Jusuf Nurkic’s 2015-16 season was one big tug-of-war between emotions and reality.
And it was a Wrestlemania-type battle.
Nurkic’s problems began a calendar year ago. The young Nuggets center had already been diagnosed with a partially torn left patellar tendon that required surgery. That surgery and rehab kept Nurkic, who made second-team all-rookie for the season that had just ended, on the shelf for eight months.
And that, basically, was that.
He struggled initially upon his return to get fully healthy and in playing shape. The summer in which he was supposed to work on his game was lost to rehab and Nurkic was forced to try to find his way after a quarter of the season was already over.
Nurkic grew frustrated with his role. Nuggets coach Michael Malone labored to find the big man consistent playing time until the end of the season. The season, in a lot of ways, was a mess.
Nurkic ended up playing 32 games and averaging 8.2 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in 17.1 minutes.
Toward the end of the season, there was an uptick in Nurkic’s play as well as an increase in his minutes. In his last 12 games Nurkic averaged 11.9 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.0 blocks and 1.2 steals. When Nurkic played at least 20 minutes, which happened nine times, he averaged 14.1 points, 8.2 rebounds, 2.2 blocks and had four double-doubles. The Nuggets were 3-1 when he had a double-double.
Offense. In the post, Nurkic has work to do after this season, where he shot just 34.7 percent and averaged 0.67 points per possession on post-ups. He was in post-up situations in 31.9 percent of all of his offensive possessions.
Nurkic had weird splits within his post-ups, 66 percent of which came on the left block. He shot just 17-of-52 going over his left shoulder from that spot. In other words in taking the right-handed hook shots that made up the majority of those attempts, Nurkic shot 32 percent.
Meanwhile, he shot much better going over his right shoulder on the left block. Nurkic was 46 percent in those circumstances, though there were just 13 of them.
These were the issues: Over the left shoulder, his footwork wasn’t together consistently enough, so he rarely had a good base to go up strong with the shot. It didn’t help that some of the entry passes were bad and had to be caught well away from the block, forcing him to have to dribble three or four times to get back to the paint.
Sometimes he overran the rim and had to put the hook shot up a little bit backwards to get it there, which obviously raises the degree of difficulty on an otherwise short shot. Other times he just didn’t go up strong enough. And other times he just needed to concentrate more on making the shot.
When Nurkic had his legs under him, he was pretty much unstoppable. Strangely enough, that happened most when he turned over his right shoulder and put up a hook with his left hand, his weaker hand. But in those instances, he slowed down, gathered himself, and made strong moves to the basket. He’ll have to incorporate that patience and focus on his right-handed hooks.
A summer of work will do wonders for him in this area.
Nurkic’s second-most used play was pick-and-roll. His screens, even if not set well, still were effective because he was so big the defender had trouble getting around him. The key to his scoring success hinged on where he caught the ball. He had a tendency to flip up a shot that missed if the pass came early. If he was allowed to get deeper into the paint before the catch, he scored the majority of the time. Nurkic shot 51 percent overall in pick-and-roll plays.
Defense/turnovers. How important is Nurkic to the Nuggets’ defense? He was the only player to average more than a block per game. And on a team where every player had a negative plus-minus, his was closest to zero.
But the Nuggets’ defensive rating with him on the court as opposed to off the court was only one point better. Opponents shot a pretty healthy 47 percent against him.
Much of this had to do with him working his way back from the knee injury, and not being effective while there was still pain and while he was still working his way back into shape. Nurkic averaged 1.7 turnovers per game.
In so many ways this was a lost season for Nurkic because of the knee surgery. With a clean bill of health, he’ll get back in the gym this summer and be ready to hit the ground running when training camp begins in the fall.
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or @chrisadempsey
