Former Nuggets star suddenly receives a GOLDEN opportunity, about to change the NBA landscape!

The NBA has reached a bit of a dead season as summer league is over, and we wait for preseason to begin, but this year we get treated to some quality hoops in between in the form of EuroBasket 2025. This year’s tournament for European supremacy features plenty of NBA talent, highlighted by the Nuggets’ own Nikola Jokic, who leads the heavy favorites from Team Serbia.

But the tournament also provides a great opportunity for former Nugget Jusuf Nurkic to prove himself after a rough few seasons in the NBA. Nurkic is Bosnian-born and will be representing Bosnia and Herzegovina as their only player from the league.

Nurk was acquired on draft night by the Nuggets in 2014 and had several solid seasons with the team before being traded, mostly to make way for another promising young European center in Jokic. That obviously proved to be the right move and then some, but Nurk has been no slouch himself.

He carved out a nice career with the Blazers and was one of the main pieces on a team that made consistent playoff runs with Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. But as that team broke up, Nurkic was dealt to the Suns, joining Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal. But that team quickly fizzled out, and Phoenix soured on the Bosnian Beast, dumping him to the Hornets.

After wasting away for half a season in Charlotte, Nurkic was involved in another bizarre trade that sent him to another rebuilding team in Utah. The Jazz have no real use for Nurkic as they’re trying to create minutes for their young bigs. As of now, it doesn’t seem like there is any market for Jusuf, and it doesn’t seem like contending teams think the 30-year-old can help them.

Nurkic could create an NBA market with strong showing in EuroBasket

The Bosnian team enters the tournaments as big underdogs, but it’s a great chance for Nurkic to be the focal point and show that he can still play at the highest level. He’s set to make $19.4 million this season, but his deal is expiring, and the center market is currently pretty dire.

If he’s able to dominate this highly competitive international tournament, there could be an NBA team that decides he’s worth trading for. Crazier things have certainly happened. It only takes one desperate team that decides they need a center badly enough to trade for him, and Utah would likely be happy to part with him.

Right now, the league doesn’t think there is much tread left on those tires, but that can change quickly. At his age, there’s still plenty of hope for a resurgence and a fun second act to his NBA career.