Nick Nurse puts his fluid rotation on display against the Cavaliers

For obvious reasons, all eyes were on Kawhi Leonard as he made his Raptors regular season debut against the Cavaliers.

The former Spurs superstar didn’t disappoint, racking up 24 points to go with 13 rebounds in a 116-104 win over Cleveland. But Leonard wasn’t the only member of the team to make his debut on Wednesday night.

Nick Nurse got a win in his first regular season game as an NBA head coach, and he did it in a way that we’ll likely soon be calling “vintage Nurse.”

One of the factors that encouraged Raptors president Masai Ujiri to hire Nurse was the coach’s reputation as one of the brightest and most creative minds in the game. Nurse, who doesn’t seem to care much about typical NBA norms, spoke confidently about his plans for the starting lineup and rotation ahead of the season.

“I think what’ll happen is you’ll throw a starting lineup out there and you’ll win a game and [think], ‘oh we don’t wanna change the starting lineup,” Nurse shared with TSN’s Josh Lewenberg. “It’s almost like a superstition thing. I’d like to keep it a little fluid, only because I think this is a super versatile team and I’d like to keep us in a versatile mindset, especially starting out here.”

Raptors fans got their first taste of Nurse’s fluid, versatile rotation in earnest on Wednesday night. It started with Nurse’s starting lineup, which featured Jonas Valanciunas at centre and Pascal Siakam at power forward. (It’s worth noting that I incorrectly predicted Valanciunas to start the season on the bench, since Serge Ibaka seemed to have the starter’s role in the preseason. But that just goes to show how unpredictable Nurse can be).

Nurse played to Toronto’s strength, deploying 10 players throughout the game in a true display of the team’s superior depth. But there was one moment late in the fourth quarter when we got to see just how fluid the Raptors’ rotation could be in the season to come.

Toronto was nursing a 12-point lead with less than seven minutes left to play when Valanciunas leapt up from the bench to check into the game. JV would be replacing Ibaka at centre just as soon as the whistle blows the play dead, but as Valanciuas watched from the scorer’s table, Ibaka started making things happen.

With a great read on help defence, Ibaka met a slashing George Hill at the rim for a big block that sparked a fast break the other way for the Raptors. Ibaka then followed the great defensive effort with a deft follow-up layup to give the Raptors a 14-point lead. The block, the fast break, and the basket — all created by Ibaka’s presence on the court.

Valanciunas would check into the game with 6:20 left in the fourth quarter, but he returned to the bench less than two minutes later. The player that replaced him at centre? Serge Ibaka.

The Congolese native wound up finishing the game with four players from the starting lineup: Siakam, Leonard, Kyle Lowry and Danny Green (which are the four starters that I had correctly predicted).

It was this quick audible that could be a strong indication of just how fluid Nurse’s lineup can be. NBA coaches typically lean on their starters to close out a close game, and that’s exactly what Nurse did, putting JV in for Ibaka late in the fourth quarter. But that lineup change lasted all of 1 minute and 26 seconds.

“I’m a guy that when there’s something rolling out there, the predetermined rotations might go right in the garbage can,” Nurse told TSN.

Ibaka was rolling on both ends of the court before he was taken out, and while Nurse may have planned on calling JV’s number late in the game, it didn’t take long for him to change his mind.

In his first game as Toronto’s head coach, Nurse’s rotation proved to be just as interesting as it is fluid.

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