As the NBA season resumes in Orlando this month, the Portland Trail Blazers expect an even more significant return. The Jusuf Nurkic Center is practicing on the court and is expected to return to action after missing a year and a half with a broken leg. This happy event leaves Portland in a puzzle as Hassan Whiteside has held the starting center position throughout the season, averaging 16.3 points, 14.2 rebounds and 3.1 blocked shots in 31.3 minutes per game.
This morning, Casey Holdahl of the Trail Blazers tweeted that, in the center of the jam, Nurkic may be the first to move.
Jusuf Nurkić says he hopes to play the power forward for a few minutes, presumably alongside Hassan Whiteside in the center.
– Casey Holdahl (@CHold) July 3, 2020
Earlier this week, Sean Highkin of the Bleacher Report quoted head coach Terry Stotts as saying that Portland frontcourt permutations were still up in the air.
Stotts says “in all probability” Melo and Nurk will start. He hasn’t decided whether Collins will start at 4. He also hasn’t ruled out starting Nurk and Whiteside together. “Why not? It will give you something to write about.”
– Sean Highkin (@highkin) July 1, 2020
Nurkic has some experience sharing the frontcourt. In 2016-17 he played alongside Nikola Jokic for limited periods. The failure of that experiment is believed to be one of the main reasons the Nuggets were willing to trade Nurkic with the Blazers that season.
