Raptors’ Nurse zones in on options for Gasol
As debuts go, it was rather ordinary. Marc Gasol got his feet wet, learned things about his teammates and fit in rather seamlessly to what the Toronto Raptors do.
Head coach Nick Nurse and his staff have 24 games to get Gasol and whoever arrives via the buyout market comfortable. Nurse does not foresee problems with that kind of timeline.
“I don’t think we have to hurry up anything,” Nurse said. “But I think as you guys know I’m fairly experimental. I probably will continue to experiment in a little quicker mode right now.
“I want to see what certain coverages look like, I want to see what the blitzing looks like, I want to see what his low-post defence looks like. I want to see maybe what the zone looks like a little bit more because I could see us maybe using that. And then I want to add some things offensively that I think fit him and will really add a big plus to our offence.
“I think he can get us going downhill more because he can relieve some pressure, but I don’t know that for sure yet.”
It’s sort of been the Raptors’ not-so-secret weapon of late: The team gets into a rut, the opponent is getting too many easy looks and Nurse calls for a zone defence from the bench.
Almost invariably it flips the game.
Not always the whole game, but for a few minutes anyway.
In a zone defence the Raptors abandon man-toman defence and spread their five defenders over basically two lines. The Raptors’ current version is a 3-2 with three defenders on the perimeter and two behind them in pretty much parallel lines
Suddenly the communication level among the Raptors on the floor — something Kawhi Leonard pointed out following a win in Dallas when the zone got the Raptors back in charge for the six consecutive possessions they played it — is heightened.
It’s no longer just one voice (usually the centre) back there directing traffic, now it’s constant chatter from that back line shouting out the impending screens and switches necessary to keep the ball in front of the defence.
The Raptors didn’t really need to employ the zone against a Knicks team that is losing a lot of games, bolstering its draft position. But the zone made appearances for moments on Saturday, ostensibly to get newcomer Gasol comfortable in it.
Nurse isn’t counting on expanding the use of it going forward either.
“I can see it possibly,” Nurse said refusing to tip his hand. “If it’s experimental mode, I could see maybe changing the formation of it to give it two different looks. It’s not rocket science, man. Right now we’ve started in a 3-2 and we might be able to go to a 2-3. We might, I don’t know.”
You can certainly overplay a zone, going to it too often, but the way the Raptors have been utilizing it these days, it’s been a huge benefit.
With Gasol in the fold and a few more tweaks to it make it less predictable, meaning it should only get better.