Nick Nurse misses the Raptors, just like everybody else
Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse just wants to get back to coaching the defending champions, who held the third-best record in the NBA before the season was suspended due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Nurse stressed the importance of prioritizing safety and health in a conference call with reporters on Friday, and kept it in perspective that there are much bigger problems facing the world at the moment. But he did allow for a moment of reflection on how much this Raptors team meant to him.
“This is a really unique situation that I don’t think happens every day with this type of team. Shoot, I could coach these guys 12 months a year and keep on going. We could keep playing all the time. They’re fun to be around, they’re fun to coach, they compete and they’re tough. They figure it out, and it’s a true joy. They are missed, there’s no doubt about it,” Nurse said.
As of now, there is no firm timeline for a return to the 2019-20 season from the league office. Reports suggest that playing in an empty arena sometime in mid-June would be a best-case scenario, and that the NBA is willing to push back until Labour Day, if necessary, to salvage the season. There are also pie-in-the-sky proposals that would see the league resume in a quarantined bubble — perhaps at a casino in Las Vegas — where teams would live and compete in one centralized location.
“If they can figure out a way to play, if it’s safe and we’re not putting people at risk, then I think we’ll play. I don’t know anybody has any feel for any that stuff right now, I don’t know if anybody around the world has figured out how to resume things at all, and I guess we just have to wait and see,” Nurse said.
For Nurse, the priority has been on keeping his team healthy. The Raptors defeated the Utah Jazz on March 10, a game in which players and staff were in close contact with two confirmed COVID-19 carriers in Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell. Two days later, when Gobert tested positive, the NBA suspended the season, and the Raptors were moved into self-quarantine. Fortunately, all members of the Raptors travelling party tested negative, but they moved with the utmost caution and observed 14 days of isolation.
“Once we got the information, it was a pretty quick organizational-wide move to get everyone informed and to give them clear instructions on what to do,” Nurse recalled. “It was literally immediate once we heard that news to get everyone in motion to do the right things, and to listen to health officials and team docs.”
“People were concerned about working out, going to the OVO (practice facility), and I was really, really strong in my messaging to everybody that we’re going to close this, and stay shut. Let’s stay home, let’s lead by example,” he added.
The shutdown forced the Raptors into new routines. The medical staff is checking in daily with players on their health. The fitness staff delivered training equipment and is conducting workouts through teleconferencing platforms. On the basketball side, members of the coaching staff have checked in every two days to give players assignments, such as ball-handling drills, film study, or wherever possible, for players to shoot around in their driveways.
Nurse’s goal is to keep the players ready and prepared to finish what they started. The Raptors were one of the best stories of the season having beat the odds at every turn. Despite losing Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green in free agency, despite significant injuries to just about every member of the rotation, the Raptors were still the second-seed in the East, the third-best team in the league, with a realistic shot of defending their title. And even though it seems uncertain how the season would be salvaged, or if it will be abandoned altogether, the focus remains the same for the Raptors.
“We’ll be ready for whatever is thrown at us, and I don’t think it really matters. What matters is that we attack the title in whatever format that it’s presented in, and we go for it,” Nurse said.
More Raptors coverage on Yahoo Sports:
