Four games into the Portland Trail Blazers’ season, and already one glaring defensive deficiency is rearing its ugly head: Jusuf Nurkic‘s ability to guard against the pick-and-pop.
Nurkic’s assignment is often the screening man, and he likes to drop away from him to contain the opposing ball-handler around or below the free throw line. While this usually works fine when the screening man rolls to the basket as Nurkic’s length allows him to disrupt this action, when the screener pops to the three-point line, the Bosnian Beast is left in no man’s land.
The bad communication on defense continues as Vucevic, a capable three-point shooter, is left open on the perimeter pic.