Nick Nurse Continues to Innovate the Way Offensive Possessions Begin

The Toronto Raptors are asking their bigs to step outside their comfort zone and bring the ball up the court after they grab a rebound

Aaron Rose | Oct 5, 2021

John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

The Toronto Raptors have decided it’s time to start questioning how things are done in the NBA.

At its basics, success in basketball comes down to three things: defense, rebounding, and shot-making. But how, the Raptors wonder, can everything under those umbrellas be improved? How can they take the traditional, ageless game, and revitalize it to stamp out even the smallest inefficiency?

These days, that quest for innovation has led Raptors coach Nick Nurse to question the way offensive possession starts. Why, he wonders, does the player grabbing the rebound almost always pause for a moment to find a better ball handler?

For the better part of the last 70 years, offensive possessions in the NBA have started with a slow-footed center grabbing a rebound and pivoting to find a guard to pass to. That guard, usually the best ball handler on the court, waits to receive the pass then slowly walks the ball up the court while everyone else gets set up for the ensuing half-court possession.

But why?

The easiest live-action baskets in the NBA have always come in transition when the defense is scrambling to get set up and offensive players are free to take advantage of mismatches and numbers advantages. Why, then, do players pause when they get that rebound?

“We feel like those first second and a half or two seconds of the offensive transition is where you get them and we're trying to eliminate those a little bit,” Nurse said following Tuesday’s practice at OVO.

Instead of letting everyone get set up in those first few seconds, the Raptors are asking their rebounders to grab it and go. They want to push the pace and create advantages where there haven’t been before.

By having their bigs bring the ball up the court, the Raptors are also creating better scoring opportunities for their guards. Instead of having someone like Fred VanVleet bring the ball up, he, Malachi Flynn, Gary Trent Jr., and Goran Dragic can fan out to the perimeter in transition and wait for catch-and-shoot looks.

“We're trying to get them to get up the floor and get off the ball and just sit there and get those kick-outs from Scottie [Barnes] and OG [Anunoby] and Pascal [Siakam] and Precious [Achiuwa],” Nurse said. “We think that puts a lot of pressure and gets them great faced up catch and shoot threes which they need.”

It’s a strategy that makes a ton of sense on paper. The Raptors know their half-court offense is going to be a bit of a work in progress, to put it mildly. Without Kyle Lowry, this team lacks a lot of the firepower and experience to successfully create half-court offense with any sort of regularity. So instead of banging their heads against the wall, trying to force this team to improve in the half-court, Nurse has decided to innovate by asking their bigs to step outside their comfort zone and create advantages where few teams have looked before.

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