Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic will play his first game under his new four-year, $48 million contract against the Lakers on Thursday. Nurkic earned that deal with hard work, defensive acumen, and continued work through a turbulent 2017-18 campaign. Even after a strong start to his tenure in Portland, questions still linger from his disgruntled days in Denver. From attitude to injuries, the big fella left plenty of skeletons in the closet from his time with the Nuggets.
Simply put, should the Blazers be worried about a post-payday hangover from Nurkic?