, because otherwise they would be punished for shaving points. However, teams can sign people who are naturally bad at basketball to contracts, play them, and legally tank.
I recall that a team once signed someone who was terrible in his college days in order to accomplish this.
Does anyone really believe Nurk is factoring in to winning. I don’t even count this as an impact.
Double double with 5 assists per game. He’d been playing pretty well. He’s also been solid defensively this season.
Looter in a riot. Someone has to get the numbers,does not mean he is good or having impact plays. Would he be a starting center on top 4 seeded teams? He would probably be played off court in playoff atmosphere.
Normally no, but the guys available behind him. Not exactly an inspiring group.
I like Nurk for the Warriors. This is a guy that could play in their system, although not much of a three threat.
Why should a team tank when the league fixes the draft to their liking?