Getting Jusuf Nurkic back from an extended absence to have him dominate games like he had never gotten his leg bones spontaneously blown into six (or more) different pieces is obviously awesome for the Blazers. But it’s also sort of a sad thing. Because when you see how quickly and easily Nurkic has integrated himself into the team, you think about how good this team would have been if he had been available to play for the entire year.
What-if scenarios in the NBA should never be explored too deeply. It’s easy to get caught up in “what if this player never got injured” or “what if that shot went in” or “what if our coach didn’t get dropped on the head as a child”, and then lose sight of reality. The last time I dropped down one of those rabbit-holes, I was thinking “What if Khris Middleton didn’t excrete a third of his body weight in sweat every game”, and then it was six hours later, tears were running down my face, and I was inexplicably naked. I’m sure Blazers fans have had similar episodes when thinking about how good their team would be with a fully healthy McNurkard trio. To get caught up in those fantasies is alluring, but ultimately detrimental to mental health.
The best case scenario here is that Nurkic scores thirty every game on a wide array of random flings at the basket, the ‘Zers displace the ‘Zlies for the eighth seed, and then their first round series against (presumably) the Lakers is a lot closer than their win-loss records on paper would make it seem. Honestly, with a healthy McNurkard and a slumping Anthony Davis, it could be a contest.
P.S. I’m not really feeling my new nickname for the Trailblazers (“The ‘Zers”). I think I’ll use it a few more times and see if it grows on me.