After trip through coaching history, Nurse carving own path with Raptors

It’s been quite a week for a coaching lifer.

On Saturday Nick Nurse – who has spent more than 30 years on benches all across the world at 54 years old – was in Durham, North Carolina to watch Duke legend Mike Krzyzewski make his final appearance at Cameron Indoor Stadium after 42 years at the helm of (arguably) the most successful program in U.S. college basketball as he plans to retire at age 75.

And just three days later Nurse found himself at the intersection of history once again as he happened to be leading the Toronto Raptors against Gregg Popovich as the San Antonio Spurs head coach was one win away from setting the all-time record for wins, a journey the Spurs bench boss began when he was 48 years old in 1996-97, and that is still unfolding 26 years later at age 73.

Nurse hasn’t taken his detour through history for granted.

Few NBA coaches come from more humble beginnings – Nurse’s journey began as a twenty-something player-coach for the Derby Rams of the British Basketball League, the bottom rung of the sport in Europe where he swept the floors, drove the van and worked for a pittance. It took him 23 years to earn a spot on a NBA bench as an assistant to Dwane Casey.

He served five years in that role before getting his crack at the big job.

Even now – four years and almost 300 wins into his head coaching path – the longevity of the legends is hard to grasp.

“You know, 42 years Coach K was at one place and in college that happens you know once in a while,” said Nurse. “But what Pop’s done here hardly ever happens, right, anywhere. And like, you know, by the time I was 30, I had had eight different jobs already, you know, so just a different path for me than those guys and I think it's an incredibly hard profession to do it in, right?

“And [they have made] places where players want to stay and play for a long time; a place where player development is outstanding; coaching is outstanding … all those things kind of go together for both those guys."

Winning drives a lot of it. Krzyzewski has five national championships to his name and Popovich has five NBA championships, and both won fairly early in their careers, before the pressure began to weigh too heavily.

Nurse led Toronto to the NBA title as a first-year head coach and led the Raptors to the league’s best record the following season when he earned recognition as the NBA’s top coach.

The immediate success and the growing recognition of his ability to adjust on the fly – such as this way he’s figured out a playing style that suits a team without a traditional centre or a swath of three-point shooters this season – haven’t gone unnoticed.

When you add it up it’s not hard to imagine that Nurse will be a fixture on the Raptors sideline for the foreseeable future.

Helping this version of the Raptors to the post-season would only help that cause.

They took an important step on Wednesday night. Not only did Nurse and the Raptors push Popovich’s record-breaking night down the road, but the thorough 119-104 win halted a concerning three-game losing streak and will hopefully give Toronto some momentum as it enters the teeth of a six-game road swing.

Getting Fred VanVleet back helped – coaches are only as good as their players. Popovich, after all, is quick to credit his success to inheriting a team with Hall-of-Famer David Robinson on the roster and then the Spurs drafting another one, Tim Duncan. They helped Popovich win a title in his third season.

VanVleet is the Raptors' leader at the moment and he wasted no time finding his rhythm after missing five games with a bruised knee. He finished with 26 points to lead all scorers, helping delay Popovich’s big moment.

“We have competitive pride and professional pride and as much as we respect Pop and what he’s been able to do in his career, we didn’t want to be the team that he [set the record] against,” said VanVleet.

Just behind VanVleet was rookie Scottie Barnes, who finished with 20 points and eight rebounds. Nurse consistently punished the Spurs' single coverage by having Barnes dribbling into post-ups that a variety of San Antonio defenders were powerless to defend. 

The Raptors also got 29 points from their bench before garbage time.

After a sluggish first half, the Raptors finally broke out of the shooting slump that has plagued them since the All-Star break as they went 11-of-30 from three and 7-of-16 in the second half – you knew it was on when Precious Achiuwa was knocking them down from deep.

The win improved the seventh-place Raptors to 35-30 as the Spurs, who are scrambling to qualify for the play-in tournament in the Western Conference fell to 25-41.

The Raptors have been trying to find their way through the weeds lately, coming into the game 2-5 since the All-Star break and 3-8 in their past 11. VanVleet’s return sparked a flagging attack – the Raptors had the 28th-rated offence over their past four games with VanVleet sidelined – and got an important boost early on.

The All-Star point guard had eight points in his first eight minutes and his presence seemed to spark Pascal Siakam, who had 11 points in the first quarter, as well as the slumping Gary Trent Jr., who had six as Toronto jumped out to a 34-29 lead.

But the Raptors' shooting struggles reared their head again in the second quarter. Toronto has the worst True Shooting percentage in the league since the All-Star break at 51.6 per cent. They had a five-minute scoreless drought just prior to half and went into the break shooting just 4-of-15 from three – a familiar issue.

But they fixed that in the second half – they matched their first-half total for triples with four in the third quarter – and it got their offence rolling.

“We made shots,” said VanVleet who was 3-of-8 from deep. “We didn’t shoot it great tonight but still was able to get 11 threes in – that is all the difference right there. It’s gonna be tough to win consistently in this league if you can’t make threes, so, just gotta make shots, that’ll give the spacing that we need and being able to get out in transition, get stops, and get some easy ones.”

The Raptors did their best and few played their part more than Barnes, who played long minutes at point guard alongside VanVleet – another example of Nurse’s willingness to adjust and be flexible – and took advantage of multiple Spurs defenders to walk the ball down to rim and score in the post over-and-over again. All five of his third-quarter baskets came at the rim and helped Toronto take a 91-84 lead into the fourth quarter thanks to a 29-15 run that Toronto put together following a Nurse timeout with his team down seven early in the third. Going 4-of-9 from three helped too.

In all, it was a tenacious Raptors effort that came when they needed it.

The best coaches leave an imprint on their teams, regardless of personnel. It’s hard to win big without elite talent, but Nurse is proving that his team will almost always find a way to compete even if they might be short a piece or two. It’s something that he’s seen and admired in Popovich and Coach K.

“For me these guys are super competitive guys, man,” said Nurse. “When that ball goes up they understand that the fight is on. And then that translates to the players. I think that is one thing that I sit back and admire year after year, that whatever it is -- natural instinct or learned instinct -- but that instinct of when that ball goes up to compete like hell is something that always stands out to me.”

The Raptors reflected well on their head coach on Wednesday night. They won the offensive rebounding battle, won the turnover battle and got enough shooting to make it all pay off. They played to their identity.

The Raptors would be lucky to have Nurse around for 26 years. It might not add up to a record for wins that Popovich will set sooner than later. But there will be plenty of them, that’s no stretch.

“What am I? [Year] nine or 10?” joked Nurse before the game. “So we can see that from here.”

We can too.