Fast break from NBA tradition
Nurse rotating four players through two spots in the starting five in each Raptors game
TORONTO — The willingness of Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse to deviate from accepted NBA practice and mix and match his team’s starting lineup depending on what he sees as advantageous matchups is being noticed around the league.
And the coach and his players are being lauded for accepting it so well.
“I tell you, it does say something about your team when you can do that, and it’s a positive statement,” Doc Rivers of the Los Angeles Clippers said earlier this week. “If you have a group of guys, eight or nine even, that are willing to do that and there’s no problems with it, it tells you that your team is together.”
Nurse has been fluctuating among four players for two spots in the starting five in each Raptors game depending on the opponent and the problems they might present.
Kyle Lowry, Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard always start — unless Leonard is resting or hurt — but no one knows each game which way Nurse might go with the other two. Some nights it’s Jonas Valanciunas at centre, some nights it’s Serge Ibaka.
Pascal Siakam has been a steady presence at the other frontcourt spot but Nurse said last week he can see OG Anunoby getting back into the starting lineup.
It runs counter to tradition. “I wouldn’t call it hard but it isn’t easy, either. They’ve been really unselfish and good about it, it doesn’t mean that I haven’t had a lot of meetings in my office with certain guys,” Nurse said.
The idea came to Nurse in the off-season after he got the job and he’s not deviated from it since.
The buy-in from the Raptors has been impressive. Valanciunas is playing less but producing more. Ibaka is off to as good a start to a season as he has ever had as Toronto’s two-headed centre monster eats other teams. Siakam has been the team’s engine but Anunoby’s multifaceted defensive skills are vital and when his three-point shot comes around, he’s going to have to play.
“We’re trying to create a versatile, versatile team so we can compete against the other really versatile teams in this league,” Nurse said. “We’re still a work in progress but that’s what we’re shooting for.”