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Rockets coaching candidates: Getting to know Nick Nurse

Over the next few weeks — or until the Houston Rockets hire a new head coach, whichever comes first — The Athletic will be analyzing key candidates for their open head coaching position. The goal is to gain as much insight as possible into these coaches from conversations with those who know them on a personal level: colleagues, beat writers, and players. This week: Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse

Update: On April 21, the Raptors announced they had relieved head coach Nick Nurse of his duties after 10 seasons with the team. On May 29, he was hired by the Philadelphia 76ers.

Team statement. pic.twitter.com/5nV9Jlts39

— (((Eric Koreen))) (@ekoreen) April 21, 2023

In mid-April, while the majority of the NBA world was fixated on the Play-In Tournament and the opening round of the playoffs, a small subset of basketball minds convened in Portsmouth, Va., for a four-day collegiate tournament.

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The Portsmouth Invitational is known for hosting names like Jimmy Butler, Derrick White and Pat Connaughton in previous iterations of the tournament but similar to other pre-draft events where league executives, scouts and agents are present, it’s a hotbed for rumors, league developments but more importantly, conversations.

One of the more popular discussion topics during that week was the uncertain future of Nick Nurse, whose status with the Raptors remains in the air after a disappointing loss to the Chicago Bulls in last week’s Play-In. During Nurse’s exit interview, he addressed the rumors about his future, spoke to the similar goals he has with the front office and the evaluation period that follows the conclusion of a season. Oddly enough, it was Nurse’s words a few weeks before that added fuel to a steadily-growing fire regarding his time with the Raptors.

“I think that 10 years is a good time to sit back and reflect a little bit,” Nurse told reporters last month. “I think we’re going to do that all when the season ends. Even personally I’m gonna take a few weeks to see where I’m at, where my head’s at, to see how the relationship with the organization is and everything. It’s been 10 years for me now. Which is a pretty good run.”

It’s safe to assume whatever demarcations the Rockets have their coaching candidates in, Nurse sits in the top tier. He has a championship on his résumé, quite the achievement for a coach who could potentially be looking for work soon. Nurse is also known for his X’s and O’s acumen, a true tactician and game manager. He’s shown an ability to develop young players and also stabilize older, experienced veterans. It also helps that he has ties to the organization dating back to his days on the G League sidelines with the Rio Grande Vipers and has always spoken glowingly of the Rockets organization.

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To get a better understanding of who Nurse is, his style, his tenets and analyzing a potential fit, we sat down with The Athletic’s Raptors beat writer Eric Koreen, who has covered Nurse closely for all 10 years Nurse has been with the Raptors, first as an assistant and then as head coach.

Eric, thanks for doing this. You’ve been around Nick Nurse for a long time. How would you best describe his style of coaching?

I’m going to start by not answering your question, Kelly, because it’s important to get this out in front: It’s very difficult to separate a coach’s performance from the roster he has. That goes for good, bad and average — your 2022-23 Raptors: 41-41, 13th in offense, 11th in defense, 12th in net rating and first in your hearts — alike. That needs to be considered in everything I say below.

Through five years, I’ve seen Nurse coach teams of varying degrees of quality, and the main throughline is that he tries to dictate the terms of a game or series.

Is that a style? I don’t know. But Nurse is generally trying to Moneyball things from a game-to-game perspective. Where is his opponent’s weakness? What is his team built to do that might not fit conventional basketball? What isn’t his opponent ready for? He’s constantly trying to keep his opponent off balance.

That sounds like a combination of analytics and more traditional coaching. Nurse has an NBA title that naturally gives him an edge in any coaching search but no coach is perfect. What are some of his shortcomings or areas for improvement?

His communication skills could probably stand to improve a little bit. If something as innocuous as his “10 years is a long time” comments from late in the season can go awry — and they upset a few players — it stands to reason that not all of his one-on-one conversations with players are going great. Given truth serum, I think some players would have appreciated more direct conversations, although you can never discount the possibility of those players just not liking what they were hearing.

There are times in the last few seasons when I also thought he could have been more open to wider-ranging changes than he adopted. He is generally very good with the details and changing from game to game, but he can be hesitant to make big-picture changes on the fly. (That makes sense: Overhauling things amid a regular season, with less and less practice time, is a logistical nightmare.)

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The Raptors have had several personalities over the last few seasons. Was Nurse able to garner the respect of a locker room? How did that translate to accountability on the floor amongst his players?

Nurse won a title in his first year as an NBA head coach. He had some truly great and accomplished players on that roster, and young players who have become even better since, but you don’t do that if you can’t get players to buy into what you’re selling.

Even this season, I can’t say the team quit on Nurse’s aggressive defensive tactics. They caused the most turnovers per possession in the league, even as they were savaged on drives and from 3. The Raptors didn’t consistently execute what Nurse was trying to get them to do, but I didn’t see many instances of them not trying to do it.

However, Nurse frequently called out players in public. Gary Trent Jr. said during exit interviews he would find out before Nurse came to him personally to express his concerns. As you’d expect, more players didn’t love that. 

Raptors report card. Not getting a spot on the fridge.https://t.co/Ux48dS5xFd

— (((Eric Koreen))) (@ekoreen) April 17, 2023


Excluding the 2018-19 season where the Raptors finished sixth in offensive efficiency, Nurse’s teams have hovered around the middle of the pack on that side of the ball. What are his offensive pillars? 

Going back to 2017-18, his last of five years as an assistant to Dwane Casey, Nurse preached some version of “next-action basketball.” Nurse wants his players to assess a situation, and if it’s not advantageous, to move the ball a station to keep the defence moving.

I’ll go back to my first point: The Raptors very much failed to execute that in the last few years. Nurse continued to talk about it, but he realized that with Pascal Siakam, Scottie Barnes and O.G. Anunoby, players who default to surveying the landscape before making a move, he could only expect so much. The Raptors’ half-court offense was their most obvious weakness over the past two years, but I put that more on the roster he had than Nurse.

Saying that, for a guy who came into the league with a reputation for being one of the better offensive minds, the lack of development from last season to this season was disappointing.

What about on the other side of the ball? What defensive principles does Nurse lean on routinely?

More than anything, aggressiveness is his calling card. That can be dialed up or down (do you dial things down?) with his roster, but he liked to err on the side of putting pressure on the offense. Even with more traditional centres like Jonas Valančiūnas, Marc Gasol and Jakob Poeltl, the Raptors weren’t playing much standard drop-back coverage in pick-and-rolls. There was some, especially when he had a more veteran-laden roster, but not a lot.

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Also, he will experiment. The box-and-1 (which you can see as aggressive or passive, depending on your viewpoint) is the most famous example of this, but there was a game against the Rockets in the 2019-20 season when the Raptors sent an extra player to James Harden every time he touched the ball past midcourt. And if Ben McLemore didn’t hit eight 3s, they probably would have won it. 

Nurse prides himself on being a defensive innovator. This is where you’ll see him get weird.

The Rockets still are in a position where they need to develop young players but also want to add veterans. How has Nurse fared in merging the two in Toronto?

*Cut to Raptors fans screaming incoherently*

If the Raptors and Nurse are indeed heading for a split, this is one of the biggest reasons why. In both of the last two seasons, no team relied more on its starters than the Raptors. Not all of those starters are veterans, as Barnes was one of them, but Nurse’s faith in younger players on the roster such as Precious Achiuwa, Malachi Flynn, Dalano Banton and others waxed and waned. 

In fairness to Nurse, none of those players consistently earned their minutes. We go back to the old catch-22 of developing players, though: A player cannot play consistently well until a coach believes in him, but a coach cannot believe in a young player until he plays consistently well. That the Raptors still do not know what they have in those players is a problem and the fairest criticism of Nurse.

In-game, what was the collaboration between Nurse and his assistants? How does he stack up with adjustments on the fly or adapting to what the game presents?

Nurse has tended to delegate long-term assignments across his staff, with assistants tackling offence, defence and “special teams” — inbound situations and the like — for multiple games at a time. In-game, Nurse is very hands-on. He absolutely listens to his staff, but he relies on his gut and feel often.

Again, strategically, I believe he’s in the top-third of the league. That goes for in-game as well as pregame. 

How would he be able to augment the skill sets of Jalen Green, Jabari Smith Jr. and Alperen Şengün

I’d have to do a deeper dive into the Rockets to be able to answer this question more fully. However, given the lack of a true rim-protector now, Nurse would ratchet up the defensive pressure he asks from all his players. How that mindset fits with Şengün would be, uh, fascinating.

I do think Nurse would love Şengün on the other end. He enjoys big men who can make plays, and Şengün fits the bill. He would also demand Green continue to develop as a playmaker for others. It would sort of be the opposite issue he had with Barnes, who he was constantly trying to prod to look for more opportunities to score rather than looking for his teammates.

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If Nurse and the Raptors part ways, what will be the main reason why?

As I mentioned above, I don’t think he and the front office were quite aligned on how he was using some of his younger players. Plus, Nurse has been with the Raptors for 10 years — five as an assistant, five as a head coach. It’s a long time, especially for a coach who likes to push and challenge himself as much as Nurse does. Gregg Popovich and Erik Spoelstra are the exceptions, not examples of the rule. He wouldn’t be the first coach to win a championship and leave his team within the next five years.

(Photo: John E. Sokolowski / USA Today)

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Update: 2024-05-09