Just how different will the Portland Trail Blazers’ defense look now that they have added big men Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins back into the mix?

“Totally different,” Nurkic told reporters Saturday.

Nurkic, who is returning from a compound leg fracture he suffered in March 2019, said he has seen time at power forward and been switching onto perimeter players during the past week of practices in the NBA bubble at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Florida.

Collins, a 6-foot-11 forward-center who is coming back from an October shoulder injury, said adding himself and the 7-foot Nurkic to a group of big men that also includes 7-footer Hassan Whiteside will give the Blazers more defensive versatility.

“We’re just going to be able to do more things defensively and have more protection at the rim,” Collins said. “We’re going to pack it in the paint, we’re going to force teams to make plays, and now we have the personnel to do that.”

The Blazers will see their first opponent since March this Thursday when they take on the Indiana Pacers in a scrimmage at 12:30 p.m. Then the Blazers will scrimmage the Toronto Raptors on Sunday and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday, July 28, before they restart the NBA season July 31 against the Memphis Grizzlies in the first of eight seeding games.

When it comes to reintegrating Nurkic and Collins, the practice time the Blazers have gotten at Disney World might be just as important as the upcoming scrimmages.

“Yes, it will be good to go against somebody else, but I think the quality of our practices really have served their purpose as far as Zach and Nurk are concerned,” coach Terry Stotts said.

Collins, Nurkic and Whiteside also are becoming more comfortable with one another’s spots on the floor and their spacing on the offensive end, Collins said.

“I think looking for each other is the biggest thing,” Collins said. “I think that high-low action, whether it’s me-Nurk, Hassan-Nurk, me and Hassan, I think that could be pretty lethal. As long as we look for each other and we communicate, I think there’s a lot of things we can do offensively as far as playing big to big. It’s going to really help us out when it comes game time.”

Meanwhile, a slimmed-down Carmelo Anthony is set to move to small forward for the Blazers after playing at power forward for most of the season. Anthony’s move isn’t just to make room for Collins and Nurkic, but also to replace Trevor Ariza, who is sitting out the NBA restart to spend time with his son.

The Blazers list Anthony at 238 pounds, but the veteran star said Friday he is now down between 230 and 235.

“Once Coach told me the position, that I’ll be switching back to the three, I kind of challenged myself to get down to that weight where I feel comfortable with playing the three,” Anthony said, adding: “That was also a big motivation for me, to come back at that exact weight or around that weight — 230, 235. Something that, I haven’t seen 230, 235, since early, early in my career.”