Who is the Macgyver of coaching in the NBA?

[CoachD]

For Nick Nurse to build his team around Kawhi and then not have Kawhi and still be this good is quite an accomplishment.

To get my homerism out of the way, Quin took a team of jumbo, poor-shooting defenders, completely transformed them into a team of smallball snipers, and got them into the top half of tough WC brackets both ways.

But the Raptors were good under their previous coach too.

Maybe Nurse is overrated and there's more to Toronto than that.

The Raptors were systematically taken apart under Casey. We had to scrap and claw to get past inferior teams in the playoffs due to his stubbornness. He'd make the same subs, at the same time of the game regardless of context or opposing lineups.

The # of 5 second calls we had out of inbounds was insane. I'm not kidding you. Our team had regular issues inbounding the ball in pressure situations. We'd have a single inbound option and went that failed, our team panicked.

The difference between Nurse and Casey is night and day.

I'll always love Casey. He's a players coach who is great at motivating players. He is not a good Xs and Os coach, not even a little bit.

Nurse makes adjustments from possession to possession and MID possession (like his zone D that becomes man on ball screens)

Casey couldn't even make adjustments in 3 straight playoff seasons vs Lebron. Every year the defensive plan was to pack the paint and force Lebron to kick out... completely ignoring that his shooters were killing us.

And in his last season with Toronto, he scrapped Nurse's offense which had them looking like legit contenders and went back to Derozan isos and high screen and roll.

When Ibaka and Valanciunas were getting destroyed he couldn't figure out a change. Nurse said in one of his first press conferences after he was promoted that Ibaka was moving to center.

If Casey hadn't been fired and was with the Kawhi team ... Toronto wouldn't have the championship. They wouldn't have gotten past Philly, and the Orlando series would have likely gone 7.

It's just not even close.

Nurse is one of the best coaches in the league

[jk31]

Mike D'antoni

Why that green? That really hurt my eyes...

[Kreamy]

[RGM_SU]

Being a great coach doesn't necessarily mean you're a "Macgyver" coach. Larry Brown and Rick Carlisle are great coaches, but they don't qualify here. They are both rigid in their beliefs and teachings/coaching. They do it their way, period. If they have the pieces that fit what they do, they'll be great. If not, they won't.

Pat Riley is a good choice, as someone mentioned above. The fact that the Showtime Lakers and the 90's Knicks/00' Heat were coached by the same person is crazy.

In how far is Carlisle "rigid" in his coaching? You mention that it's crazy that the Showtime Lakers and 90s Knicks were coached by the same person. Well, now compare the way Carlisle's Detroit or Indiana teams in the early/mid 2000s play to the way the late 2000s Mavericks played to the way the Mavericks play now. It's quite a development.

[Imon]

This has gotta be Pop.
Won a championship in three different decades with teams that played a different kind of ball.

That 2014 Spurs team was nut. I remember thinking as they dismantled the Heat in the Finals that I was watching some kind of basketball on a different plane of existence. Funny thing, back then I thought that Spurs team really shot the 3-ball like crazy but compared to how many shots teams put up today it's actually quite tame.
The Spurs put up about 21 3pta/g that season which was actually slightly below league average at the time. Now the league average is 34 3pta/g.

[Swish1906]

Rick Carlisle deserves a mention. His offenses are usually so good even when he isn't working with top tier talent.

We gave Monta Ellis a four year contract based on how good he looked on the Mavs, and he only finished half of it.

This.

The guy inserted JJ Barea into the S5 after game 3 in the 2011 finals. Mavs won three straight games with Barea playing incredible well, including crazy three guard lineups with Kidd/Barea/Terry against a team with Wade and LeBron...

Its insane that some ppl call him overrated "look at His record after the title" because they dont realize with what roster he had to work.

In 2015 he built the (so far) best offense all time around Dirk + Monta, Nelson, Parsons and Brandan Wright...

https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2016/8/15/12406188/2015-dallas-mavericks-fun-rondo-tyson-chandler-brandan-wright-dirk

[fbalmeida]

To be completely fair to Nick Nurse I counted at least 27 different "f--king defenses" and maybe 30 more that just fiddle with your ass a little, to conserve player's energy.

[God Squad]

Pop has been overrated for a couple of years. But I'm gonna put that on roster construction. I like Rick Carlisle he deserves some credit for the Mavs amazing offense. Brad Stevens was one coach who I was very jealous of once upon a time, Not anymore though.


Clearly its Nick Nurse.

[packforfreedom]

Mike D'antoni

Why that green? That really hurt my eyes...

It's also wrong. D'Antoni is pretty good adapting to his star player.

[Johnny Bball]

Tom Thibodeau for sure

Watch on YouTube

[rapsdontlie]

Nurse is opposite of Casey - that guy was no Macgyver. Just want to point out that just because we Raptors fans, we are not hypocritically vote for our guy, Raptors fans hated their coaches for 2 decades, Nurse is an anomaly.

No kidding. I've been a Raps fan from the beginning. Having Nurse as our HC, I keep thinking to myself, "What did we do to deserve this guy?" Or, "So this is what it's like to have a basketball minded HC."

No other previous Raps head coach comes close IMO. The previous COY that we've had, they were more player's coaches than a Macgyver-type.

[Teen Girl Squad]

I'm going to vote Carlisle too because he has the track record. As great as Nurse as been, you need longer than a few seasons to showcase his versatility. Its absurd how productive Carlisle has made a whole myriad of different janky rosters and you can't even quite figure out what he's doing to make it so good, it just works.