Portland Trail Blazers: 5 offseason roster moves they need to make

Portland Trail Blazers move to make No. 4: Guarantee Jusuf Nurkic

The Trail Blazers big man combination does not seem complete without Jusuf Nurkic. He has a $12 million salary which is not guaranteed next season. Given how much that Nurkic can do on the floor, he is a key piece for the Blazers moving forward.

Nurkic is one of the few big men on the Blazers roster who can defend the opposition centers which is crucial to beating some of the top teams in the league. In the West, the Blazers match up against the Utah Jazz with Rudy Gobert, the Denver Nuggets with Nikola Jokic, and the Phoenix Suns with Deandre Ayton to name just a few.

Nurkic is also a key part of the Trail Blazers offense. While he averages 11.5 points per game, he also averages a crucial 3.4 assists per game. For a team that struggles to move the ball due to the iso-ball Lillard and McCollum specialize in, this is huge.

Defensively, Nurkic is a pest, in a good way. He averages 1.1 blocks and 1.0 steals per game. He was able to work well with Robert Covington who averaged 1.2 blocks per game which improved the Trail Blazers’ rim protection.