Though Bosnian big man Jusuf Nurkic is now thriving as the best frontcourt piece on the Portland Trail Blazers, his role wasn’t always as defined as it is now. Prior to joining the Blazers via trade earlier this year in February, Nurkic played over two seasons with the Denver Nuggets.
Though Jusuf Nurkic was serviceable during his Nuggets tenure, it wasn’t his play that got him traded but instead it was the fit. There was plenty of tension between Nurkic and the Denver front office prior to him being dealt but the 23-year-old wanted to avoid drama at all costs.
Nurkic recently reflected on his Nuggets tenure and how his departure all went down in a sit down with Sports Illustrated’s Ben Golliver:
“Mike Malone came to me with all this sweet talk… If you like somebody else, play them. But don’t come to my home and say that I’m going to be the starting center and then play someone else.”
“In the first game, I only played three quarters, I had 23 points and 9 rebounds. I’m playing a good game, we’re winning and I’m not playing in the fourth quarter? From that point, I could kind of see that something was wrong.”
“I believe you can develop guards together. But two centers? No way. I don’t want to make this a big drama like KD. I was never on the same page with the coach and the front office. It just came to the point where I needed to go. My career was on the line.”
The other center Nurkic is referring to is current Nuggets backbone Nikola Jokic who has blossomed into a star himself. Head coach Mike Malone experimented deploying both Nurkic and Jokic for a stretch but with the NBA trending towards small ball, that project fell flat on its face.
Nurkic knew there was absolutely no way they two could coexist, especially with himself knowing he has the abilities to serve as a starter. Luckily, things worked out well for both sides as Denver now has a stellar young roster built around the multi-dimensional Jokic and Nurkic is proving his worth as the bruising complement to Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum in Portland.
