Portland Trail Blazers: 3 season goals for Jusuf Nurkic in 2020-21

3. Stay healthy

While this may seem like a simple statement, it is not easy for Nurkic to stay on the court. He has played two seasons where he has played over 70 games. The first was the 2016-17 season where he played 79 games and then the 2018-19 season where he played 72 games.

In the 2016-17 season, Nurkic only managed to play 65 games, which was up from his number in his rookie season where he only played 62 games. However, the numbers in Nurkic’s other two seasons are more concerning.

In his second season, Nurkic only played 32 games thanks to a tear in his patella tendon. This is a concerning injury, especially for a big man. Then there was last season where Nukic played only eight games after missing the majority of the season with that broken leg.

A healthy Nurkic is a huge benefit for this Blazers team which has the potential to challenge for the title given the roster additions made over the offseason. He now has four shooters around him to space the floor at any time, meaning that Nurkic can use his size to dominate inside without the fear of an effective double team.

He can also use his incredible passing ability to hit the open man from deep. All of this only works, however, if he can stay on the floor.