After months of rumblings, the Denver Nuggets have reportedly made a move in the trade market. Sunday, Denver traded reserve big man Jusuf Nurkic and 2017 first-round draft pick to the Portland Trail Blazers for Mason Plumlee, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical.
Plumlee, 26, has started 54 games for the Blazers this year at center. He will presumably be brought in as Denver's backup center behind Nikola Jokic. Plumlee is averaging 11.1 points (53.2 percent shooting), 8.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists in 28.1 minutes per game this season. He's in his fourth NBA season out of Duke.
Nurkic is a third-year player the Nuggets got in a draft-day trade with the Chicago Bulls in 2014. He was the team's starting center to begin the year, but playing games alongside Jokic proved ineffective, and he was later moved into a bench role. There should be more opportunity for playing time in Portland for him. He posted this on InstaGram on Sunday afternoon.
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