Jusuf Nurkic: 'I Was Told No One Would be Traded' From Blazers
The Trail Blazers' controversial coaching search is finally finished. Chauncey Billups will be publicly introduced as Portland's next head coach at a press conference on Tuesday.
Unfortunately for Billups, though, it seems more and more likely that he'll be tasked with lifting the Blazers to legitimate championship contention absent any major roster moves.
During an interview in his native Bosnia on Monday, Jusuf Nurkic insisted he'd been told by management that the only significant change coming in Portland this offseason would be on the sidelines.
*Nurkic's comments were translated into English by Katie Misic of alugy.com.
“In the last game of the season, I said that change must happen. In four years, we only had one West final, which is relatively poor score for a team like Portland. There are people above you to decide who will stay and who to bring, because the NBA is the biggest business there is," he said.
“As far as I am concerned, I was told that no one would be traded and that only the coach would change,”
Distressing as it is for Blazers fans to cope with the likelihood of roster status quo heading into next season, it's not exactly surprising.
Olshey made clear during his season-ending press conference in early June that Portland's next coach would have to turn around the Blazers' porous defense with largely incumbent personnel.
"At least they know what they're dealing with for the most part in terms of how do they get this group to get to another level on the defensive end of the floor," he said of prospective coaching candidates. "And that will clearly be critical in anybody advancing in the process, is they're gonna have to prove they're gonna have the ability to do that – in much the same way some of the coaching hires from last summer were able to do it – without a lot of personnel changes."
There was rampant speculation that the Blazers might trade C.J. McCollum even before Ben Simmons potentially became available.
After the Philadelphia 76ers were eliminated from the playoffs, the league's most talked-about hypothetical trade revolved around McCollum and Simmons. Betting markets even list the Blazers as Philadelphia's most likely trade partner for this season's Defensive Player of the Year runner-up.
Apart from a prospective McCollum trade, Portland's most crucial piece of pressing offseason business is re-signing Norman Powell. Due to the team's salary cap crunch, Powell walking in free agency would limit the Blazers' means of replacing him to the mid-level exception—approximately half of the near $20 million annual deal he's expected to command.
Nurkic also responded to reports about Damian Lillard's discontent with the organization in wake of another playoff flameout and criticism about Billups' hiring. If Dame ever leaves Rip City, Nurkic made clear, be'd be gone, too.
“I don’t know what has changed with Lillard in these two days. As far as I know, the man stays there, but if he goes, then I leave Portland as well. My opinion is that it would be stupid to let such a loyal man as Lillard go," he said.
[Katy Misic, Alugy] [h/t Eric Griffith]