Nurse made position-less experiment work, but Raptors need more roster balance

TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO – In a copycat sport, Nick Nurse has always found a way to be ahead of the curve.

After more than a decade of honing his craft overseas and then a few years of coaching back home in Iowa, Nurse’s innovative curiosity brought him to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the G League (formerly D-League) affiliate of the Houston Rockets.

At the time, the Rockets organization was at the forefront of an offensive renaissance in the NBA. Borrowing from those Steve Nash and Mike D’Antonio-led Phoenix Suns teams earlier in the 2000s, that Houston club aimed to push the game forward even further. With Kevin McHale and the newly acquired James Harden at the helm in 2013, they played at a frenetic pace and, notably, attempted more three-pointers than anybody had before.

Meanwhile, it was Nurse and the Vipers – who won a D-League championship the same year – that were experimenting with a lot of those stylistic principles at the ground floor. In 2011-12, Nurse’s first season there, Rio Grange Valley hoisted up 30.0 threes per game – the most in the history of the D-League and nearly six more than any other team that year.

It earned him a reputation that he had mixed feelings about. On one hand, being perceived as an ‘offensive guru’ and one of the faces of the three-point revolution helped him land his first NBA gig in 2013-14, when he joined Dwane Casey’s staff in Toronto. However, with a wealth of head coaching experience around the globe, Nurse knew that he was more than just a specialist. Soon, the Raptors and the rest of the league would catch on as well.

Once again, Nurse presided over one of the sport’s most fascinating experiments this past season, his fourth as the Raptors’ bench boss.