‘Awesome’ no-look was reel inspiring
Leonard’s unique steal against T-Wolves sets example for entire team, Nurse says
Wednesday night wasn’t the first time Danny Green had seen Kawhi Leonard pull off a no-look steal.
By Thursday morning, the rest of the Raptors squad had seen the jaw-dropping play Leonard pulled off in a win against the Minnesota Timberwolves at least twice, too.
“I think we showed it at halftime last night and we showed it in our defensive edit today,” Nick Nurse said of the “awesome” play by the NBA’s two-time defensive player of the year, whom the coach believes is showing flashes of his award-winning past self early in the season.
It was the no-look steal that required a second look, a unique play that will likely be included in highlight reels for the foreseeable future.
But it wasn’t just the rarity of Leonard’s move that impressed both Nurse and Green: It was the effort and intention behind it that stood out.
“The point is, if one of your best players is getting dirty and getting on the floor, then we all should be getting dirty and getting on the floor, making plays,” Nurse said.
Green echoed that thought: “Those types of plays are what we need. More of those, more charges, more winning plays. Fifty-fifty balls, guys dive on the floor. You see your all-star dive on the floor, there’s no reason why nobody else can’t dive on the floor.”
Leonard is not the only big name on the Raptors roster showing that kind of
devotion, with the utmost commitment to the team. Kyle Lowry burst onto the scene with double-doubles in three of the team’s first five games. Green has impressed with his transitional defence and his three point shooting, as advertised when he was traded alongside Leonard from the San Antonio Spurs this summer.
And Serge Ibaka and Jonas Valanciunas have shown selflessness of a different kind by buying into a platoon-like approach to the starting No. 5 spot, meaning reduced playing time for both. If either player’s feathers are ruffled by decreased minutes, neither is showing it: The two centres combined for 31 points and 16 rebounds in Toronto’s last game.
“Nick wants to play open, he wants to play free, he wants everybody to be free and do great things, and that’s what we do,” Valanciunas said. “It creates more opportunities for everybody. So we’ve just gotta use that and keep winning the games by doing that.”
Nurse said both players are playing great in their adjusted roles. “It’s really nice that we can give a couple different looks there,” he said. “(Valanciunas) comes in and overpowers them and Serge kinda comes in is a little bit more versatile. I’m impressed with what both of them are doing. So far, so good. We’re trying to improve them as players and improve the way our team plays and they’re buying into it.”
Seeing the likes of Valanciunas and Ibaka commit to a plan that may affect them personally but could benefit the team, or watching Leonard and Lowry throw themselves into these early games with a vengeance, sets the tone for the team as a whole, Green said.
“We have so many threats, so many options that a lot of guys aren’t going to get as many minutes as they want to get,” he said. “I have no complaints, obviously, but there are so many guys coming off our bench or even starting that don’t play a ton of minutes and they should or they could. There’s even guys that don’t play any minutes that could give us some great minutes, like Greg (Monroe) ... It’s for the bigger picture, the better part of the group. They’ve been big for us and hopefully they can continue to do that.”
So far, Green has enjoyed the fluidity that governs Nurse’s style, allowing him to play with different lineups on any given night. Delon Wright could miss out on the fun on Friday night when the Dallas Mavericks come to town: after playing five minutes in his season debut on Wednesday night, he is once again listed as improbable with the same left adductor strain. Fred VanVleet, who sat out Wednesday with a left big toe sprain, is considered probable to play on Friday.
“It was good to see Delon out there last night,” Green said. “He’s not 100 per cent yet, he’s still feeling it out. Hopefully he can get it back to where he wants it to be. We missed Freddie V out there a little bit, to get him back would be nice, but I’m having a lot of fun playing with all groups and getting familiar with them. We have so many different lineups, so many threats, everybody is have fun playing with different people.”