Some notes from the column, one that is worth reading in full:
>Nurse’s unprompted and public preview of his upcoming exit in the midst of a playoff race was the last blunder that upset everyone from players to management and staff… and it was damning to hear president Masai Ujiri talk about the lack of accountability and culture after his firing.
>Toronto made 737 more field-goal attempts than its opponents, more than double the next closest team, at plus-344, but this overwhelming advantage didn’t matter because it was also third-worst in effective field-goal percentage on offense and second-worst on defense. They had a plan to win the possession battle, but where were the answers for how the Raptors were going to score and how they were going to force misses?
>Ujiri spoke of accountability, role definition, a lack of togetherness, the loss of culture; that all points to the need for improving how people were managed
>But the starting five produced much better results when Trent was benched a second time with the arrival of Jakob Poeltl, who stabilized the group on defense. No matter how many times Nurse went out of his way to highlight Trent’s professionalism, his lineup decisions said it all. And while that might leave a sting in Trent’s mind as he decides on his future as a free agent, the same dilemma will exist no matter where he goes. His value as a sixth man is there – just look at Powell making $90 million for five years in L.A. – but until he adds more to his game, the Raptors can take it or leave it.
>Achiuwa is a hardworking player who is routinely seen getting in extra work after practices, and it did translate to tangible improvements in his paint efficiency, even if his three-point shot remains a work in progress. The more that the Raptors define his role, the better both he and the team will be.
>Beyond the need across the board for shooting, the Raptors also lack another playmaker to generate offense off the bench. The starting five played great, but the level of play began to drop with each successive reserve that was introduced.
>In a nutshell, that is middle approach of accumulating assets, and it will likely inform how Ujiri approaches his key free agents. So long as the Raptors can re-sign Poeltl, VanVleet and perhaps Trent to positive-value contracts, it makes sense to keep the asset. Even if they let everyone walk, there is no path to meaningful cap room, and Ujiri noted that star players are now signing extensions and then asking for trades rather than entertaining free agency.
>If Ujiri doesn’t see value in signing Anunoby and Pascal Siakam to their upcoming extensions, moving one of them with a year left on their deals would be wise. Better yet, if a star were to ask out as Kevin Durant and Donovan Mitchell did last summer, the Raptors should feel much less attached than they a year ago. But don’t be surprised if the same group is brought back. Ujiri’s history says he is pragmatic and patient, above all else.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nba/article/10-things-with-nick-nurse-fired-masai-ujiri-now-becomes-the-focus-with-raptors/
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by EarthWarping
12 Comments
More deflection from ujiri, with these pieces m. Maybe nurse was venting his frustration for two seasons and had enough and this falls on ujiri and Webster look at what happened when we actually got a centre! All this was very avoidable we lost a great coach (no coach doesn’t t have flaws) to stubbornness of the management imo
I’m hoping that we’re getting the point that the sting of the end of the season is passing and people can be a little more pragmatic about the team.
We aren’t a dumpster fire of a roster. Yes, we need an extra shooter or two, but our top 2 shooters had career-worst seasons, and outside of OG, everyone shot under their career average. Adding in a lottery pick that can shoot and some returns to career averages should make a difference. Any successful team also has some breakout/anomaly season from a player. We didn’t have that. That’s certainly something NN’s philosophy didn’t really allow for. Given extended minutes, there’s a chance that one of Malachi, Wieskamp, RHJ or Dowtin could shoot 40% from 3.
Our starting lineup did look pretty good once we added Poeltl. Hopefully Scottie can take on a larger, and more aggressive, role next season. Pascal has been a very good 3 point shooter in the past, and if he focuses on that in the off-season I don’t see a reason he can’t add that back into his game. Having Fred, OG and Pascal all shooting decently (37%, 38%, 35% respectively) would make having a non-shooter in Poeltl and an early developing shooter in Scottie manageable in the starting lineup for sure. Precious with a defined role can give good two-way minutes. We’ll see if Koloko can add a bit to his game over his first offseason in the league. Maybe one of Dowtin, RHJ, Malachi or Banton look like a real significant contributor next season off the bench. Plus we’ve got a lottery pick to add some talent off the bench.
Give all of these guys a real offensive system to work in, and simplify the defensive system enough to help players conserve energy and utilize our strong individual defenders, and it may just come together. We won 48 games a year ago and I really don’t think that this team has less talent than the Knicks or Hawks or Heat. If the team can be more cohesive, spurred by a new voice in the locker room, we could absolutely be the 5 seed next year and win a playoff series.
If a great deal comes up for OG or Pascal then I’m all for it, but selling those guys for pennies just for the sake of change is absolutely not the way to go.
Riiiight. Cause NN caused the players to miss 18 free throws. The only real negative of NN coaching tenure is that he didn’t use the bench players enough. Not about this BS about culture that Ujiri is spewing. Culture is fine when you’re winning. It’s not fine when you’re not. The Raptors looked absolutely fine when they were winning. They were distributing the ball, finding players in transition, playing defence, laughing and joking etc etc. When they were losing, FVV was being called a ball hog who just throws up whatever shot he can get. Siakam was being blamed for not being the number one option. OG blamed for not being consistent offensively. The bench being blamed for not being good enough. The point is, this team had many failures from top to bottom. None of these failures imo means they need to blow up the team. But hey what do I know. I’m not an NBA GM. Blowing up the team basically means getting rid of everyone not named Barnes and having potentially sub .500 seasons until future draft picks or future free agents figure out how to get this winning “culture” back again. It’s going to be a long road ahead and I doubt we will ever see a championship in Toronto again and if we do it won’t be for many many many years. People don’t realize that all the stars have to align. We had competitive teams for years and years and only won once. The goal shouldn’t be to necessarily WIN a championship at all costs. It should be to be competitive enough to make it to the finals, to be a top tier team and see if things can go your way. All of this while keeping an identity and believing in the guys who got you there.
It would be such a horrible look for this FO next year if the team is still as bad at both competition result and talent development.
It would basically mean that the FO and roster construction was the issue all along, and that they kept investing in this core while many, including the best coach in franchise history, didn’t not believe in this roster.
From Doug Smith’s article today:
[There are people high up in the organization who grew increasingly angry with Nurse for burying young players that the team had invested time and money in.](https://www.thestar.com/sports/raptors/analysis/2023/04/23/raptors-insider-behind-the-scenes-on-a-season-that-went-off-the-rails-ending-with-nick-nurses-firing.html)
In my mind, this along with clear loss of the locker room is why Nick was fired. How can you properly assess your team when you got a bunch of players sitting on the bench? Not to mention how Pascal, Fred, OG and Scottie are top 25 in minutes played across the league. Plenty of coaches across the league don’t bury their bench and ask their starters to play crazy minutes to the point of fatigue.
Pretty much what we’ve all been saying. Nick had a flawed roster but he could’ve done better with minute management and rotations.
ie Stop putting Thad Young in at center, it’s Game 40 Nick!
He needed to make the most of what he had – and he did so in 2020 and 2022! – but in 2023 he failed to adapt and be a better coach, and it cost the team in the long run.
Running it back is not pragmatic. It’s just lazy and stupid.
That field goal attempts stat is unreal
Masai to Nurse the last 3 years:
Here are 6 nba players, 8 development projects and the ghost of Thad Young.
Only one is a point guard and we couldn’t find a centre.
Everyone is pretty tall though so it should work out.
Make the playoffs and maximize player development.
Probably want to focus on developing 3pt shooting as none of them can shoot at the moment.
Best of Luck
Front office needs to pick a lane. Development or compete, attempting to do both never works.
i don’t get what else people really thought nurse could do, with a dysfunctional roster that’s not built for the modern nba. leadership isn’t solely on the head coach, this is why teams have established veteran leadership to help bridge the gap between the players and the coaching staff.
all the veteran leaders left, they desperately tried to replace that void with thad; which didn’t change much. lou is out of touch here, it’s not a matter of inspiration – winning fixes a lot of things of this nature. an improved roster changes everything, there was way too much pressure from the top to win with such a broken roster.
you could see it in how tense the team played all year, nick was burnt out trying to figure out rotations; without a back up pg, and no starting center for years. masai & co. gave him a raw deal and they know it, there was absolutely nothing that could’ve been done to get more wins out of that team. nothing. the play in game was just a display of how burnt out the team was. everyone just wanted the season to be done with at that point.
Cant really inspire much when your bench is Malachi Flynn and Bo Cruz
Huge mistake firing Nurse. I’m a believer he made incredible work squeezing 41 wins out of 0 bench pieces. Hope he wins the title next year.