Jusuf Nurkic on Foul Troubles: ‘There’s still a lot of room to grow’

Jusuf Nurkic brings a certain edge and aggressiveness to Portland Trail Blazers’ offense and defense that is needed. However, sometimes this spark gets him in foul trouble, and that can work to keep Nurkic more subdued when the Blazers need him most. Jamie Hudson of NBC Sports Northwest talked to Nurkic about his foul troubles that are a work in progress:

The Trail Blazers center spends day after day watching film to review his fouls, whether it’s a foul at the rim or a moving screen. He has also spent time with former referee Don Vaden trying to figure out how he can avoid getting into foul trouble.

“There’s still a lot of room to grow,” Nurkic said.

Head coach Terry Stotts highlighted how Nurkic’s foul troubles can affect the team:

“Nurk’s just like any player that gets in foul trouble… It probably affects how they play, it affects when you have a good player that you rely on every night, not be able to be on the court for as much as you want, it affects the team,” Stotts added.

And Damian Lillard noted the inconsistency that he feels on Nurkic’s foul calls:

“A lot of the calls that he gets called for sometimes in the paint and at the rim, the same thing happens to him, it just doesn’t get called, so you don’t want to tell him don’t do this or don’t do that and take away his aggressiveness, because there’s a good chance it won’t be called,” Lillard said.

You can read more from Hudson’s piece here.