The Portland Trail Blazers seem poised to commit an open rebellion against small ball in the Orlando bubble.
Blazers coach Terry Stotts told reporters on Wednesday that seven-footer tandem Jusuf Nurkic and Hassan Whiteside will play together in the team’s upcoming scrimmage against the Indiana Pacers.
“There’s no question you’ll see it,” said Stotts, per team radio host Jay Allen.
Nurkic, who has not played all season due to his March 2019 leg fracture, is now set to return in Orlando and has recently gotten high praise from Stotts. Whiteside, meanwhile, was acquired over the summer as a fill-in and had been the Blazers’ regular starting center prior to the suspension of play.
Nurkic and Whiteside are both fairly immobile and have only hit a combined 11 three-pointers (three for Nurkic, eight for Whiteside) in their entire NBA careers, so it may not be a sustainable heavy-minute pairing. Still, Portland has been tweaking their lineup accordingly, and a Nurkic-Whiteside front line could offer them good situational bursts of interior D and rebounding.
