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Portland Trail Blazers C Jusuf Nurkic is expected to make his season debut on March 15 vs. the Houston Rockets, Yahoo Sports’ Chris B. Haynes reported Friday afternoon. Nurkic has been sidelined for almost a year after suffering a bad broken leg last season. The Blazers have been dying for some size, so getting Nurkic back in the rotation will be big. The question is: Who goes to the bench? Let’s take a look.
BREAKING NEWS: Nearly a year after gruesome leg injury, Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic tells Yahoo Sports he will make his season debut March 15 against the Houston Rockets: “It’s time.” https://t.co/ZkfIXYLI8Y pic.twitter.com/COUjpPGG9o
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) March 6, 2020
With Nurkic back, he actually could make sense coming off the bench. It depends if the Blazers feel comfortable running both Nurk and Hassan Whiteside in the starting lineup at PF and C. Carmelo Anthony makes more sense as a 3 anyway, but he’s been playing more PF with Portland. Trevor Ariza will likely head back to the bench if that’s the course the Blazers take. We could see a few different looks until Nurkic works his way back, so my thinking is he’ll start coming off the bench.