Raptors' Nick Nurse '100 Percent' Committed to Team Canada's Olympic Qualifying

The 2020 Olympics may have been postponed for a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but that hasn't changed Nick Nurse's stance on coaching the Canadian men's basketball team.

The Toronto Raptors head coach told reporters Friday he remains "100 percent committed" to coaching Team Canada in 2021 as it attempts to qualify for the Tokyo Games.

Nurse added that he misses coaching the Raptors amid the NBA's hiatus because of the coronavirus:

Canada Basketball hired the 52-year-old in June to lead Team Canada, just weeks after he coached the Raptors to their first NBA title.

"One of the challenges we're going to have is to make sure we piece it together right," he told reporters of his vision for the team. "We're going to need scorers, role players, defenders, shot-blockers, we're going to have to piece it together so we can be versatile. Like with the Raptors, one series we were playing big, another series we were playing small."

Nurse expressed frustration in September after a number of the team's top players, including Jamal Murray, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Andrew Wiggins and RJ Barrett, didn't participate in the FIBA World Cup:

"I think the biggest thing is I think we need an introduction, some of the guys need an introduction to the national team, right? I think the guys who are here right now have all played a little bit, continue to grow as they stay together. But some of the guys, I guess they need to find out why or why not they're going to play or commit to playing. If they're gonna play, it needs to be a five or six-year stretch.

"Because I think you could do something special with a group of guys who stick together for five or six years."

Canada has a lot of NBA talent available. Along with the aforementioned players, Canada could field a roster that includes Trey Lyles, Tristan Thompson, Cory Joseph, Khem Birch, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Dillon Brooks, Brandon Clarke, Kelly Olynyk and Dwight Powell.

That team doesn't have the overall talent of the United States, but it has the ability to boast one of the best rosters in the world. Nurse plans to show up for Team Canada in Olympic qualifying. The question is which players will join him.