Jusuf Nurkic is the Denver Nuggets present and future at center and they are extremely high on the 21 year old. Nurkic was great as a rookie and the Nuggets expect him to develop even more this season and become a force to be reckoned with. Nurkic will not be ready for the start of the regular season as he is recovering from surgery in his left patellar tendon that he had in May. Nurkic is reportedly ahead of schedule and could be back sometime in November though, according to Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post.
Head coach Mike Malone is unsure of a specific timetable for Nurkic's return but he says that from what he's seen he looks good and he hopes to have him back as soon as possible.
"From all reports I get from my training staff, he's ahead of schedule. Every time I see him working with our strength coaches and our player development coaches, he looks great. I'm going to say right now, maybe sometime in November. But, again, that's not my expertise. I just take the reports that they give me. I know he's progressing well, he's working very hard and he is ahead of schedule," said Malone.
Nurkic is a 6 foot-11 center out of Bosnia and Herzegovina that was drafted with the 16th overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls before being shipped to Denver in a draft day deal. Nurkic played in 62 games as a rookie (27 starts) and was extremely productive as he averaged 13.9 points, 12.5 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per 36 minutes. Nurkic is at his best on the defensive side of the ball but he is also a great rebounder and his offensive game seems to be making strides as well.
While Nurkic is out the Nuggets are expected to go with Joffrey Lauvergne as their starting center with Nikola Jokic being his backup. Jokic has looked very good this preseason so the Nuggets should be able to stay afloat while Nurkic is out but they still want him back as fast as possible because he is the best of the three centers. Malone said that he doesn't necessarily think Jokic is ready just yet to play in the NBA but he has shown in practice that he has a shot to be a really good player.