There is no doubt that the Milwaukee Bucks’ coaching vacancy is a highly coveted job. Many candidates will be licking their chops to coach an elite superstar such as Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Former Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse appears to be the leading candidate to become the next head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Milwaukee Bucks should jump at the opportunity to hire Nick Nurse. With his championship pedigree, along with him being the best available coach on the open market, he is the perfect fit to lead this team moving forwards for the following reasons.
3 Reasons why the Milwaukee Bucks should hire Nick Nurse
No. 1 – His offensive approach
The Bucks are in dire need of a new identity overall. They also need a new voice who can offer a fresh and creative approach to coaching schemes, both offensively and defensively. Welcome Nick Nurse to the equation.
This team needs to be much more efficient in the half-court, especially come playoff time. The offense under Mike Budenholzer became predictably slow and very sloppy. More often than not, the ball became sticky with little to no ball movement.
This ultimately led to the ball being in Giannis’ hand at the end of the shot clock, with him attempting to drive through three or four defenders to score.
During Nurse’s five-year tenure in Toronto, and specifically the last two seasons, his rosters have been flawed, and his teams did not have the size and/or shooting that the Bucks currently have on the roster.
Poor playoff shooting is what has really hampered the Bucks’ offense this past postseason against the Miami Heat, as well as last season against the Boston Celtics, mainly led by Jrue Holiday. With inevitable roster changes upcoming this offseason, this can and will help contribute to creating an elite half-court offense.
Worst case scenario, Nurse can always hire an offensive guru as his lead assistant coach to help him improve the half-court offense.
No. 2 – His defensive approach
While the Bucks are already a very good defensive team with the current roster, Nurse would catapult them to another level due to his creativity. With the excellent defensive personnel he would be inheriting on the roster, specifically both Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez, assuming he returns, there would most likely be some changes and tweaks, especially guarding and defending the 3-point shot.
It is pretty much a guarantee that a Nick Nurse-coached team will not be playing single coverage against a player like Jimmy Butler come playoff time, who torched them badly in their embarrassing round one defeat. Most likely the drop defense would be gone, which would be a sight for sore eyes for Bucks fan.
Nurse is also known for creating a defensive wall, which he successfully did in the 2019 Eastern Conference Finals when the Raptors came back from a 2-0 deficit to win the next four games and knock the Bucks out of the playoffs. Nurse is a master at switching defenses as well and is very good at exposing the opposing teams glaring offensive weaknesses, as he did against the Bucks when he coached circles around Mike Budenholzer.
No. 3 – His conditioning tactics
It’s no secret that the Milwaukee Bucks, for the most part, have been a poorly conditioned team for the past five years with Budenholzer at the helm. Come playoff time, there have been many occasions when players looked very winded with heavy legs, especially Khris Middleton.
Although he was injured for a good part of the season, Middleton was clearly not in game shape. He has never fully looked conditioned to play heavy minutes during his time with the Bucks.
This is mainly due to the fact that Mike Budenholzer played his starters 30-32 minutes per game on average throughout the regular season. He would do this with the hopes of preserving them come playoff time.
With Nick Nurse as head coach, guess who will no longer be averaging 30-32 minutes per game? The answer would be all of the Bucks starters.
Nurse is notorious for playing his starters heavy minutes during the regular season. While some may criticize this approach, this can only help the starters to be well conditioned and in game shape come playoff time, when they aren’t sucking wind.
Nick Nurse is a highly regarded and respected coach. He is capable of getting the most out of his players and is somewhat of an overachiever.
The dangling carrot for Nick Nurse to coach the Milwaukee Bucks is the opportunity to coach Giannis Antetokounmpo in his prime…right now. Based on that alone, it makes the head coaching vacancy an extremely attractive job.
He would bring a different coaching style and lineage with him, which the players and fans will welcome with open arms. There is no doubt that he is the best man for the job and would improve the team’s performance come playoff time, most importantly.
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