Quotes from Nick Nurse

Why are people afraid to try something different? Because of the scrutiny they're going to receive if it doesn't work. That stops people from trying things different a lot.

People talk about offensive chemistry all the time, but defensive chemistry is something you have to build, too, and there's a lot of that work to be done with just communications and the feel of who certain guys play.

I think I jumped the gun a bit on head coaching. I got named a head coach at 23, and I really didn't know what I was doing. I remember getting that job and going, 'Oh my God, they gave me the job.'

I'm getting older and mellower in my old age.

As an assistant, when you wake up in the morning, you're opening your laptop and watching film. Then the game starts, and you're watching it until you finally fall asleep.

It's really an organizational job with a football team to watch them go through their day.

I worked at chemistry and developing a style of play on both sides of the ball and studied success and winning.

I like to play aggressive, in general.

I would want to start. I want to run out there in front of 20,000 people and get my name announced. I get it. I get that.

I think a lot of personnel decisions come down to who's the best player today, like if we had to throw 'em in a game today versus what could their upside be 18 months from now. A lot of times, those are two different answers. That's the difficulty of player personnel.

I used to say, as an assistant, I would go in and close my door for three hours after practice and just watch film. Now it seems like I'm in a meeting and then another and then another for three hours that have nothing to do with basketball. It's just different.

People asked me, 'Why aren't you doing something more important?' When I was doing well in the D-League, they were like, 'Why can't you get an NBA job? Or a college job?' I don't think people thought much of what I was doing. That's fine. I was learning. Not just X's and O's, but team dynamics.

If you ask what my philosophy is, my philosophy is kind of like an entrepreneurial philosophy.

The game's evolving quickly, man, and somebody's gotta be trying some new stuff.