Slimmed-down Jusuf Nurkić anticipates career year in 2nd season with Suns

Slimmed-down Jusuf Nurkić anticipates career year in 2nd season with Suns

Phoenix Suns starting center Jusuf Nurkić meets with the media at Suns media day ahead of the 2024-25 season.

The Suns acquired the 30-year-old Nurkić from the Portland Trail Blazers on Sept. 27 last year, in a deal where they sent out Deandre Ayton and Toumani Camara and also received Nassir Little and Grayson Allen. Nurkić had the best plus/minus on the Suns in his first season at +5.3 and had multiple games of 20-plus rebounds, but fans grew frustrated with his inconsistent finishing around the rim (ranked in the 54th percentile in field goal percentage at the rim). Across 76 games played (all starts), the 7-footer averaged 10.9 points, 11.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.1 blocks in 27.3 minutes per game.

This offseason, fans saw a slimmer Nurkić on social media and he showed off his new look publicly at media day. With a new coach in Mike Budenholzer, who is known to like stretch big men, there is a lot of speculation if Nurkić could take on more of a 3-point shooting role with Phoenix this season.  Nurkić only shot 24.4% from deep on 1.2 attempts per game in his first season with Phoenix, but did shoot 36.1% from 3 with the Trail Blazers in the 2022-23 season on 2.3 attempts per game.

See what Nurkić has to say about this and more. He discusses working on his 3-point shooting this summer, slimming down this offseason, why he stopped taking 3-pointers last season, improving defensively, what he’s learned about Budenholzer and how much more comfortable he is being with the Suns for the second season.

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