The Toronto Raptors are giving assistant coach Nick Nurse serious consideration for the lead position according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
“One candidate that they’re really taking a close look at here is Nick Nurse who was the top assistant coach with the Raptors,” Wojnarowski said at the NBA Draft Combine in New York. “Masai Ujiri, their president and general manager is taking a close look at him, but they’re also looking at some external candidates and they’re taking their time with this search.”
Ujiri fired Dwane Casey on May 11 and initially targeted Mike Budenholzer as a replacement. However, the former Atlanta Hawks coach accepted an offer from the Milwaukee Bucks, and so the Raptors have had to move on to other candidates.
All three internal possibilities for Toronto — Nurse, Rex Kalamian and Jerry Stackhouse — interviewed on Tuesday, but it has been widely reported that Nurse is the frontrunner amongst the trio.
Nurse has an extensive coaching background prior to the Raptors, having won the NBA G League championship and coach of the year award with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers after spending 12 years in Europe where he also won the British Basketball League (BBL) title as a head coach.
This year, Nurse was tasked with the primary responsibility of changing the team’s style of play on offence, which led to much more ball movement, player movement and analytically favourable shots. It helped the Raptors finish with the top seed in the Eastern Conference for the first time in franchise history, as well as carry over their offensive success in the regular season to the playoffs for a change.
As seen in the series with the Cleveland Cavaliers, most of their issues came about on the defensive end. Toronto finished the playoffs with the second-best offensive rating behind the Houston Rockets, but the third-worst defence behind the Portland Trail Blazers and Minnesota Timberwolves who combined to win one game.
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