Portland Trail Blazers: 3 goals for Jusuf Nurkic in 2018-19
By Ty Delbridge
After his first full season as the starting center for the Portland Trail Blazers, Jusuf Nurkic is heading into this next season with high expectations to establish himself as the third star on this Blazers team.
Last season for the Portland Trail Blazers, Jusuf Nurkic played and started in a career-high 79 games in his first full season playing in Rip City. The Blazers acquired Nurkic from the Denver Nuggets at the 2016-17 NBA trade deadline. He finished out his rookie contract playing in Portland and then hit the free agency market.
He has played in 99 games for the Blazers and has started 98 of them. In those games, Nurkic is averaging 14.5 points, 9.2 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.5 blocks in 27 minutes per game while shooting 50.5 percent from the field and 63.8 percent from the free throw line.
Nurkic was a restricted free agent this summer, and that gave Portland the rights to match any offer sheet another team gave him. Luckily for the Blazers, no other team offered him a contract, and they were able to lock him up on a four year, $48 million deal. The Blazers now have their Big 3 secured in Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum and Nurkic.
Before the start of the season, most expected the Blazers would have to pay upwards of $55-60 million for the center who is still just 24. Nurkic did not have a great year last season and also became a free agent when a lot of teams lacked cap space and a need for a center. Portland was able to bring back the big man on a bargain deal.
Now that Nurkic got his money and long-term deal, the pressure is going to be on from the fans and the franchise for him to step up and consistently perform at a high level. Portland finished with one of the top records in all of the NBA and will be looking to repeat that regular season success. Nurkic is going to be an essential part of that plan and needs to be great if this team wants to start advancing in the playoffs.
Here are three goals for the Bosnian Beast entering the 2018-19 NBA season.