And to think...Denver gave up a 2017 1st rounder along with Nurkic (on a rookie scale contract) to acquire Plumlee, who will be a RFA this offseason. It was obvious that a Nurkic/Jokic pairing was never going to work down low for the Nuggets but you would have thought they would have been able to get better value for Nurkic. A lot of teams, the Rockets included, will regret not having been more aggressive on trading for Nurk. He's only 22 years old!!!
True that. I can also see, though it doesn't absolve them, why they gave up on him so fast: more ill-tempered and fatter by the day.
Blazers fans are very happy so far. Looks like a steal. I don't understand why the Nuggets couldn't have gotten more in return. Not sure how Plumlee fits in their plans.
LOL this is why you don't go all in and break the bank for a RFA. Btw I don't know how you can say teams have not been more aggressive, this is the Nuggets they don't exactly give away players on the cheap remember how they wouldn't give up Lawson until his stock tanked all the way to the bottom. Nuggets probably like Plumlee more than other people do that's why they gave up Nurkic. Nuric IMHO would be awesome on the Rockets and if we could see that I'm sure Morey could see that too, if they didn't trade for him there's gotta be a reason for that.
This is what frustrates me about ROX fans. They see a player do good elsewhere and automatically suggest that we should've gone after that player. Besides these videos have you ever seen Nurkic play??? Probably not. I've seen dude play A LOT and you would think that as ROX fan yourself you would ask yourself FIRST, does he fit our system? The answer is HELL NO! Nurkic is a back to the basket player with occasionally shooting it from 13-15ft. He is extremely ball dominant which we saw what happened last year when Dwight tried that. Plumlee in our system would've done wonders bc he plays the P&R great while Nurkic plays the post up great.
First Players in 30 years to get 28 points, 20 rebounds, 8 assist, 6 blocks since Charles Barkley > LOL This guy is playing like an ALL STAR with the Blazers. And Blazer get this guy for another year on a ROOKIE CONTRACT and a 1st Round Pick !!! Denver gave all this up for 3 months of Mason Plumee and NO PLAYOFF. Blazers are going to beat Nuggets to Playoff because of NURKIC!!!!
I knew the trade was a steal for the Blazers and thought the Nuggets were giving Nurkic away, but this is crazy.
Yeah, I was wrong, giving DEN news and announcers here too much credit for reasons why he wasn't getting minutes. Portland fans going crazy about him. This is trouncing Okafur and Philly at home. Even with all that, Portland still had to go OT to beat them. Let's not cheer this team too much. We don't want POR to get back to playing even as good as last year.
Still feels like a Damian Lillard led team has a ceiling of second round exit. Unless they really stock up on a ton of talent around him. And they had LMA and other talent around him... and got beat in the 2nd round, as expected. Sure, he was younger then, but he was basically the same player - just a little less usage. And his defense has regressed if anything. What's more, the Lillard/McCollum back court has no chance of working if working means real, legitimate, deep playoff runs. Well, let me clarify... a great GM might beable to build a team around them that works. But it'd be hard. There's a reason why Harden plays so well relate to win/losses next to Beverely. And both Lillard and McCollum are worse defenders than Harden. I don't know McCollum's value around the league. Or Lillard's. If I could trade Lillard and have the opportunity to draft Fultz, I would... but that seems very unlikely unless some random team leapfrogs into the #1 pick. Then I'd move McCollum plus a contract for a young high upside player or pick. Seems like an overreaction, but seriously, consider that team's makeup and its salary cap implications - a bunch of "overpaid" average wing type players.
