Even though it was just a pre-season game, Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse was pleased with his team performance in their 122-104 win over the Portland Trail Blazers.
Nurse joined Prime Time Sports on Monday evening after the team kicked off their pre-season schedule in Vancouver, which saw Kawhi Leonard make his long-awaited debut.
In just the limited time observing Leonard, the Raptors coach has shown what makes him the player he is, like arriving at the practice facility 90 minutes to two hours beforehand to put in individual work.
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One thing Nurse has noticed in particular about his star forward is the impact the 27-year-old is having with his teammates.
“The biggest think about him is he’s a quiet leader, He knows what team chemistry is about, he knows that he’s one of the best players on the team and that he can help younger players, or he can pull in guys into a situation that need pulling into and giving them a quiet word here or there. He’s been amazing from that standpoint from his work ethic and his coachability as well as his leadership ability, it’s been great.”
Leonard had 12 points, three assists and a steal in just 19 minutes of action against the Portland and Nurse expects him to play more as the pre-season rolls along.
When asked about his plan with the opening night roster, Nurse made it clear that he doesn’t plan to have a starting lineup set in stone and that it will be a fluid situation as the season rolls along.
“We got a good problem there’s at six guys who are expecting to start, if not seven or eight and I think we’re good enough to start those seven or eight guys. I’m getting to the point where I’m going to throw another starting lineup tomorrow, I started a group in the first half the other night and another group in the second and I’ll do the same tomorrow. I just want to create a little more freedom that we could make changes along the way just on feel rest time, matchups, giving guys opportunities that deserve it, all those kind of things.”
You can listen to the full audio of the interview with Nurse below.
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