"I wish those guys a happy summer": Jusuf Nurkic dismisses the Nuggets

Jusuf Nurkic has a good reason to smile.

The third-year big man, nearly three months to the day when he first expressed frustration and dissatisfaction over his role in Denver to the media, got what he wanted.

Nurkic wasn’t in the right when he quit on the Nuggets after Nikola Jokic took off after Dec. 15. He didn’t do the organization any favors either when he became unplayable leading up to the deadline, visibly putting back on the weight he had worked so hard to shed last summer and even leaving the arena during Jokic’s first career triple-double at home against Milwaukee in early February, only to return to greet his teammates in the locker room following the win.

Nurkic officially put his two-and-a-half-year run in Denver behind him Tuesday night.

“I wish those guys a happy summer,” Nurkic said as he walked off the court following Portland’s 122-113 win.

The Nuggets had to move Nurkic prior to February’s trade deadline and although they got a good return for the bruising center in Mason Plumlee, someone who’ll likely be Denver’s backup center for the next few years after the team re-signs him this summer, trading Nurkic in division, to a team that was the favorite to challenge Denver for the eighth seed, stings. But Nurkic wasn’t giving Denver anything at backup center and the Nuggets needed to fill that role if they even wanted a chance at the playoffs

Nurkic made the Nuggets pay Tuesday night when he dominated Denver for 33 minutes, scoring a career-high 33 points on 12-15 shooting to go with 16 rebounds, six of which came on the offensive glass.

The 22-year-old played his best professional game in the Blazers’ biggest game of the season.

“Jusuf Nurkic kicked our ass,” Michael Malone put it bluntly after the loss.

Portland made it a point to get Nurkic involved from the opening tip and his presence was felt early in the first quarter. Nurkic scored 13 points on 5-6 shooting in the opening frame, followed that up with eight more in the second, and then eight additional points in the third. His two baskets in the fourth gave Portland all they needed as C.J. McCollum firmly put the Trail Blazers in the eighth seed for the time being with a dominating final 12 minutes.

“I knew he wasn’t going to be afraid,” Kenneth Faried said of Nurkic. “You could tell just from his demeanor when he was at practice when he played against us and he didn’t have his starting spot and wasn’t playing. You could tell that he was going to be hungry whatever team he went to. And unfortunately for us, he went to Portland and we’re fighting for a playoff spot against them. Jusuf showed out tonight and I commend him for that. He wanted this. He lived up to the moment and he performed.”

Nurkic played an exceptional game against Denver and he’s been an exceptional player since he’s arrived in Rip City on Feb. 13. With Nurkic on the court, the Trail Blazers give up just 104.1 points per 100 possessions. Compare that to their 26-ranked defense that game up 109.0 points per 100 prior to the All-Star break.

Nurkic has been great for Portland but with how his situation in Denver was progressing prior to the trade, the Bosnian never would have had that type of impact with the Nuggets this year.

In the loss, Denver’s lack of rim protection, rebounding and inability to flat-out defend stood out. The Nuggets, and mainly Gary Harris, were able to take away Damian Lillard, who only scored 19 points on 7-19 shooting in the win, but Nurkic’s ability to roll like a bowling ball down the center of Denver’s defense with little resistance will be a lasting image in Malone and the Nuggets’ minds as they look to salvage what’s left of their season.

Once Denver’s offense inexplicably moved away from Jokic in the second half, the Serbian tried to make up for his exclusion by launching four threes over the game’s final two quarters. As the Nuggets have done this year when their opponent has gone on a run, Denver turned to the three ball. Those jumpers didn’t fall as the Nuggets shot 20 of their 30 threes over the third and fourth quarters, only converting on six of them.

“They just came out and played tonight and out-played us each and every last one of us down the line, out-coached us, it was just tough,” an emotional Faried said after the loss. “They wanted it more. You could tell they were more hungry than us.”

If the Nuggets go on to miss the playoffs, there’s a lot of blame to go around in Denver that doesn’t have to do with Tuesday night. The Nuggets’ inability to win close games and close out their opponent, (Denver’s currently 13-21 in games decided by five points or less this season), stands out. As does the Nuggets’ strategy to slow play the rise of Jokic at the beginning of the season and try and pigeon hole him into the lineup as a power forward for one-and-a-half months before finally choosing to establish him as their starting center on Dec. 15.

For flashes this season, the Nuggets showed what they were capable of. A league-leading offense with Jokic at center, a team with an odd balance of rookies and vets that could get up to play the likes of Golden State and Cleveland, but stooped to the play of Philadelphia and other NBA bottom-feeders.

In the end, Denver didn’t have the offensive and defensive balance, along with the cohesion and chemistry to hang onto the eighth seed.

“They showed us what a playoff team looks like when it’s time to perform,” Will Barton said.

So where do the Nuggets go from here?

Denver still has eight games to play and Portland still has potential losses on their schedule. The Nuggets’ playoff door isn’t slammed shut, but there’s only a small ray of light peeking through with six of Denver’s last eight on the road. However, this loss in Portland comes at an awful time. It’s a tall task for Denver to put this one behind them and focus on a daunting four-game East coast trip.

When thinking about this season, it’s important to remember that Denver shouldn’t have even been in contention for the eighth seed and really fell into it by chance. If this were a typical year in the West, and the eighth seed in the conference came in at around 43 or 45 wins, the Nuggets would have been labeled as sellers before February’s trade deadline.

Maybe if Denver wasn’t chasing a playoff berth, there would have been more time to work with Nurkic, find out what wasn’t working and move past those issues. Maybe there would have been more available games to try and work Nurkic into a backup center role, one he wasn’t accepting of, and more time for Malone and his staff to regain Nurkic’s trust and get him recommitted to the common good.

But with the eighth seed available, the Nuggets, right or wrong, went into win-now mode, something that was evident with the Nurkic trade and when Denver held onto Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler at the trade deadline.

Tuesday’s loss at Portland could signal a change in direction for the Nuggets’ organization. Gallinari’s likely to opt out of his contract this summer and become an unrestricted free agent and who knows what Chandler’s future with the organization is like after the swingman voiced displeasure over his role earlier this season. The Nuggets could look a lot different come next year.

“I just feel like we gotta make a decision about who we’re gonna be,” Barton said. That’s everybody from top to bottom. Everybody. As the Denver Nuggets, we got to choose who we’re gonna be. We got to choose who we’re gonna be. We’re gonna see what we’re made of. Two disappointing losses back-to-back, and you can either quit now because things look murky, things look a little lost, but like I said we’re gonna see the Denver Nuggets as a whole. Players, coaches, everybody. Point blank.”