The whirlwind that was Jusuf Nurkic’s arrival with the Portland Trail Blazers six years ago breathed a renewed sense of excitement into a franchise that was, at the time, 18 months into a rebuild. The seven-footer was the Denver Nuggets’ second choice at center following the rise of fellow Balkan dweller Nikola Jokic. Portland pried him away from Denver, along with a 2017 first-round draft pick, for center Mason Plumlee.
The accepted theory at the time was that Nurkic wasn’t even the priority in the February, 2017 deal. The pick itself was initially considered the prize.