Rumor: Did Jusuf Nurkic Know Blazers Would Re-Sign Him Months Ago?

Last season for Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic did not go as he anticipated.

Nurkic, who turns 28 in August, was looking to put up the best numbers of his career and hope that his efforts would reward him a massive payday in the offseason.

However, injuries got the best of him and limited him to 56 games, including the final 23 where the Blazers were out of playoff contention.

Due to Damian Lillard’s injury, the Blazers never sniffed the playoffs in the second half of the year, prompting the team to trade CJ McCollum, Norman Powell and Robert Covington among others at the Trade Deadline in February.

Nurkic played in just three games after the deadline, but according to Rose Garden Report’s Sean Highkin, Nurkic wanted to return to the court after his plantar fasciitis had healed. But the Blazers, who were looking to improve their draft positioning, wanted to sit and rest players who were important to their core long-term.

For a player without a contract for the following season, this could be concerning. Having a player come off a foot injury could be risky for a team to sign. However, Nurkic agreed and now faces unrestricted free agency this summer. However, reports say that the Blazers are likely going to re-sign the Bosnian big man

But would Nurkic have agreed to it if he didn’t know the Blazers were going to re-sign him? That’s up in the air, and we can speculate to believe that is true, false or somewhere in between.