Is Jusuf Nurkic the greatest Trail Blazers player of all time? Yes.

The game was on the line, and Jusuf Nurkic made a play, because that’s what The Great Ones do. The 76ers were inbounding the ball with 37 seconds left in an overtime game against the Trail Blazers. Nurkic deflected the inbound pass off Richaun Holmes’ sneaker, forcing a turnover for Philadelphia. That led to cheers from his adoring fans, and another Portland score that sealed the win. It was a play that capped off a dominant night for Nurkic, succinctly captured by this Tweet by the NBA:

When the Trail Blazers traded Mason Plumlee to the Nuggets for Nurkic, NBA twitter collectively nodded and said “hm, yep, good deal for both sides” and put it to bed. But what they didn’t realize is that it wasn’t a good deal for both sides. It was a GREAT deal for ONE side. It was a great deal for Portland, because they got Jusuf Nurkic, already the greatest Trail Blazers player of all time.

Now, some of you may be saying “Hey, what about Bill Walton? What about Clyde Drexler? What about Brandon Roy? What about Damian Lillard? What about Joel Freeland?” and to that I say Consider this: No. Jusuf Nurkic is the greatest Trail Blazer of all time.

Since you all love stats — and you all LOVE stats — I’ll use stats to prove this point. Let’s go through each of the greatest Trail Blazers and knock them off one by one.

Nurkic vs Walton

What was Bill Walton known for, other than hairy armpits? Passing. Walton made basketball beautiful. A big man with post moves who was so zenly unselfish that he made the whole team unselfish. He’s responsible for Portland’s one and only NBA title. Walton ended his Portland career averaging 18.3 points, 14.4 rebounds and 4.7 assists per 36 minutes. (We’re using per 36 minutes because it’s a great equalizer and helps to prove my point, because Nurkic is only playing 29 minutes per game for Portland). Let’s compare that to Nurkic’s career in Portland.

Walton: 18.3 points, 14.4 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 1.0 steals
Nurkic: 18.4 points, 10.1 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 1.9 steals

Nurkic is averaging more assists per 36 minutes than BILL FREAKING WALTON. That thing Walton was known for? Nurkic is better at it. That’s like Nurkic out moon-walking Michael Jackson. Don’t believe me? Check the stats. They’re right there, and numbers don’t lie.

He’s also scoring more points, so it’s settled. Nurkic > Walton.

Nurkic vs Drexler

Clyde Drexler is one of the most productive players in NBA history. As such, his per game, per 36 and per 100 possession numbers are all pretty much better than Nurkic. But here’s the thing, Drexler had the ball in hands more. He took more shots. He wasn’t a ball hog, but he wasn’t the uber-Walton that Nurkic clearly is. We need to look at efficiency through their Portland careers. Let’s go to the stats. All of these are based on the percentage of plays the player was on the floor for.

Drexler: 54.5 true shooting percentage, 10.0 rebounding percentage, 25.2 assist percentage, 2.9 steal percentage, 1.2 block percentage, 25.7 usage percentage.
Nurkic: 60.2 true shooting percentage, 15.5 rebounding percentage, 22.0 assist percentage, 2.7 steal percentage, 3.6 block percentage, 23.5 usage percentage.

The numbers are all pretty close, except for the true shooting percentage. True shooting measures how efficient a player is at shooting, and Nurkic is a more efficient shooter than Clyde Drexler by nearly six percentage poitns. That gives our favorite Bosnian the edge. Nurkic > Drexler.

Nurkic vs Lillard

This might be the toughest comparison because they play such different positions. Damian Lillard a point guard, and Nurkic a center. But let’s compare the stats anyway, all per 36 for their Portland careers.

Lillard: 21.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 0.9 steals, 0.3 blocks
Nurkic: 18.4 points, 10.1 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 1.9 steals, 1.6 blocks

You can definitely tell their positions from those stats, but what if we were to measure overall impact? We could do something like, say, add all those stats together, creating an overall Impact Stat Per 36 Minutes.

Lillard: 33.0 Impact
Nurkic: 36.9 Impact

Is it scientific? Sort of. Does it prove my point? Yes. Nurkic > Lillard.

Next: Pat Connaughton remembers where he came from

So…

The Oregonian, one of the most reputable and knowing-of-Oregon-things newspapers out there, wrote an article with a headline that started with “Legend of Jusuf Nurkic grows.” Has any other Trail Blazer had such a headline written about him? I don’t know how to look up such stuff, and neither do you, so we’ll say no to that question.

The stats are overwhelming. Nurkic is already the greatest Trail Blazer of all time. And just think, they got a first-round pick in the deal, too.

All accurate as of Mar. 9, before the 76ers game because Basketball-Reference wasn’t updated at the time of this writing and updating the stats might undermine my argument.