Nick Nurse Got Screwed
I know this is just the Coach's Association and not the official NBA Coach Of The Year Award, but it's still a screw job. I know this probably annoyed the shit out of Raptors fans out there and since they don't have a Raptors blogger on this fine site to explain why this is bullshit, I'd be more than happy to. Despite rooting for a rival team in the same division I am someone with eyes and a partially functioning brain. There's no denying that both the Bucks and the Thunder are having a great year. What Milwaukee is doing this year is once again historic and deserves praise. The Thunder are one of the surprises of the entire season. The second thye traded for Chris Paul and gutted their entire team, we all thought they would be in the lottery. Instead they are one of the hottest teams in the bubble and look to be a real tough out in the playoffs. Billy Donovan deserves credit for that.
But this is just wildly disrespectful to what Nick Nurse has done with the Raptors this year. Remember when they were supposed to be dead when Kawhi left? Whoops. They only have THE THIRD MOST WINS IN THE ENTIRE NBA. What's a bigger surprise, the Thunder being a 5/6 seed in the West with a healthy Chris Paul and stud SGA or the Raptors without Kawhi having the third most wins in the league and being pretty much locked into a top 2 seed in the East?
Not only that, but the Raptors own the 2nd best defense in the league, 4th best net rating, and are even 17-8 against the West. We knew the Bucks were going to be a wagon. There's no surprise that they ran through the entire league. That's what happens when you have Giannis. The Raptors win total heading into the year was 46.5. Based on their current winning percentage they are on a 59 win pace! What more does this man have to do to get some respect around here? I thought he took care of that last year when ya know, he won a title. If you wanted to have things be split with Donovan/Nurse I could understand that. Sorry to Coach Bud but you got your love last year. When you look at the most impressive coaching performances of the season I don't know how you don't vote for Nick Nurse. I'd LOVE to know what coach didn't vote for him and would love it even more if it was Brad Stevens after Nick Nurse kept playing Kemba in the All Star game, ruining his knee. Or maybe Dwyane Casey because he's salty about how things ended. I'm all for being petty.
We'll see if the actual COY award bones Nick Nurse as well, but someone needed to stand up to this injustice. I'm not sure if you watched this team lately, but they just manhandled the Lakers. I hear that team is a title contender. This just continues my stance that everyone is sleeping on the Raptors from their title chances to now this coaching award. Last time that happened they messed around and won the whole damn thing so maybe put some respect on their names.