Another game, another well-rounded performance for Jusuf “Nurkular Bomb” Nurkic. He had a reputation of impacting the game in many ways with Denver, but that reputation is being solidified as he has had a bunch of multi-faceted performances while with the Blazers. A 5×5 before the year is up is not out of the question, although we’re saying that about more and more players these days.
With that said, he needs to work on keeping his turnovers under control. Obviously, they come with the territory when he’s trying to be a playmaker, but some of these passes just were never going to work. Not every backdoor is open. If he wants to get his assist-turnover ratio up in a different way, he can just tell his teammates to shoot it as soon as he passes them the ball, no ifs ands or buts. I think that’s what Nikola Jokic did in Denver, and he’s got a bunch of triple-doubles to his name.
Another thing Nurkic needs to work on: being more openly confrontational towards opposing players. That was something he was known for in his rookie year, and he’s let that part of his game slip significantly since then. Or maybe he’s saving all his confrontationality for a certain matchup against a certain team that’s coming up soon.