Jusuf Nurkic has had an eventful start to a career as a Portland Trail Blazers center, to say the least. He came into the league with the Denver Nuggets before being traded to the Blazers after two-and-a-half seasons in the Mile-High City.

A lot has been speculated about what went wrong during Nurkic's stint in Denver. While there were a number of reasons that attributed to his departure, it is clear that it had a lot to do with Nuggets head coach Michael Malone, according to Gina Mizell of the Denver Post:

As for Michael Malone? Nurkic said “there’s no relationship” between him and his former coach. Malone has also been short when asked about Nurkic, countering a November question on if he was looking forward to the first Jokic-Nurkic matchup of the season with “I’m looking forward to a great game against Portland.”

Prior to Portland's matchup with Denver on Monday, Nurkic exchanged pleasantries with most of his former teammates and associates. Needless to say, Malone was the odd man out in this situation.

Unfortunately, Nurkic was unable to get the better of his old team this time around after losing a 104-101 nail-biter. However, he did manage to put up a strong performance with 19 points and 12 rebounds. He was formidable on the defensive end as well with three blocks and two steals.

Nurkic has been well-received by the Portland fan base since coming over midway through last season. However, his inconsistent play has left many to wonder whether he will be their franchise big man moving forward. Still, Nurkic has maintained that he is happy with how things have played out thus far in his career.