MANILA, Philippines - Shooting doctor David Nurse is in town for two weeks to conduct skills development sessions with Purefoods on coach Tim Cone’s invitation and hopes to be back later this year to work with more basketball teams with the goal of improving player efficiency in offense.
Nurse, 27, was a 6-3 shooting guard who hit 36 percent from three-point distance and 78.5 percent from the line in three years with the Western Illinois varsity. He was undrafted in the NBA in 2010 and played in Australia before forming his skills development outfit Perfect Shots in Los Angeles.
Since striking out on his own, Nurse has conducted clinics for over 500 high school, college and pro teams in over 15 countries in six continents. He has worked on a personal basis with NBA veterans Aron Baynes, Aaron Gordon, C. J. Watson, James McAdoo, Alex Kirk and Kalin Lucas.
“I can’t claim credit for what Kyle Korver has done in the NBA but we grew up in Iowa together and I got to work with him, too,” said Nurse. “My mentor is San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Chip Engelland who had a great career in the Philippines. I try to get in touch with Chip once or twice a week. I know that if I go to restaurants in Manila and say I’m Chip’s friend, people will be nice to me.”
Engelland, messaging from San Antonio, said Nurse is “a really good guy.” He added, “I like David, I’ve never worked with him directly but he seems to have a good feel for things.”
Statistics show that 84 percent of teams that Nurse has worked with posted an improvement in overall field goal or three-point field goal or free throw percentage, an average win increase of 4.75 games and an average rise in production by 7.6 points a game. Nurse has also trained over 65 high school players who eventually became college athletic scholars.
What’s remarkable about Nurse is he holds multiple world records in shooting, including the most three-point conversions of 81-of-90 in five minutes and most consecutive three-pointers with 19 in a minute. “I do it for the heck of it,” he said. “I hope Allan Caidic doesn’t come along and think of breaking my records.”
Nurse and Caidic met up at the La Salle gym on Taft the other day. Nurse conducted a 1 1/2 hour skills session with the Green Archers. “I know about coach Allan and his record of 17 triples in a game,” said Nurse. “I think La Salle is blessed that a legend like Allan is in the coaching staff. The players should take advantage of the opportunity to work with a legend, ask questions, learn from him.” Caidic holds the PBA records for most points by a local with 79, most three-pointers in a quarter with eight, most consecutive three-pointers in a game with eight and most three-pointers in a game with 17.
Nurse and Cone were at the NBA summer league in Las Vegas last year. Cone invited Nurse to Manila as his house guest and to conduct sessions with the Star Hotshots. Aside from Purefoods and La Salle, Nurse also ran a clinic for coach Jerry Codinera and the Arellano University varsity. Nurse plans to return here in September to do preseason workouts for PBA teams.
“Although I’m involved in overall skills development, my specialty is shooting,” he said. “With Purefoods, I work within coach Tim’s system and try to make the offensive players more efficient. I use a progressive format of drills designed to give you the perfect form in shooting with the perfect backspin and the perfect balance. It’s teaching you how to shoot the correct way in game time speed. When I played, I really wasn’t smart enough or tall enough or athletic enough so I focused on doing what I do best which is shooting. It’s a skill that I want to teach and develop. I’ve done shootouts with my guys and the only one who’s beaten me is Norman Powell of UCLA and he’s going to the pros.”
Nurse said from what he’s seen, Filipino players are among the best shooters in the world and cited James Yap as an example. “Guys like Klay Thompson, Steph Curry, Larry Bird, Mark Price, Kyle and Mike Miller, they’re pure shooters,” he said. “Michael Jordan was a mechanically-built shooter, meaning he worked his butt out to become a great shooter – it didn’t come naturally. I’m big on motivation and I like working with pros because they’re motivated, they want to improve because playing is their career.”
Before coming to Manila, Nurse was in Australia for 3 1/2 weeks conducting camps as former national player Ben Knight’s guest. From Manila, he travels to Singapore, Hong Kong and possibly, Korea. One of Nurse’s advocacies is building basketball courts in depressed districts in Kenya, Ghana and Brazil through his charity vehicle Basketball Life.
Traveling around the world has opened Nurse’s eyes to the different ways basketball is played. “In Europe, players grow up throwing pocket passes from the hip with one hand which gives you a split second advantage over guys who throw two-handed passes,” he said. “In the US, guys grow up playing physical, one-on-one and the power game. In Korea, players shoot basically the same way, pushing it up from near the shoulder. My job is to break down how people play and make them improve. In the NBA, I do scouting for my guys, provide them with tendency reports on their matchups. It’s my goal to make my guys better, more efficient and more effective.”