New Assistant Trevor Gleeson Brings Fresh International Ideas to Raptors Offense

The Toronto Raptors have added Trevor Gleeson to the staff to help bring some international flair to the half-court offense this season

Aaron Rose | Oct 2, 2021

It’s been three decades since Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse last ran the “flex” offense. Back then, in 1985, Nurse was a senior at Kuemper Catholic High School and the offense was — and largely still is — run by youth basketball coaches across the country. It’s a simple offense that is just a repetitive combination of easy-to-remember passes, screens, and cuts meant to create opportunities at the rim.

For so long, egalitarian offenses like flex weren’t part of the NBA game. Why move the ball, cut, and screen for one another when you can just give the ball to some superstar who can create an advantage out of nothing? Why not just give the ball to Kevin Durant over and over and over again?

But these days, the NBA is learning. The influx of international players and coaches has brought — at least to some teams — an international flavor to the sport’s highest level. Why not, the Raptors believe, innovate? Why not steal ideas from around the world? Why not run a system that actually creates advantages without the need for one-on-one play or some superstar magic?

That’s why the Raptors have brought in new assistant coach Trevor Gleeson, Australia’s five-time National Basketball League champion and one of the foremost proponents of the flex offense.

There was something about those early 2000s Argentinian basketball teams that Gleeson said first drew him to the flex offense. For so long, he’d been frustrated by Lindsay Gaze’s “shuffle” offense down in Melbourne, Australia. The Basketball Hall of Fame coach ran this very simple offense that would make the most of any tiny mistake, Gleeson said. When he saw Manu Ginobili and Argentina running the simple flex patterns on the world’s biggest stage, Gleeson decided he’d have to tinker around with it.

“I wanted to get my best players the ball in their hands at the right spot and play unselfish basketball, to have a counter if that got taken and it really developed out of that,” said Gleeson, who joins the organization after eight years as the head coach of the Perth Wildcats. “Being successful, a lot of teams threw a lot of different looks at it and we figure out a way how to manipulate it to get some good looks.”

The Raptors are no strangers to these egalitarian offense systems. Nurse has long preferred to have his offense generate buckets through what he calls “next action basketball” where the Raptors run a variety of actions until an advantage presents itself. He doesn’t care so much about who is getting the advantage as long as someone is getting off a good look.

To Gleeson, that’s what the flex is so good at. If there’s a mismatch, no matter who the player is, Toronto wants to take advantage.

“It’s dictated on playing unselfish basketball, finding the open man, and working as a team to find the best shot,” the 53-year-old coach said.

This year, that’ll be especially important for Toronto who is expected to be without Pascal Siakam for the first month of the season. Even when the former All-Star returns, the Raptors don’t quite have the kind of offensive firepower that can just rely on playmakers.

“I think the No. 1 reason they would hire someone like Trevor Gleeson is he’s used to dealing with imperfect rosters,” said Chris Oliver, former University of Windsor basketball coach and the founder of Basketball Immersion. “They might have one or two type NBA players, but traditionally they have less perfect rosters. So that roster imperfection causes them to have to figure things out differently than if you had pure traditional NBA-type rosters where you can kind of go right to advantage.”

Toronto isn’t likely going to go all-in when it comes to flex, but the next couple of weeks should allow Gleeson to show off some of his fresh ideas. He said he has a whole list of concepts he wants to throw at Nurse this season and that’s exactly what the Raptors are looking for.

“Nick is very open. He wants different ideas,” Gleeson said. “He wants you to come from a different angle.”

His only challenge is going to make making sure he doesn’t overload his new boss.

“I’ve got to space it out,” Gleeson joked, “give him some breathing space before he says ‘Trevor, that’s too much. Just hang on.’”

Further Reading