Portland Trail Blazers: Complete 2018 offseason grades

Re-signing Jusuf Nurkic

The Blazers moved on from several key contributors to last season’s team, namely Ed Davis, Shabazz Napier and Pat Connaughton. However, there was one player that Portland knew it didn’t want to let go of.

On July 6, ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Blazers had agreed to re-sign restricted free agent center Jusuf Nurkic to a four-year, $48 million deal. The deal keeps Nurkic in Rip City through 2021-22, with the final year of his deal being partially guaranteed.

The contract is sensible and important for both Nurkic and the Blazers. Portland really didn’t have the money to chase down another impact center in free agency, and Nurkic didn’t seem to get any teams to bite on him and give him an offer sheet. Both sides wanted to work with and needed each other, so they sat down and made a deal.

Nurkic finished his first full season in Portland averaging 14.3 points and 9.0 rebounds per game on 50.5 percent shooting. He remains a solid screen-setter thanks to his seven-foot, 280-pound frame, and he can be a lot to handle on the block, even if he isn’t the most efficient at scoring in the trenches. Also, his range continues to expand, and he looks to eventually become a full-time floor-stretching big.

Defensively, his mere presence helps the team, as perimeter defenders can funnel ball-handlers directly to him so that he can alter their shots. The Blazers jumped from the 21st-best defense in the league in 2016-17 to eighth-best in 2017-18 thanks in part to Nurkic.

The Bosnian Beast has been a key asset to the Blazers’ improvement, and it was important that they brought him back. He will be 24 years old by the beginning of the 2018-19 season, and his new deal will allow him to grow even more as a player with the stability of knowing he is part of the team’s long-term plans.

Grade: A