3 reasons why it’s time to buy in on the Toronto Raptors
By Duncan Smith
Coaching
It’s no secret that the Raptors are one of the best-coached teams in the NBA and very likely THE best-coached. Nick Nurse is a heavy favorite to win the Coach of the Year award (in spite of being robbed by the NBA’s Coaches Association for their own COTY) and deservedly so.
After taking over for Dwane Casey, Nurse rewrote the book on how to coach an NBA team. Never afraid to use every trick and try every tactic, Nurse dropped the box-and-one on the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, a tactic which could be generously described as “middle-school defense”.
Against the Dallas Mavericks, Nurse utilized the diamond press, an aggressive 1-2-1-1 full-court defense (The Athletic, subscription required), to come back from a 30-point deficit in the second half and 23-point fourth-quarter deficit.
Of course, these are outliers and most of the time things are a bit more standard, but nobody makes NBA offenses have to THINK about what the defense is doing quite like the Toronto Raptors do.
In chess, the opening dozen moves or so go by quickly bc during prep you have time to game plan responses to common opponent moves. You can analyze w/data & deep thought how to react.
— Cranjis McBasketball (@Tim_NBA) August 2, 2020
When you’re “out of book” you’re facing something you don’t have a prepared response for.
As our friend Tim Cranjis expresses here, the Raptors utilize bizarre defenses and coverages as a matter of course. In a league where most teams have similar schemes and terminology for offense and defense, one team like the Raptors going so far “out of book” makes life incredibly difficult for opponents.