Out of the blue, in Tuesday’s pregame news conference, Nuggets coach Michael Malone dropped the piece of news fans have been not-so-patiently waiting for.
The return of center Jusuf Nurkic is at hand.
Nurkic, the second-year Nuggets center, is targeting Saturday as his season debut, at Golden State.
“I hope so,” Nurkic said. “I’ll try my best.”
Nurkic was cleared for contact practices Dec. 17. He has missed the entire season while rehabbing a torn left patellar tendon. Nurkic had surgery on the knee in May. The plan is to get Nurkic through Friday’s practice, and if all is well, then he’ll play on a minutes restriction the next night.
“The brief stints that he’s had in practice and in shootaround, it’s tough to tell is he ready yet, is he in the type of conditioning and shape that you need to be in to play a game, especially against the best team in the world?” Malone said. “You just don’t want to throw a guy out there and say he’s back. So we’ll have a practice to see if he’s ready to go, and if he is we’ll put him out there and monitor his minutes.”
That’s likely to be 15 minutes or so to start out. It has been a long haul for Nurkic, who hasn’t played in an NBA game in eight months. As a rookie, he was one of the Nuggets’ best defenders, a bona fide rim protector who averaged 6.9 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game in his rookie season.
“I can’t wait,” Nurkic said. “I don’t want to hurry, but I really can’t wait to play. It’s just too long.”
LeBron vs. Steph. Malone is one of the few who can say he has coached both LeBron James and Stephen Curry.
But Malone is in no hurry to say one player is better than the other.
“They are both great players,” Malone said. “Stephen Curry is the best shooter in the world and has kind of changed the way the game is being played. LeBron James is a completely different animal. Not the shooting, but the playmaking, his size, his athleticism. He’s been the best player in the NBA for close to a decade now. So I’m not going to say one is better than the other.” Christopher Dempsey, The Denver Post
