Nick Nurse on his impressions of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Raptors coach Nick Nurse discusses what camp has been like so far, what it's like to coach Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and getting the men's program to play with some swagger as they build towards being one of the best in basketball.

Video Transcript

NICK NURSE: Yeah. I mean, listen. It's always getting some dust off and kinks out and all that stuff. And even some conditioning. Obviously live action, pretty long, physical last night. But we'll take care of some of those things.

And back in today with a little bit more organization things. But pretty happy with where we are right now. They were super on point today. And picked things up great and ran them with great juice and concentration, all that stuff. So I'm pretty happy with this morning.

- What do you think it means for some of the younger guys who aren't in the league, or maybe aren't yet in the league to be on the floor with some pretty established players?

NICK NURSE: Yeah. I mean, I think you would watch a like some of the live action, and I think those guys are playing very well, right? I think they're motivated to see what it's like to take it at these guys. They obviously know them from a lot of scenarios. But I would say, some of those guys that you just mentioned played extremely well last night and played extremely hard.

And understanding that it's-- well, they're trying to understand the level at which they need to play or which they need to rise up to play against those guys. So I think it's been an interesting thing, but not that uncommon, right? I think it's almost like back-- remember when I was coaching in the D-league, guys would get sent down, and then with the guys on the D-league roster, all the perk up a little bit to see if they could take it at him a little bit. Yeah.

- We were talking to Dwight about his locker room. He had Dirk. Now he's got Luka and [INAUDIBLE]. Their international trash talk was a lot of fun. They like to talk about what their summers were like. Do you sense that with this group? And have you felt that with the guys from Britain? Like you had Sergio, you coached against Mark. Is that a thing?

NICK NURSE: Well, I think some of those guys talk about and a lot of these international teams, they do obviously play with a lot of passion and have a lot of pride. They are very committed. And when they've got a group that can physically and maybe intellectually go at you, they're going to do it and then maybe tell you about it, right?

They're going to-- I mean, again, the passion that they play with and the intelligence that they play with on top of it gives them kind of an air. And that's why those teams are so good and do collect a lot of medals and trophies in these competitions.

- And that would be something that this group would aspire to be, the first sort of Canadian group that could go at their teammates in the league.

NICK NURSE: Well, yeah. I think so. I mean, I don't think too much about that part of it. I still think we're building, Doug. But I think at some point, you're right. We've got to get to an air of some confidence and a certain swagger to understand what it's going to take to beat those kind of teams, right, eventually. I mean, we're going have to play our way to get to them, right?

So there's kind of a short term focus of let's make sure we're matching intensity, matching hustle, making those kind of plays. Physicality, making-- I always say get dirty. Get on the floor and get dirty and do all those things that you got to do. And then take care of the business that's in front of you first.

- What kind of dynamic are you expecting from Shai and Nickeil? Both pretty rangy guards and do different things.

NICK NURSE: Yeah. I mean, I'm not sure quite what to expect, Michael. But I would imagine they're kind of interchangeable, right? I kind of see them both kind of-- we'll run a run of play a couple of times and they'll switch spots. They just do. And I think they'll both bring it up, I think they'll both get off the ball.

I think not unlike-- I don't know, I guess if you want some kind of-- like what we would do with like Kyle and Fred when they were here or whatever, right? One of them's a point guard sometimes. And just depending again on matchups and feel and rhythm and all that kind of stuff. But I think they'll probably be pretty interchangeable out there.

- I know it's only been a couple of days, but you haven't had a chance to coach or work directly with Shai before. It's your first time?

NICK NURSE: First time.

- Any impressions?

- Well, first of all, he's been super conscientious, super communicative about everything and his excitement to play. You know, I mean he tells me-- I've heard it quite a few times for me, but how pumped he is to be here, right? You know I walked in this morning, he says, good morning Coach, I'm pumped. You know, so he has been great. Super professional and super excited to be here.

And I think I told you guys this last time. I mean, we got this group together last summer. I was just about ready to start a big speech about why we were here and what we were doing, and he interrupted me and said, I got to say something. And he stood up and said, I'm playing. I hadn't even got to ask the question yet. And so again, that just shows you he's ready to go.

- That was in Vegas?

NICK NURSE: Yeah. I think it was in Vegas, yeah.