Per NBA insider Chris Haynes, the Jazz will be without backup center Jusuf Nurkić moving forward due to an urgent medical procedure:
I’m not a doctor, but I figure this procedure is urgent because Jusuf Nurkić is playing too well. For the Jazz, who are fighting to keep pace in a hotly contested race for draft position, every loss matters.
This leaves the Jazz with frontcourt rotations which will include Lauri Markkanen, (for now) Kyle Filipowski, Kevin Love, Oscar Tshiebwe, John “Jitty” Konchar, and Blake Hinson. The Jazz now have an opportunity to a) improve their draft position and b) Evaluate their end-of-the-bench talent before going all-in on competing next season. Kyle Filipowski has proven to be a skilled offensive player, but his defensive footwork leaves much to be desired. Can he learn to hang with upper-end NBA talent? New additions John Konchar and Blake Hinson have shown promise, but will they be part of the team’s long-term plans? The answers to these questions may be more clear after 30 games of watching them play big minutes.
Admittedly, if you had told me prior to this season that the Jazz would be Urgently Resting Nurkić for a Very Urgent Surgery, I would not have believed you. I was stuck in the past, dwelling on stuff like this:
. . . and not expecting this:
I have officially gone from “Well, I guess we had to take back salary to unload Colin Sexton” to “Wow, Nurk is a really nice backup with a cool skillset. It would be great if he re-signed here this summer.” Turns out that, sometimes, professional basketball players are really good at playing basketball, even if six-foot nothing, 5PPG-at-the-local-pickup-game guys like me think they’re washed.
Jazz coach Will Hardy has a few hours to re-work his rotations as the team prepares to take on the Houston Rockets at 7:30pm MT.