Nurkic sticking with Blazers on 4-year, $70M deal

Free-agent center Jusuf Nurkic has agreed to a four-year, $70 million deal to stay with the Portland Trail Blazers, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Friday.

The Trail Blazers are also re-signing Drew Eubanks to a one-year contract, his agent, James Dunleavy of Excel Basketball, told Wojnarowski.

Nurkic played 56 games last season for Portland, averaging 15.0 points and 11.1 rebounds per game, after ankle and wrist injuries limited him to a combined 45 games over the prior two seasons.

A 27-year-old Bosnian big man, Nurkic has been an integral part of the Trail Blazers’ repeated trips to the NBA playoffs since being traded to Portland by the Denver Nuggets in 2017.

Now, Portland will be counting on him to continue in that role as the team begins to transition into a new era thanks to the emergence of promising young guard Anfernee Simons, who has supplanted CJ McCollum as franchise icon Damian Lillard’s backcourt mate with the Trail Blazers.

Nurkic has struggled to stay on the court in recent seasons but, when healthy, has been an extremely productive player. He has averaged 14.6 points, 9.9 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1 steal and 1.3 blocks in 27.1 minutes per game since joining the Trail Blazers.

Eubanks, 25, averaged 14.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in 22 games for the Trail Blazers after joining the team in February — a spike in production from the 4.6 points and 3.8 rebounds he averaged over three and a half seasons with the San Antonio Spurs.

ESPN’s Tim Bontemps contributed to this report.

Source: Read Full Article