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BALLER MOVE: Add in all leagues
OWNED: 41% of Yahoo! Fantasy Basketball Leagues
ANALYSIS: As most of us already know, the Denver Nuggets recently dealt starting center Timofey Mozgov and one man that has undoubtedly benefited from this deal is rookie center Jusuf Nurkic. The Bosnian giant has been given a great opportunity to prove himself now that Mozgov is gone and Javale McGee is out with a leg injury. Nurkic recently took over the starting center position and has done all he can to show Brian Shaw what his potential truly is. Over the last five games, Nurkic is averaging 11.2 Points, 7.4 Rebounds, 3.2 Blocks, 1.4 Steals, and 52.1 FG%. What is surprising is how most of these past 5 games have been against an opposition with a quality frontcourt such as: Dallas, Sacramento, Orlando, and Memphis.
Nurkic is a rebounding and blocking specialist. He posts extremely efficient rebounding numbers ranking 13th in the NBA in Defensive Rebounds Per 36 Minutes (9.8), and 17th in the league in Total Rebounds Per 36 Minutes (13.0). The Bosnian is also 8th in Blocks Per 36 Minutes (3.2), and 7th in Block Percentage (7.0%). Nurkic’s efficiency can also be highlighted by his solid 19.2 PER. A slight problem that some owners might worry about with Nurkic is that he has the occasional tendency to get in foul trouble. However, since he’s a rookie and just got the starting center job, Nurkic is still adjusting to playing significant minutes over the course of an NBA game. This isn’t too serious of a problem, and Nurkic will adjust to this problem quickly.
Nurkic is an extremely viable long-term option for basically all owners. The Bosnian center just got a starting job, and is already putting up terrific numbers right off the bat which can only get better from here on out. Owners should expect something along the lines of Top-80 or maybe even Top-70 value for the rest of the season.
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