Playoff game 2 Rd 1 Portland vs Lakers 6:00PM SNW/ESPN

[Epicurus]

The Blazers need to utilize Nurkic more in offense. They didnt seem to do that at all in Game 2 after it was effective in Game 1.

Perhaps, but it would be nice if Nurkic shot better. His percentages are embarrassments for any quality NBA center. We need the Nurk with the touch he had from the middle of his injured season.

With Nurk comes good (defense, court vision, etc..) and bad.. (occasional doink'd layups, etc..) but the Blazers are basically a 60 win team when he plays...

So this feels a little nit-picky

Nit picky? Shooting matters. It matters more than anything else in point differentiation ( I think 40% of variance). Centers, largely because of where they take shots, especially the number in the restricted area, should at least be above the norm of the rest of the team to increase the shooting percentage of the team. Nurk is below (except for that period I mention). BTW, how in the world is this a 60 win team?

[Soulyss]

Perhaps, but it would be nice if Nurkic shot better. His percentages are embarrassments for any quality NBA center. We need the Nurk with the touch he had from the middle of his injured season.

With Nurk comes good (defense, court vision, etc..) and bad.. (occasional doink'd layups, etc..) but the Blazers are basically a 60 win team when he plays...

huh?

Nurk got injured in game 73 last season and Portland had 9 games left. They had 46 wins. Kind of impossible for Nurkic to propel them to 14 more wins in 9 games

and that team had Aminu, Harkless, Curry, Layman, Turner, and Meyers. This year's team is much worse

Sorry... I don't remember where I saw the 60 game quote... So apologies for that, but I did the math instead....

Blazers are 116-64 in regular season games he has played for the Blazers... which is the equivalent of a 53 win regular season team. You can argue the parts around Nurk, but the team was hot garbage with most of the players you listed pre-nurk in the 16-17 season, and he's made them a significantly better team since.

[Epicurus]

And he would make them even better by making shots good centers make.

[PDXKnight]

I like Gabriel as a 10th man but there’s no way he’s ever a starter. He’s aggressive but Seems like he tries to shoot too much when he touches the ball.

Feels premature to label Gabriel after his rookie year for struggling to defend a much bigger AD.

He’s an undrafted rookie, odds are against him being much of a player