The accusations I'm talking about pre-date the tanking and the Dame trade. It was a recurring story on the Portland forum I read after the initial 'fall in love with Nurkic' grace period. Maybe it was nothing more than several disgruntled fans taking shots at players when things didn't work out but they were almost the exact complaints about mailing it in that were aired about him in Denver. He'd miss games with questionable illnesses/injuries and when he played he'd frequently give half-hearted effort. Not too much different from the complaints we had about DA.
That's fair. I know when the trade went down almost all of the talk from Portland fans was how he's a good soldier with questionable health/conditioning. It can be difficult to gauge a players value to a fan base when they're being shopped or right after a trade though because a lot of fans get rose colored glasses and don't like to see someone go or they get hyper focused on the negatives of that player. I've seen it some with Okogie, not here but on X, where he's been called a ball hog who derails the offense which is a weird complaint.
Appreciate the added detail though. I think Nurkic has become this seasons Vogel. He's not the primary issue but he isn't without blame. The number of people pointing at Nurk as the cause to the Suns woes is surprising. The volume of the complaints have drown out most other critiques and that's where I take issue with him being scapegoated. I say that also as a vocal critic of Vogel and recognize how wrong I was to lay as much blame on him as I did. This team is flawed in many ways beyond starting C, head coach, point guard, or bench rotation.
