Toronto Raptors pressure meter: Which big names must step up?
By Mike Luciano
2. Nick Nurse
Nurse has to be frustrated with so many of his ace players falling down due to injury, but he’s made some decisions that boggle the mind of even a fair-weather fan. If anyone is going to put the screws to this team in the short-term, it’s their fiery head coach.
Some of the lineup choices have been quite puzzling. Running spacing nightmare lineups that feature Barnes at point guard and multiple non-shooters on the floor can be tough to watch. Thad Young went from out of the rotation to almost playing the entire game, and his usage of Otto Porter Jr. remains frustrating.
Nick Nurse must fix the Toronto Raptors.
While Nurse has become famous for going above and beyond to slow down the best player on the opposing team, Indiana and Oklahoma City have shown that his patented defense can be easily exposed by any team that shows enough ball movement and marksmanship from 3-point range.
The back-to-back excuse doesn’t move me, for two reasons. First, every team has to go through that multiple times. Second, there’s a difference between being tired and lacking so much energy that two below-average teams blow the doors off you on both ends of the floor. Nurse loves tinkering, but he’ll need to cook up something fast.
Pressure rating: Medium