Checking in with the head of the class of the D-League

After making their 2010 Showcase debut on Tuesday by opening the second half with a 15-0 run to blow the Austin Toros off the floor, the Iowa Energy had Wednesday off, which gave their coach a chance to scout the talent around the league in person.

“I’m watching mostly personnel,” Nick Nurse said. “I’m just trying to get to know these players and get an up-close look at them. You never know when guys are going to get released or when there are going to be trades. You really get to see what they can do. I sit here and watch every second of every game almost, just because I like to watch the player personnel.”

True to his word, Nurse, whose team owns the league’s best record at 15-2, could be found somewhere around the Qwest Arena stands throughout the day. He was seated courtside for Fort Wayne-Idaho when I caught up with him to chat about his squad’s hot start. While coaches have a long-standing reputation for being impossible to please, Nurse seemed well aware that playing nearly.900 ball is nothing to be terribly upset about.

“I’m pretty happy with it from a couple of standpoints,” he told me. “We believe in all 10 guys, we like to play everybody, and they’re making a commitment to the defensive end of the floor. We haven’t had a whole lot of movement to the roster, so they’ve continued to grow and play together, and we’ve been fortunate to get off to such a good start.”

In a league dominated by personnel turnover, roster continuity can provide a major edge in team success. With the exception of assignee Taylor Griffin bouncing to and from the Suns on a couple of occasions and the fact that Cartier Martin wasn’t acquired until a couple of games into the season, the Energy have maintained a fairly stable roster thus far. Their head man hinted that he believes that’s about to change, however, but he isn’t the least bit unhappy about it: Nurse predicted a call-up in the near future.

“Probably Cartier Martin,” he said. “He had a really good game [Tuesday], and I had some teams contact me that are considering calling him up.”

Nurse cited Martin’s leadership and basketball IQ as assets while noting that the Energy have gone 27-7 in games Martin has appeared in over the last two seasons. While applauding the swingman’s versatile array of skills, he labeled shooting Martin’s strong suit. After clearly needing to shake some rust while coming off the bench in his first couple of games back, Martin has posted 18.4 points per game on 57 percent true shooting since returning to the starting lineup. That includes a terrific 17-for-42 mark (40.2 percent) from beyond the three-point line.

In addition to Martin, Nurse also had high praise for Curtis Stinson. The rugged point guard has filled up the stat sheet all season, making himself a triple-double threat on a nightly basis (he has already posted two and accumulated another eight double-doubles) and logging nearly 42 minutes per game. He attacks the bucket with gusto, crashes the glass especially hard for a point guard and doesn’t make a habit of taking plays off on defense.

“This is my 20th season as a basketball coach, and he is without question the smartest player I’ve ever coached,” Nurse said. “He’s a tough sucker. He cares deeply about winning and losing. He gets the ball where it needs to go and runs all the offenses to perfection.”

Interesting that Nurse would bring up Stinson’s intellect as the guard has shown a bit of a propensity this season for letting his emotions get the best of him on the court. He is one of three players in the league with four technical fouls (one of which came courtesy of an elbow he threw when he thought he was getting held in the backcourt) and has already been ejected from a game for yapping at an official. While he needs to keep his temper in check on the court, it’s clear the Energy will take the whole package of on-court decision-making with Stinson, whom Nurse believes will be an NBA player with time and improvement of his outside shooting.

Of course, as per contractual obligations of the coaching union*, while happy to be atop the standings so far, Nurse wants more from his team through the rest of the season.

“Right now, we’re really getting by on our defense and collective attitude, and that’s hard to maintain at the professional level,” Nurse explained. “I’d like to see if we could continue to improve at it, bring that energy over the course of 48 minutes and get all 10 players involved, make that something we’re known for.  You don’t really sit around and say ‘Boy wasn’t that Austin team from two years ago was really good defensively?’ That’s something people don’t talk about, and I think it would be neat if we could do something like that.”

With player development the first priority and plenty of movement expected now that NBA teams can offer 10-day contracts, it’s hard to get too much of a read on how the rest of this season will go from a team success standpoint in the D-League. As currently constituted, this is a terrific Iowa team, though Rio Grande Valley, Idaho and Maine all have the personnel, the coaching and the team-wide unselfishness to give the Energy a run. But credit Nurse and his team for making it through the Showcase with the league’s top mark.

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I spent most of Thursday either in the air, sitting on planes during layovers or delayed at Midway in Chicago, which means that we’re checking in at a bit past five in the morning in the East, and I still haven’t had the chance to go through even half the audio from the past week in Idaho. We’re likely headed toward a giant Boise Experience post in the near future as well as several other pieces inspired by happenings during my time at Showcase. But for now, I continue to refer you to Ridiculous Upside for Scott Schroeder’s terrific game coverage and thank you for your patience as I try to recover from an incredibly enjoyable but equally draining week of D-League-related travel.

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Posted this on Twitter earlier in the week, but I find it intriguing enough to repeat: What was Tre Whitted doing before making the Springfield Armor in an open tryout this fall?

Answer: Selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door.

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*That coaching union comment isn’t actually true. It’s a joke. So please don’t email me or leave a comment just to tell me it’s not true. Please do email or leave comments for just about anything else on your mind.