Nuggets center Jusuf Nurkic battles for the ball with Celtics guard Evan Turner in a game earlier this season. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Nuggets center Jusuf Nurkic knows the time for voicing concern and frustration has passed. At least for the time being. Right now, he know he’s got to take advantage of the opportunities he’s given.
“I’m feeling good,” Nurkic said. “I just want to finish the last 13, 14 games of the season and we’ll see what happens. Just be a pro, and that’s it.”
In the last two games, Nurkic has been back on the court. And he’s played well with averages of 10 points, five rebounds, one block and one steal in those games while shooting 40 percent from the field. Of most importance to coach Michael Malone is the team has been in positive territory when the second-year center has been on the court. Never is that better illustrated than in the team’s defensive rating in the 52 minutes he’s been off the court in those games (121.6) as opposed to the 44 minutes he’s been on the court (92.7) — nearly a 30-point difference per 100 possessions.
And for a Nuggets team that is in continual search of a consistent defense-first identity, those numbers are hard to ignore.
But it has also been hard to ignore the shaky state of Nurkic’s health. His surgically-repaired left knee has never fully been healthy, and it is reasonable to expect that it should have been now closing in on a year after the procedure to fix a partially-torn patellar tendon.
Soreness had persisted. An inability to practice fully all the time has persisted as well. Nurkic isn’t worried about it, not too much anyway. He just wants to be out on the court. His 25 minutes at Atlanta last Thursday marked just the third time all season long he’s played more than 20 minutes in a game. He followed that up with 18 minutes in the Nuggets’ win over Charlotte on Saturday afternoon.
Jusuf, a second-team all-rookie selection last year, has had to show to Malone, who hadn’t seen him play until this year, the effectiveness he put on display for much of last season. But due to injury rehab and a front-court log-jam, that’s been difficult for him to do. Asked if he feels pressure to prove his worth each time he steps on court, Nurkic shook his head.
“I don’t need to show. I show everything that I have,” he said. “I’m just trying to help my team to win. I do what I need to do, and just go out and have fun.”
Asked about how difficult it has been to sit and watch more than play — he’s only played in 23 games; the Nuggets are 11-12 in those contests — he said, “That’s not a question for me. I can’t control this stuff. When I hear my name I go in. I haven’t hear it a lot this season for some reason but I will be a professional until the end and try to finish the season the right way.”
Follow Chris Dempsey on Twitter @dempseypost or email him at cdempsey@denverpost.com
