Nick Nurse Explains Moving Fred VanVleet Off Ball & Improving Shot Selection This Year

The Toronto Raptors are looking to move Fred VanVleet off ball more often this season and let Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes take over the point guard spot

Aaron Rose | Sep 28, 2022

John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

It wasn't all that long ago that Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse was spearheading the new era of the NBA's offensive revolution. Back then, working in the Houston Rockets organization, Nurse was ushering in the offensive efficiency movement popularized by then-Rockets president Darryl Morey. To them, if it wasn't a free-throw, three-pointer, or shot at the rim, it shouldn't be taken.

That's what made last season so perplexing for the Raptors. After so long as one of the league's most hyper-efficient offenses, Toronto's shot selection totally shifted. Nurse's squad ranked 21st in shot attempts in the restricted area, 19th in catch-and-shoot three-pointers attempted, 21st in free throws drawn, and 20th in Shot Quality, a fancy statistic that bundles all those statistics together for one catch-all metric.

This season that has to change.

"I’m not saying we’re full going to leap back to those philosophically on-paper shot spectrum, but what I do hope is that we hammer the front of the rim, I hope we hammer the free throws (and) getting to the rim," Nurse said at Monday's media day.

To him, the formula is simple: Attack the rim and either finish when defenders sag off or spay the ball out to three-point shooters when the opposing defenses collapse.

"You’ve got to run it a little bit to open up the pass," said Nurse, drawing on an old football saying. "I think getting to the front of the rim opens up the three ball, and we certainly want our share of catch-and-shoot threes. So, I would hope that concentrating or emphasizing the front end of our shot spectrum would kind of smooth out the overall shot spectrum."

For the Raptors, though, that's going to take a fairly unusual look this season. Instead of having their lead point guard, Fred VanVleet, bring the ball up the court and try to penetrate the defense, Nurse wants to let Scottie Barnes and Pascal Siakam lead the charge this season. It's an idea that should put Toronto's best players in their best places to succeed.

Consider this: VanVleet generated 1.11 points per shot attempt within the restricted area last season and 1.30 on catch-and-shoot three-pointers while Siakam and Barnes averaged 1.34 and 1.42 points per attempt in the restricted area, respectively.

"(Fred)'s going to play off the ball a lot," Nurse told reporters in Victoria, B.C. on Tuesday. "Again, I think that's where we've seen the shift in Scottie, Pascal, even O.G. probably, bringing it up the floor. You guys know I love it because I think that gets those guys in not necessarily open floor situations put defenses on the move situations and then you've got Freddy, Gary, some of those guys on the perimeter ready to shoot if they do touch the paint and the defense collapses. So it's a good way to create some early offense."

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