The swell of praise for the Portland Trail Blazers’ impressive start to the season is continuing. Adam Fromal of Bleacher Report hands Portland only one of his four A+ grades for the first month of the season, thanks to the Damian Lillard and Jusuf Nurkic pairing.
For Nurkic, averaging a double-double right now with 15.2 points and 10.9 rebounds, he’s earning the extension he signed this summer:
Jusuf Nurkic still has some areas for improvement—tunnel vision with the ball and the occasional foul trouble chief among them—but his game has grown on both ends of the floor.