Everything Nick Nurse

[G__Deane]

Not really digging the beard nick

[chris]

Kerr revolutionized the game by allowing Steph to become a dominant player that he turned into. Mark Jackson had no idea what to do with Steph.

Kerr gets a bad rep because the team was stacked.. but on the other hand the reason why the team was stacked was because of Kerr. Would KD go if they hadn't won and looked like a really fun team to play with?

that's what i'm saying. people tend to look at things in retrospect, devoid of context, as if players would follow the same evolution under any circumstance. like oh he had four HOFers of course he should have won. well three of them weren't HOFers when he took over, and they won a title and broke the single season win record before the fourth joined them.

it happens all the time when people talk about quarterbacks too. jared goof looks fucking awesome in a system tailor-made for him with a powerhouse O-line and healthy gurley/kupp/woods/cooks weapons. he totally sucks without one or more of those things. in reality he's completely mediocre. not many russell wilson's out there annually making the playoffs and probowls behind porous lines, a running obsessed coach, and with severely limited weapons.

And in Kerr's case, it's not a good look to have the worst record in the league. I know he was missing Curry and Klay for most of the season.. but still. A good coach would find a way to win more games. On the other hand it also sort of confirms that coaching doesn't really matter much.

we'll see next year. that team's depth was gutted to acquire KD and they paid way into luxury tax (actually hitting the hard cap!) to keep the few veteran's (namely iggy, livingston) at the expense of what little depth they had. then they lost klay, curry, KD, boogie, iggy, and livingston. it was the biggest joke of a roster after curry went down. basically draymond, russell (who is completely overrated and who they acquired only to flip), and 2nd rounders/undrafted players.

i think they looked at it as a welcome "development" year, opportunity to replenish talent in the draft, and recharge after 5 finals runs. i don't think he suddenly became a shit coach.

edit - jared goof was a typo but i will leave as-is because fuck the rams

[planetmars]

Kerr revolutionized the game by allowing Steph to become a dominant player that he turned into. Mark Jackson had no idea what to do with Steph.

Kerr gets a bad rep because the team was stacked.. but on the other hand the reason why the team was stacked was because of Kerr. Would KD go if they hadn't won and looked like a really fun team to play with?

The league caught up though.

And in Kerr's case, it's not a good look to have the worst record in the league. I know he was missing Curry and Klay for most of the season.. but still. A good coach would find a way to win more games. On the other hand it also sort of confirms that coaching doesn't really matter much.

[chris]

He's a good coach but not in Phil Jackson, Greg Pop, Pat Riley's level.

i mean that's the mt rushmore of coaching, along with red auerbach. pretty lofty standards

[The Great One]

I find Kerr overrated. He had an absolute dream team and won some titles. Steph is like the most coachable guy in the world, but Kerr couldn't keep the locker room happy once a couple egos were involved. He got outcoached by tyronn lue. Luke Walton went like 33-2 or something with that roster, and got a job off it, but has been pretty meh since, proving how much of golden state was "sit back and let shooters shoot". And last year, without 4 all stars, they were the worst team in the nba.

kerr's first brilliant move was going small in the first championship and playing five 6'7 guys at once. Then the rest of the league copied and caught up to him

He's a good coach but not in Phil Jackson, Greg Pop, Pat Riley's level.

[chris]

I find Kerr overrated. He had an absolute dream team and won some titles. Steph is like the most coachable guy in the world, but Kerr couldn't keep the locker room happy once a couple egos were involved. He got outcoached by tyronn lue. Luke Walton went like 33-2 or something with that roster, and got a job off it, but has been pretty meh since, proving how much of golden state was "sit back and let shooters shoot". And last year, without 4 all stars, they were the worst team in the nba.

kerr's first brilliant move was going small in the first championship and playing five 6'7 guys at once. Then the rest of the league copied and caught up to him

i might be biased because he was the most intelligent and articulate color guy i can remember on TV, but what were the expectations for that team he took over? what were the pre-season vegas odds for them to win the title the next year? what were the odds to break the all-time win record?

he took over a fine young team with moderate expectations and turned them into a dynasty/quasi-dynasty. you might attribute that a lot of that to durant but i don't. they'd still be the favorite in 2017 and 2018 without him if they kept the depth they lost to acquire him.

the biggest thing i credit him with is the coaching philosophy of involving everyone on the floor rather than having his best players dominate the ball. it made the pre-durant teams much greater than the sum of their parts, and i would guess is something he picked up from phil jackson and pop because both believed in it strongly. he made lot's of smaller changes too, going small as you pointed out but also benching "all star" david lee for draymond. draymond was a bench player playing 20 min a night before he took over.

and it's ludicrous to say he was outcoached by lue. the primest of prime curry was hurt. draymond got suspended. they got hosed by the refs in game 6 in a very obvious "just make sure this thing gets to game 7" situation. and bogut got hurt. talk about a series of unfortunate events.

edit to address more of your post - you say he took over a dream team but i think that's hindsight. they were far from a dream team when he took over, and he helped guide them there. does curry become an all-timer playing for mark jackson? would green be a HOFer? not sure on those

and what did you expect from the warriors this season without curry, thompson or durant, devoid of any depth from years of big spending to make the durant thing happen, and exhausted from five straight title appearances?

[KeonClark]

the ringer is doing a series of NBA top 5 lists since there's not much else to talk about these days. they did one on coaches today and ours topped the poll:



spoelstra is good but a bit overrated i think. i don't know how you could leave steve kerr off this list.

I find Kerr overrated. He had an absolute dream team and won some titles. Steph is like the most coachable guy in the world, but Kerr couldn't keep the locker room happy once a couple egos were involved. He got outcoached by tyronn lue. Luke Walton went like 33-2 or something with that roster, and got a job off it, but has been pretty meh since, proving how much of golden state was "sit back and let shooters shoot". And last year, without 4 all stars, they were the worst team in the nba.

kerr's first brilliant move was going small in the first championship and playing five 6'7 guys at once. Then the rest of the league copied and caught up to him

[chris]

the ringer is doing a series of NBA top 5 lists since there's not much else to talk about these days. they did one on coaches today and ours topped the poll:

There’s no NBA coach hotter right now than Nurse, which is a pretty funny thing to say about a guy who spent a decade coaching in the British Basketball League. But Nurse managed to grind his way to the top of his profession, eventually leaving England for an assistant coaching gig in the United States Basketball League. He was able to parlay that opportunity into becoming the head coach of the then–D-League’s Iowa Energy in 2007. Six years later, he got the call from Dwane Casey to become an assistant on an NBA bench.

Nurse didn’t waste the long-awaited opportunity. He helped the Raptors reach the playoffs in each of his five years as an assistant. In 2017-18, he became the team’s unofficial offensive coordinator and helped fuel a franchise-best 59 wins behind more pace and space.

When Casey was fired in the offseason for not advancing further in the playoffs, Nurse inherited a strong playoff team—but his tweaks (and the trade for that Kawhi guy) led to newfound success in Toronto. Known as an offensive wizard willing to push even the furthest of boundaries, Nurse helped the Raptors realize their potential, ranking in the top five in both offense and defense in 2018-19, and eventually going on a postseason run for the history books, culminating in the first championship in franchise history.

When Leonard left in the summer, everyone (yes, everyone) assumed the team would take a massive step back. Instead, the Raptors have gone 46-18 this season, earning a .719 winning percentage that’s actually higher than the Raptors’ mark with Kawhi last season. Whether it was unlocking Pascal Siakam, giving Fred VanVleet even more freedom, or discovering gold on the bench like Terence Davis, Nurse has given the rest of the league a new blueprint to work off. His .712 winning percentage is the highest all time of any NBA head coach. That’s a long, long way from the BBL.

spoelstra is good but a bit overrated i think. i don't know how you could leave steve kerr off this list.

[chris]

Good interview

this was cool. i thought one of the more interesting things was that he has each of his three top assistants (bjorkgren, griffin, and scariolo i'm guessing) assume control of the offense, defense, and 'special teams' (not sure what this is?). for 14 games or so, then they all switch roles. definitely a unique approach and way to have things not stagnate over a long season, as well find out whose biggest strength is which.

[GOLDBLUM]

Good interview

[G__Deane]

https://www.sportsnet.ca/basketball/...oaching-style/

[G__Deane]

On the note of self promotion, whose 4th grade kid is designing these logos in "Introduction to Adobe" class?

[G__Deane]

I'm in Winnipeg - were the other ones national too?

Sorry, no idea I'm in the GTA
I would think the ones in the post season at least were National due to the audience (depending on Fisherman's budget)

Plenty of Raptors have had commercials in the last year incl Freddy, Powell, Pascal, Serge, OG and of course Kawhi
TONS more than the Leafs or Jays

[TheWaterboy]

Months. He's had several going back to last year's post season (where he was horse from yelling in the commercial)

I'm in Winnipeg - were the other ones national too?

[G__Deane]

... how long has Coach Nurse had a commercial (for Fisherman's Friend)?

Months. He's had several going back to last year's post season (where he was horse from yelling in the commercial)