That being said, there can only be one man for this award, and that's Raptors coach Nick Nurse. Following up from winning the Championship in your debut season is an impossible task in the best of circumstances. Throw in losing your starting two guard and the job becomes harder again. Oh, they also lost Kawhi Leonard, arguably the best basketballer on Earth.

And that's before we even talk about the injury crisis that beset the club this season. Looking at their top eight rotation players, based on minutes per game, here are the number of games those players missed of the 64 the Raps played:

  • Kyle Lowry – 12 games missed

  • Fred Vanvleet – 16

  • Pascal Siakam – 11

  • OG Anunoby – 1

  • Norman Powell – 20

  • Serge Ibaka – 14

  • Marc Gasol – 28

  • Patrick McCaw – 27

To cope with the off season defections that Toronto experienced; to endure the injuries that the club had to deal with; and to do it with the proverbial target on their back that comes with being the reigning NBA champ, it's remarkable that Nurse was able to lead his team to second place in the Eastern Conference, on course for a 59 win campaign – one win more than last season's total.

Nurse

So how did the guitar playing, personalised cap wearing part time rock star bring his team to greater regular season heights than last time around? Much of that planning came last season when the team, hopeful if keeping hold of Kawhi long term, knew that there was a better than fair chance that the Leonard marriage was a single season arrangement.

To that end, the team had the talented Pascal Siakam shadow Leonard, learning his traits and tendencies both on and off the court with the idea that he could step in to Leonard's shoes should he need to.

Kawhi's load management gave Siakam and the Raps the opportunity to ease the Cameroonian into life as a #1 option. It was a show of faith in the former #27 pick and this season he's repaid his coach in spades.

Sure, he's not Kawhi, but Siakam has proven himself a true #1 option on a contending team. He's not the only success story, though.

Fifth year swingman Normal Powell almost doubled his previous career high scoring average to emerge as the fourth leading scorer on the team with 16.6 points per game. OG Anunoby stepped into Siakam's former function as the 3 and D wing stopper.

Undrafted 22 year old Terrence Davis; mature age rookie Chris Boucher; reclamation project Rondae Hollis-Jefferson; they all played excellent basketball under Nurse's tutelage.

Nurse has instilled a 'next man up' mentality in his squad. It doesn't matter if it's his cadre of veterans, or youngsters with everything to prove; Nurse seems to be able to get the best of all of them.

It's some start to 52 year old's head coaching career: a chip in season one and – from my perspective, at least – Coach of the Year in season two.