Portland Trail Blazers: 5 goals for Jusuf Nurkic in 2017-18

4. Average a double-double

Jusuf Nurkic can straight up ball, and he’s likely to continue improving as his career progresses. Now that he’s in a position to play meaningful minutes in a system expected to rely heavily on his abilities, the opportunity to prove himself among the league’s elite big men is there.

The main difference for Nurkic will be his minutes played: for the last two and a half seasons with the Denver Nuggets, Nurkic didn’t average more than 21 minutes per game. Over the course of his 20 games with Portland, he averaged 29.2 minutes.

To paint a clearer picture of what we can expect from Nurkic this year, I give you his career per-36 numbers: 16.0 points, 12.1 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 2.2 blocks and 1.5 steals.

If Nurkic can put together a season averaging a double-double, there’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll earn the respect he’s deserved since his time in the Mile-High City.