Nurk Fever took Portland by storm at the end of last year. In 20 games with his new team, Jusuf Nurkic averaged 15.2 points, 10.4 rebounds, 1.3 steals, 1.9 blocks in 29.2 minutes.
Mason Plumlee wasn’t the rim defender needed to compensate for Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum‘s subpar defense (at the time – don’t worry, they’ve got it down now).
Before the All-Star break, the Blazers had a defensive rating of 109.0, fifth worst in the NBA. Swapping Plumlee and Nurkic improved the defensive rating to 105.