Signs Raptors' core players aren't tuning out Nick Nurse

There have been questions raised about whether or not Nick Nurse is getting full buy-in from his players. The play of O.G. Anunoby, Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet suggests he is.

Video Transcript

IMMAN ADAN: Let's go super fast-- super fast round. Nick Nurse, then we'll do Masai and Bobby, which really is just the Raptors' front office. And we talked about it. It's a trade. But let's start with Nick Nurse. Oren, I'll start with you.

OREN WEISFELD: My New Year's resolution for Nick Nurse is just to be nicer. Be nicer to yourself. Be nicer to your team. Be nicer to the media. Be nicer because he has not been in a good mood recently. Understandably, I think there's a lot of pressure on him from the front office. And the team is not playing up to standards. But it is certainly leaking out publicly-- some of his feelings about Chris Boucher, for example. And I just think it'd be nice. Let's have a nicer Nick Nurse in the new year.

IMMAN ADAN: Is he, like, evil Ted Lasso? Is he Ted Lasso's evil twin? Amit, what about you?

AMIT MANN: Is his job on the line, do you think? Like, is he--

OREN WEISFELD: I don't think so.

IMMAN ADAN: I don't think so.

AMIT MANN: I don't think so either. But it makes you think. Like, with any other coach who is, this position they probably would be-- a team that's underachieving, losses on losses on losses. Like, they're not just losses. They're blowouts. So I don't know. I mean, they made this vision-- Masai, Bobby, and Nick.

IMMAN ADAN: --real roster constructions with--

AMIT MANN: Yeah, there are some real issues, for sure. And he's already shown he can do it.

OREN WEISFELD: And also, when you bring a city its first championship, I think you have, like, three years of leeway.

IMMAN ADAN: More leeway, yeah.

AMIT MANN: And when there's clear roster flaws--

IMMAN ADAN: And there's a lot of talk about people tuning Nick Nurse out. I know I said that this was gonna be rapid fire. But I just wanted to say, like--

AMIT MANN: Yeah

IMMAN ADAN: --who? Who? What is this conversation that we're having? Fred VanVleet, obviously, is, like, a Nick Nurse favorite. OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam-- we've talked about the seasons that they're having. If that's your idea of tuning him out, I would love to see them tuned into [INAUDIBLE], right?

OREN WEISFELD: Well, Pascal was asked about it by Vivek the other day--

IMMAN ADAN: Yeah.

OREN WEISFELD: --about his relationship to Nick. And he gave such a nice answer. He didn't need to. He was like, he helped me become the player I am today with his style of free-flowing offense and grabbing rebounds and going. So I was-- I was pretty surprised to see him say that. But it goes to show.

AMIT MANN: It was very thoughtful.

IMMAN ADAN: Yeah, and-- and that's, like-- it's just-- so what is the issue in terms of people who tuned out? He was-- like you said, just had those comments about Chris Boucher. And I thought, being benched in the first half, Chris Boucher really came out in that second half and actually showed that, like, oh, no, he can dial himself in. And you know what? That benching-- he didn't take it to heart. He didn't mope. He came out and actually played better after doing that. So it's like, where is this tuning out coming from if we're talking about-- you know, we just went through all of their main starters.

And the only one we didn't mention is Scottie Barnes. But he's in his second year. If we're talking about him, before the start of the new year, tuning out your championship head coach, I think we have bigger issues there. So I don't know. I think that he's deserving of some more-- some more rope and some more leeway. It sucks what's happening right now. But there are real issues with the way that this team is built. So let's push over to Masai Ujiri and Bobby.