In the wake of the NBA draft last June, few could have imagined that a significant chunk of the Nuggets fan base would, at the onset of the 2014-15 season, be more excited about Denver’s largely unkown 16th pick from Bosnia than the return of Danilo Gallinari.
Yet here we are.
Right out of the gates, Jusuf Nurkic endeared himself to Nuggets fans with his feisty, pesky defense, his surprisingly adept aptitude for passing, and his ability to score in the low post. Given Nurkic’s highly impressive preseason performance, it would be all too easy to fall into hyperbole at this infantile point in his career (Arvydas Sabonis comparisons, anyone?). Yet he’s given us too much evidence to chew on to dismiss visions of a beastly and glorious future as mere delusion.
We can’t say yet for sure. Eight games is a miniscule sample size, and basing any analysis on the preseason is bound to get you in trouble.
But still. Man. Come on. This dude is ridiculous already. And he’s only 20.
Full disclosure: I had been meaning to go into some deep analysis on this post, but putting the video together (and other life-related things) took too much time. So in order to get this out to you before the Nuggets’ first regular season game, my comments will necessarily be brief. And so I leave it to you, trusted RMC readers and commenters, to fill in the blanks.
With that, here are 30 of Nurkic’s more impressive defensive and passing plays from the preseason, with some observations below:
Some general observations:
Going multiple times through the three games I clipped from, and watching these plays and others over and over again, the aspect of Nurkic’s game which emerged to me as the most impressive is his keen court awareness and high basketball IQ. His feel and instinct for the game are just spot on. Even when a pass is errant (as the one which assisted Nate’s crazy long 3-pointer), the split-second decision making usually is the correct basketball play. Although his execution may still be as spotty as could be expected from a rookie project big man, his choices – even at the speed of the NBA game – are usually on the money. So far, he has looked like a veteran more often than might have been expected, but perhaps this shouldn’t surprise us so much given that he’s already been playing professional ball for two years..
Jusuf clearly knows exactly where his teammates are, where the defense is, and where the cutting and passing lanes are. It might not even be too much of an exaggeration to say that he’s more advanced in this area at age 20 than any of his more veteran big man teammates, with the possible exception of Darrell Arthur. I referenced Sabonis earlier, and while it’s obviously too soon to make such a grandiose projection, the similarities in his little no-look over-the-shoulder passes, his nearly instantaneous touch passes and his court vision and awareness do seem to beg the comparison, at least in principle. We can check back in a couple of months to see if he can extend this distributive prowess into the regular season, but if he can, he’ll almost certainly emerge as Denver’s best passing big man.
“…for his size.” “…for his position.” Get used to opposing teams’ announcers uttering these phrases in reference to Nurkic. Defensively what impresses me most from what I’ve seen so far is his lateral quickness, his ability to stay in front of his man, to play defense with his feet rather than his hands. We might easily brush off anything accomplished in the preseason as “not counting.” But Nurkic was at times (and to varying extents) successfully defending one-on-one the likes of Blake Griffin, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Chris Paul. Yes, let’s keep things in check and remember that an eight-game sample size might not mean much. But still, he consistently either covered his assignment or switched onto a guard and did a very solid job of denying penetration to the basket, chasing 3-point shooters off the arc, deflecting mid- and long-range jumpers, and forcing opponents operating from the low post into taking bad, awkward shots. Once again, the hyperbole caveat applies. But once again Nurkic is making us ask the question: Is he Denver’s best big man defender already, both in the paint and on the perimeter?
I may be jumping the gun. All of us who Nurkic is making converts of may be jumping the gun. But damn it, he’s just making the temptation to believe that he’s already NBA-ready and has unlimited upside practically irresistible.
We shall see. But no matter what happens, Jusuf Nurkic has located himself front and center of reasons for Nuggets fans to be excited for the 2014-15 season. Let the games begin.
