Zone is for cowards! Zone can’t be used in the NBA! Real defense is played by locking up man-to-man! Nick Nurse and the Toronto Raptors don’t care about old adages and are bucking conventional wisdom by being one of the few NBA teams to consistently play zone defense.
It’s not a huge part of the Raptors identity. They don’t necessarily play it every game. However, when the team becomes stagnant or needs to throw opponents off their rhythm for a possession or two, it serves as a legitimate weapon. It’s something to gameplan for. It’s something to go over in practice.