Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic was supposed to make his season debut on Sunday against the Houston Rockets.
However, because of the coronavirus suspension, the Bosnian Beast has to wait, again.
Man I supposed to play tomorrow 🤯 was super excited 🤩 but… #nurkfever #TheReturn #BeSafeOutThere pic.twitter.com/kdLJQVjFQo
— Jusuf Nurkić (@bosnianbeast27) March 14, 2020
Nurkic rehabbed his horrific leg injury and was ready to come back for the Blazers during the stretch run of the season. Now, we may not see Nurk and Portland until 2020-21.
The 25-year-old big man had a solid regular season for the Blazers in 2018-19 before he got hurt against the Brooklyn Nets at home. The skilled 7-footer averaged 15.6 points, 10.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.4 blocks while shooting 50.8 percent from the field and 77.3 percent from the free-throw line last season.
Nurkic had 36 double-doubles and one triple-double in 2018-19. The Blazers were a completely different team with Jusuf in the lineup, as they went 45-27 when Nurkic played.
The NBA will be on hold for at least 30 days, but everyone within the league is aware it will likely be much longer than that. If the season resumes, the Blazers will be in ninth place in the Western Conference standings. The club has seen an up-and-down season following a trip to the Western Conference Finals in the 2019 playoffs.
Portland got swept by the Golden State Warriors in the 2019 WCF. Had Nurkic played, though, many believe the Blazers could have possibly won the series and advanced to the Finals.
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