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Nick Nurse starting to see results on defence, improved offence

Other than a stretch earlier in the season, the Toronto Raptors have struggled to maintain the defensive identity that has been a pillar to Nick Nurse teams. However, after numerous practices over the past few weeks, the results are starting to show.

Video Transcript

AMIT MANN: But yes, over these past few games. I'm going to say the past three, even though they lost the first game against Memphis. But their defense has dramatically improved. You mentioned the practice that has been to-- and they've be able to do it over the past few games or past few weeks because they've had a lot of games in Toronto. And that's going to proceed for most of the month.

But let's get into some of the surprises that we've seen. I guess not surprises because we were hoping that this would happen. But some of the things have been very encouraging. And I'll throw it to you, if you have anything you really want to start off with. I got a couple here, but I'll let you go first.

IMMAN ADAN: Well, some of the surprises?

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

IMMAN ADAN: So I think it's just the defense coming together in the way that it does. I wish I had the corner 3's number here. But just eye test-wise, it doesn't feel like they're giving up as many.

It also feels like they're guarding. Just that Warriors game-- oh, my gosh. I'm still scarred. I'm still scarred by that. Warriors and the Blazers performance, which also they've got some drama there too, not just the Pacers.

AMIT MANN: Ehhh. [LAUGHS] Yeah, they do.

IMMAN ADAN: So [LAUGHS] I think what's been a pleasant surprise-- and I can't keep singing his praises enough, and it's Yuta Watanabe. Like, I'm just such a fan of Yuta. He is so-- he plays with so much heart, and so much intensity, and so much, like-- and I can't say this enough about all of the guys.

Like, I think that's the Raptors mold when we're talking about the type of players that really fit [INAUDIBLE]. Yeah, it's guys that are long, 6' 9", yes. It's guys with long wingspan, yes.

But it's also guys who play with such hustle and such heart. He comes in and completely changes the game. Like, it's no surprise to me that the defensive rating has just shot up since he's been here. And I have some of the numbers, but I know we're going to be going over this in just a little bit. So I'll let you go with some of your surprises and maybe touch on those as well.

AMIT MANN: No, that's terrific. I think that is a really good start. I mean, over the past three games, they had the third or fourth best defensive rating, which is a great start. I guess we'll [INAUDIBLE] right to Nick Nurse because I've been-- I've been happy with what he's done.

And we have to give him credit. I was one of the people who was like, you know, is this aggressive style really what they should be doing? And it turns out it was more so that they really weren't executing the game plans right. And I'm not sure how many times I've heard Pascal, and Fred, and Nick say, like, yeah, we just didn't execute the game plan. We didn't execute the game plan.

And they weren't talking about themselves necessarily. They were talking about as a team. They did not execute it. And this-- you know, this is just a thing.

IMMAN ADAN: That was rough to start.

AMIT MANN: They needed time to-- yeah, they needed time to get this figured out. And probably, I was a little bit impatient. A lot of us are a little bit impatient. Over the past few games, like-- or past few press conferences, Pascal at one time, he's like, well, I've never practiced this much in my entire NBA career.

And then Chris Boucher was, like, oh-- he was asked, oh, why is the defense so much better? He's like, that's literally all we do in practice right now. All we're doing is working on defense.

So if you were curious about the intentions of the Toronto Raptors this year, if they were really trying to make a playoff spot, if they wanted to get in that top six. I guess there you go. They do want to get back in the playoffs. They want to be in the top six. They want to avoid the play in tournament.

And that's kind of the goal right now. And with Nick, I've seen some innovation with his offense. I've been really encouraged by that too. We're seeing more creativity. Like, I think over the past few seasons, it just seemed like there was a lot of high pick-and-rolls. And then you have cutters going around, and then they kind of see if anything worked out there. And if it didn't, then they're just kind of doing it again.

And Nick said them too sometimes that, you know, the first time the high pick-and-roll doesn't work, let's swing the ball, and let's try it over there. I'm like, OK, cool. So how many times do we do this, Nick? Is that a good idea?

But to his credit, I think we've seen some innovation. We're seeing more, like-- some more decoys, more deception. Scottie Barnes loves doing those fake dribble hand-offs. We're seeing big slip to the basket. Chris Boucher was pretty great at that the other day.

So they're finding ways to get players open. And especially in games, like, they're not kind of beating their head over with a few-- with the same plays over and over. I think of that game against Milwaukee, when Fred had that huge second half. And afterwards, Nick was saying, yeah, we ran some plays to get Fred open.

And so they're running a bunch of drag screens or a bunch of double screens to get Fred along the baseline to coming off some corners to hit some baseline 3's. This is all good. This is how you win games in the NBA. And I appreciate him kind of digging into his bucket a little bit and trying things out. It's been great to see.

IMMAN ADAN: Yeah, I would say, like, to me, the Raptors offense was kind of just-- I didn't have very high expectations for it. And I think, to your point--

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

IMMAN ADAN: The creativity-- and it was surprising. Like, the Raptors offense was not the issue to start the year. It was, surprisingly, their defense. They actually had a pretty good offensive rating. And to me, it's like, to your point about the creativity, that comes with one practice.

And it also comes with some of your guys just getting healthy again. It comes with having Pascal Siakam back on the court. And I think it comes with guys having reps. Like, we're seeing-- I think that just the growth that we're seeing from-- Fred is another guy that I just can't help but heap praise on. So it's just--

AMIT MANN: It's hard not to.

IMMAN ADAN: But it's so hard not to. But just the growth that we're seeing from these guys on the court-- and it's hard to think about veterans on the team and talk about their growth as well-- but just in trusting his teammates, and getting on his teammates in his decision-making, and how quickly he's able to react-- I think you and I were doing a podcast earlier, and we were talking about Fred VanVleet. And I think that that was one of your points was that he's just not doing that as quickly as you wanted him to. And we're actually seeing that actually change

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

IMMAN ADAN: And him becoming the main point guard and the leader of this team.