Nurkic: "I don't see my future in Denver"

[NuggetsWY]

wasting talent?

the dude is playing terrible.

some of the responsibility may be on malone, but some of it is certainly on nurkic as well. hes not taking advantage of his minutes at all.

18 mpg - 8.3 pts - 6 rebs --- if 36 mpg, that's double-double land - I'd say he's playing well

C'mon WY, that's for the whole season...if you look at what he's done since Jokic entered the starting lineup (also known as the POUT PERIOD) he's been less than stellar, not even hitting those averages. Irony is Malone's reputation is being a standup guy who communicates face to face the with his players, yet he started this rift with Jusef by just sitting him, at least that's the story we're getting.

I agree he's got the Bosnian Beast inside him, we've all seen it. But the problem is inside Nurk's head and he doresn't seem to want to shake it right now, he'll probably play the rest of the season (with us ?) this way.

Good points but this "rift" started last year - remember? So why is Nurkic still on the Nuggets if he is "so bad"?

[tstrick33]

Nurkic is killing his value right now, all because he wants more playing time that he does not deserve. He has been atrocious since Jokic won the job and has turned into a detriment to our team. At the beginning of the year I would laugh off people trying to get him for 2 firsts but now, if ANY team offers us ONE first I'll take it as a steal.

He's the most frustrating player I've seen on the Nuggets in a while because it seems like he's purposely playing like the worse Center in the league so we'll have to trade him. If we can't get a good deal for him I say grant his request for more minutes and send him to the D-League.

[NuggetsWY]

Nurkic doesn't seem to be giving a full effort - or that's what people seem to think. That might be true.
Then again, maybe the problem is that Nurkic just doesn't get the time in practice or in games that would help him develop his skills more.

When will fans wake up to the fact that several of our key veterans seldom give a full effort on defense?
Want to trade Nurkic? Fine. Then let's trade Gallinari & Nelson along with him. They make good spectators as they watch their man blow by them - which, oh by the way, makes the center look useless as he tries to decide if he should cover the man driving for an easy layup or if he should cover his man who can get a slam dunk off a feed if he's left alone.

Make no mistake, Gallinari & Nelson are the leaders on this team. Top 10 offense, bottom 5 defense. 'nough said.

[skywalker33]

Nurkic is killing his value right now, all because he wants more playing time that he does not deserve. He has been atrocious since Jokic won the job and has turned into a detriment to our team. At the beginning of the year I would laugh off people trying to get him for 2 firsts but now, if ANY team offers us ONE first I'll take it as a steal.

He's the most frustrating player I've seen on the Nuggets in a while because it seems like he's purposely playing like the worse Center in the league so we'll have to trade him. If we can't get a good deal for him I say grant his request for more minutes and send him to the D-League.

I wonder if his agent is preparing him for the repercussions of such unprofessionalism.

[tstrick33]

I'm not talking about Nurkic's Defense. I'm talking about his clear lack of motivation and defeated body language that is clearly affecting his play and abilities. His post moves are half-assed, the amount of times I see him throw up a shot under the basket w/o looking at the rim first is embarrassing, you learn that in high school. Last night was the epitome of it all, 0-7!?! as a starter?

Faried has been wanting out for two+ years and yet still produces and never has a defeated attitude on the floor. He shows it in interviews but at least he's playing hard.

I liked Nurkic at the beginning and saw his potential but I'll be honest, he's garbage right now and doesn't deserve minutes over Faried, Arthur or Hernangomez.

[Mickey8]

I have mentioned in the other thread that his horrible play predated this season , look at his performances with Bosnian NT this past summer , he had same struggles on the offensive end , he hasn't evolved much, he's not versatile enough ,all that raw strength won't help him much if he doesn't work on his game.

[NuggetsWY]

I'm not talking about Nurkic's Defense. I'm talking about his clear lack of motivation and defeated body language that is clearly affecting his play and abilities. His post moves are half-assed, the amount of times I see him throw up a shot under the basket w/o looking at the rim first is embarrassing, you learn that in high school. Last night was the epitome of it all, 0-7!?! as a starter?

Faried has been wanting out for two+ years and yet still produces and never has a defeated attitude on the floor. He shows it in interviews but at least he's playing hard.

I liked Nurkic at the beginning and saw his potential but I'll be honest, he's garbage right now and doesn't deserve minutes over Faried, Arthur or Hernangomez.

Yes, but you are talking about Nurkic's "clear lack of motivation ... that is clearly affecting his play and abilities" which is exactly what Gallinari & Nelson demonstrate on defense. As for his "post moves", young players need to be taught. They do not stop learning when they leave high school or when they leave college. Michael Jordan improved significantly in each of his first six years. He added skills which others said he was lacking. He was NOT predicted to be as great as he became.

As for ability and skill, the worst player in the NBA is better than the vast majority of college players.

Nurkic showed talent in his rookie year. He was injured to start his second year and he and Malone butted heads and Malone publicly criticized his attitude. No doubt that did NOT help resolve issues. Nurkic showed himself to be a dominant rebounder and more in the first few games of this year and then he goes from starter to seldom playing.

Most players in the NBA are accustomed to starting and the desire to start is good. Is Nurkic dealing with this well? NO! But Malone is supposed to be a players' coach, which means he knows how to motivate and communicate. I say go ahead and trade Nurkic because he deserves better than what he is getting in Denver and then go ahead and trade Malone because Denver deserves better than what he is doing - especially with his young players.

[The Rebel]

I have mentioned in the other thread that his horrible play predated this season , look at his performances with Bosnian NT this past summer , he had same struggles on the offensive end , he hasn't evolved much, he's not versatile enough ,all that raw strength won't help him much if he doesn't work on his game.

All the numbers I looked at did not look bad for the Bosnian NT last summer, in fact if I remember correctly he put up some really good stat lines for the NT last summer.

[Mickey8]

Only good thing in his game was rebounding and some shot blocking , he was missing easy shots , his offensive game all together was very bad , plus hiss attitude on and off the court, he was one of the main reasons why Bosnia didn't qualify for Eurobasket this year.

[NuggetsWY]

Pat Riley coined a phrase, "No rebounds, no rings". When Nurkic started at the beginning of the season, the Nuggets led the league in rebounds. Now they are in 3rd place and still dropping. Not surprising when you consider our top rebounders and the minutes they play:
26.1 mpg 8.5 rpg Jokic
22.7 mpg 8.1 rpg Faried
30.2 mpg 6.7 rpg Chandler
18.3 mpg 5.9 rpg Nurkic

Obviously Malone does not subscribe to the importance of rebounding OR defense.
Well, either that or he believes in these things but can't teach them and/or motivate his players to do them.

A good coach can take a good team into the playoffs.
A great coach can take good players and teach them how to be great.
Most coaches are not "great" - perhaps we expect too much of Malone.
But at least he does good interviews and soundbites.

[tstrick33]

Rebounding and Defense are all predicated on hustle. Something that Nurkic lacks. While you can teach techniques, rebounding and Defense come down to hustle. I actually think Malone is doing a good job. He is someone who definitely makes you earn PT, which is fine with me.

One of the big reasons why no one is getting crazy mpg is because we have too much depth/clutter. We have a young team and there's a lot of inconsistency problems, which we saw last night big time. Malone is the guy and will be for a long time.

[NuggetsWY]

Rebounding and Defense are all predicated on hustle. Something that Nurkic lacks. While you can teach techniques, rebounding and Defense come down to hustle. I actually think Malone is doing a good job. He is someone who definitely makes you earn PT, which is fine with me.

You say "Rebounding and Defense are all predicated on hustle. Something that Nurkic lacks." Except that he is 4th on the Nuggets in rebounds and that's with less than 20 mpg. So you are saying that he hustles more than everyone else except Faried, Jokic, and Chandler?

Malone does NOT make his players earn PT. He plays his favorites. Seven players average more than half the game and yes we are deep. But look at the dispersment of minutes: 2 PGs, 2 SGs, 2 SFs, 1 center are his seven favored players - that's 4 guards & 2 SFs and Jokic who averages just 26 mpg. Last year Malone proved his love for 2 & 3 PGs on the floor at the same time. This year he's proving he'd rather have 2 SFs than adding a PF and with the team only having 2 centers, one of whom he doesn't like to play, he prefers a PF at center.

If players are earning their playing time, consider the following:

Hernangomez played 15 minutes and scored 8 pts was 2-4 on 2 pt, 1-1 3 pt and added 4 rebounds - I doubt he expects more PT
Beasley play 6 minutes and scored 7 pts on 1-1 2 pt, 1-1 3pt, 2-2 ft does that mean he gets more PT? Hasn't worked so far.

On the other hand;
Chandler shot 33% and Murray shot 19% and Gallinari shot 33%

And what do we do with Harris? He shot 2-2 2pt, 2-2 3pt, 2-2 FT and played only 24 minutes, well under his average mpg

One of the big reasons why no one is getting crazy mpg is because we have too much depth/clutter. We have a young team and there's a lot of inconsistency problems, which we saw last night big time. Malone is the guy and will be for a long time.

We do not have a young team. We have a young bench. Four of our top-seven mpg players are 26, 28, 29, 34 - that is not a young team. We fill it in with some young players, but those are the players expected to lead this team and there are teams playing younger players more minutes than the Nuggets.

At least Mudiay's 20 minute restriction was held to 25 minutes unlike Harris' 20 minute restriction in his first game back, which became 35 minutes in that first game back

[RRFB]

The Nuggets are already an elite rebounding team, so using rebounding as an argument to play Nurkic more doesn't make any sense. Malone jerking his minutes around in December didn't help, but Nurkic hasn't done a damn thing since then to prove that he deserves more playing time. At some point Nurk needs to take some responsibility for this situation.

As for the other young guys, Malone is just doing what every single NBA head coach would do. You're either asking him to bench proven 10+ year veterans for rookies, or you're asking him to run a 12-man rotation. Neither of those are reasonable or realistic requests for a team that's battling for a playoff seed.

[NuggetsWY]

The Nuggets are already an elite rebounding team, so using rebounding as an argument to play Nurkic more doesn't make any sense. Malone jerking his minutes around in December didn't help, but Nurkic hasn't done a damn thing since then to prove that he deserves more playing time. At some point Nurk needs to take some responsibility for this situation.

As for the other young guys, Malone is just doing what every single NBA head coach would do. You're either asking him to bench proven 10+ year veterans for rookies, or you're asking him to run a 12-man rotation. Neither of those are reasonable or realistic requests for a team that's battling for a playoff seed.

Yup, I'm asking him to bench 6-10+ year veterans to give his rookies/young potential stars a chance to play. His 6-10 year veterans are, at best, good role players on a serious team. He has young players that are potential all-stars. We need to find out what they can do, not get an 8th seed playoff/1st round sweep in the playoffs.

Battling for the playoffs does NOT help our young players much, except they get to sit and watch the veterans lose in the playoffs. Who knows, those young players just might make the playoffs. Jokic is one of them and we've seen what he can do. Murray is starting to show his potential. Hernangomez has shown hints and maybe even Beasley, based on his short sample in the Memphis game.

I'm not talking about tanking here because the difference between pick #12 & pick #18 is probably not going to be a huge deal. I'm talking about player development. Unless you think Gallinari, Chandler, and Nelson need to improve their games?

[tstrick33]

Nurkic started well and so his numbers are going to look good but since Jokic rightfully won the starting C role, you can't tell me the guy is trying his hardest. Just watch the games, the eye test is a lot more telling than stats he made when he was the starting C.

Hernangomez and Beasley got those stats in garbage time, so I'm not going to consider those stats, but they will get more PT.

I think we can all agree the starting 5 for the Nuggets are:

PG: Mudiay (20 years old)
SG: Gary Harris (22 years old)
SF: Danilo Gallinari (28 years old)
PF: Kenneth Faried (27 years old)
C: Nikola Jokic (21 years old)

Key Reserves:

PG- Jamal Murray (19 years old)
PG- Jameer Nelson (34 years old) He is old
SF- Wilson Chandler (29 years old)
PF- Darrel Arthur (28 years old)
C- Jusuf Nurkic (22 years old)
SG- Will Barton (26 years old)

We're the 5th youngest team in the NBA. We can agree to disagree but I consider us as a team with a very young core with some vets sprinkled in to help them develop.

[Mickey8]

Nurkic benefited greatly playing along side with Jokic in the starting five, but it didn't translate well to the team success , Jokic couldn't do his thing in a clogged paint , because of that , team have suffered badly. Also when Jokic asked Malone to be benched, Nurkic was the starter and the team was performing poorly , you could see immediate change when Jokic would step on the court , Nurkic really had a chance to impress but he failed.

[yosemiteben]

Welp gents, I guess it's time for my Nurkic fanboyhood to die given the Plumlee trade. Will be tracking you guys and am interested to see what you guys do over the next 12 months.

[NuggetsWY]

Welp gents, I guess it's time for my Nurkic fanboyhood to die given the Plumlee trade. Will be tracking you guys and am interested to see what you guys do over the next 12 months.

I was not pleased. I really wanted to see Nurkic under Clifford. I think it would have been great for Atlanta and Nurkic.
Yeah, I'll be watching the Hawks. I like a few of your players, but I think you're worse this year than last but your future looks better now than it did a year ago - if that makes sense.

[GlenRiceARoni]

Nurkic stinks im thoroughly amazed how high both nuggets and non nuggets fans are on him. I keep hoping we can move him for something before his cheap contract falls off the books and no one will give up anything for him

-----------------------------------------------------------------------Hinkie has created a monster that will awaken in 2018 precisely 200 years after Mary Shelley published Frankenstein in 1818 A.D.
I don't think for a second this is coincidental as Hinkie is well educated and a fan of Classic British Lit

[The Rebel]

Nurkic stinks im thoroughly amazed how high both nuggets and non nuggets fans are on him. I keep hoping we can move him for something before his cheap contract falls off the books and no one will give up anything for him

-----------------------------------------------------------------------Hinkie has created a monster that will awaken in 2018 precisely 200 years after Mary Shelley published Frankenstein in 1818 A.D.
I don't think for a second this is coincidental as Hinkie is well educated and a fan of Classic British Lit

People are high on him because we can remember the talent he has shown prior to the last 2 months.