RealGM

It has been reported that Jusuf Nurkic has a good chance of coming back this Saturday against the Warriors! This is very exciting news, and I wonder what realistic expectations for the second year player will be. How much has he really been able to work on and improve his game over the offseason/beginning of this year? What role are we expecting to come in and play for us going forward? Should we start him going forward?

Interested to hear any opinions!






Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

In his 2nd game back, scored 12 pts and 8 rebs in 14mins, strong sign for his future IMO.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26vZUulWNDo[/youtube]

DaFan334 wrote:[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26vZUulWNDo[/youtube]

That looked too easy...

Minutes to be increased, seems like he's progressing back towards the starting lineup at Lauvergne's expense. Anyone know why Joffrey is in the doghouse ?

Joffrey just seems to be a step slow on rotations on defense and not putting in the same effort he was before the injury.

Also the fact that Nikola has shown more potential and the nuggets want to give him the better chance because of his possibility to become an extremely skilled player one day

Why is Nurkic riding the pine ??? Is it he's not in game shape, is he still recovering or is he just in Malone's doghouse ??

I heard it was a little of all of them.

I honestly do wonder what Malone's thought process is when he plays Mike Miller at the 4 and Joffrey at the 5. Doesn't it make more sense to do Nurk 5, Joff 4.

From the sound of a podcast I listened to a day or two ago it sounds like Malone is being very tough on Nurkic, seems to think that is the best way to get through to him. I do not know if that is true or not, but given the way he seems to be helping so many guys improve on the roster I am willing to trust that he knows what he is doing.

Nurkic is working on getting into game shape, and it sounds like he is working pretty hard.
http://www.denverpost.com/nuggets/ci_29431189/nuggets-center-jusuf-nurkic-charged-getting-into-better

The Rebel wrote:Nurkic is working on getting into game shape, and it sounds like he is working pretty hard.
http://www.denverpost.com/nuggets/ci_29431189/nuggets-center-jusuf-nurkic-charged-getting-into-better

What is going on with this guy? Seemed like last year Nuggets fans were hyping him as the Center of the future and now that Jokic is playing so well... Does that change the Nurkic future plans?

Rooting for you guys! Mike Malone is awesome, I imagine with that young core he will have you guys back in the playoffs in no time!

No it doesn't, Nurkic should play at C and Jokic at PF in the future, we just have to wait for him to get better, he is having a lot of "post injury" injurys so that's the problem with him right now, and he didn't go trough training camp like Jokic did so...

RipPizzaGuy wrote:

The Rebel wrote:Nurkic is working on getting into game shape, and it sounds like he is working pretty hard.
http://www.denverpost.com/nuggets/ci_29431189/nuggets-center-jusuf-nurkic-charged-getting-into-better

What is going on with this guy? Seemed like last year Nuggets fans were hyping him as the Center of the future and now that Jokic is playing so well... Does that change the Nurkic future plans?

Rooting for you guys! Mike Malone is awesome, I imagine with that young core he will have you guys back in the playoffs in no time!

I personally think that Nurkic and Jokic can play together, with Jokic's mid range and long range shooting as well as his passing, and Nurkic being a solid passer and having a solid midrange game I think it will work. However Malone seems to be in no hurry to experiment right now.

To me it seemed like Nurkic got a little scared, when he 1st came back he was still fouling at a high rate but he was playing close to the way he did when healthy last year, then he got a minor injury and it seemed to get into his head. Since that injury he has no been the same guy, but I and many Nuggets fans are still very high on him and waiting for him to snap out of it and return to the dominant defender he was showing last year.

So far I think most Nuggets fans really like Malone, the growth the young guys have shown has been great. The one complaint some seem to have is his rotations and taking so long to give Jokic the end of game minutes, but overall I think he has been great.

Yeah, I am looking forward to watching Jokic and Nurkic get a complete, healthy off-season and TC together. The growth and chemistry that I expect to see between those two and Mudiay is very exciting !!

yeah it's not like Nurkic is suddenly a bust that we're looking to move just because Jokic has played well in his absense
they can definitely coexist given their skillsets and are both looking to be key parts of the future
but right now Nurkic needs to stretch out some knots

Why is Nurkic not playing?

They said that he was not practicing due to knee soreness, and that Malone will not play him until he can practice fully.

Timmons is hinting that it may be something other than injury problems.

http://bsndenver.com/jusuf-nurkic-needs-to-shape-up-or-nuggets-need-to-ship-him-out/