25-under-25: The best of the rest

33. Jusuf Nurkic, Portland Trail Blazers

It must be nice to play for a franchise so deep in salary cap hell that it handed over a contract which would have been nearly impossible to find on the open market.

Heading into free agency, the Portland Trail Blazers would have had every right to look Nurkic in the eye and challenge him to go find someone willing to pay him serious dollars. They drafted Zach Collins in 2017 who, while still fairly raw, showed ample evidence of being a keeper. Nurkic, it could be argued, was superfluous.

Meanwhile, the market for big men this July was somewhere between the temperature of your fridge and your freezer. Other than Nikola Jokic and Clint Capela, Nurkic was the only true center to sign for more than two guaranteed years. His annual salary also dwarfs those of other bigs on new deals like Julius Randle (two years, $17.7 million), Jerami Grant (three years, $27.3 million) and Montrezl Harrell (two years, $12 million), all of whom are in some ways better fits for the modern game.

This isn’t to say Nurkic isn’t a beast when he wants to be. Last year, he was one of four players — Joel Embiid, DeMarcus Cousins and Karl-Anthony Towns were the others — to average 19 points, 12 rebounds, two assists and a block per 36 minutes. Still, his impact wasn’t the same as when Portland first acquired him midway through 2016. Following the trade, the Blazers outscored opponents by nearly 10 points per 100 possessions when he was on the floor.

That number fell precipitously last year, which preceded a playoff sweep that saw Nurkic get played off the floor. The big man averaged just 20 minutes against Anthony Davis and the Pelicans over the series’ first three games, after which the outcome was essentially decided. To say he was ineffective is putting it kindly.

Portland has to hope there is still room for improvement. Nurkic just turned 24, but even so, it seems unlikely he’ll ever live up to the promise that once had him blocking Nikola Jokic’s path to playing time in Denver.