Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkiu0107 is a fun-loving, gregarious fellow, so much so that sometimes it’s can be hard to tell when he’s making a joke. But when the 7-0 center from Bosnian & Herzegovina declared after a recent practice that one of his goals is to make the NBA’s All-Defensive First Team, there was no doubt about how serious he is about the aspiration.
“I want to be first-team defense because I think people overlook a lot of things,” said Nurkiu0107. “That’s why I’m going to probably be even more aggressive on defense this year. There’s going to be times it’s not going to look like it but I definitely approach the game defensively more aggressive this year.