The Toronto Raptors have elevated assistant coach Nick Nurse to the top job as Dwane Casey’s replacement. According to an ESPN.com report, the Raptors are finalizing details to name Nick Nurse as the ninth coach in franchise history.
Nick Nurse is reportedly the new coach of the Toronto Raptors. ( Stephen Pond / GETTY IMAGES FILE PHOTO )
The 50-year-old Nurse has been with the Raptors coaching staff since 2013, and was most recently charged with reinvigorating the team’s offence which ranked in the top five last season. It is the first new coach hire of team president Masai Ujiri’s tenure and came about after he fired Casey in early May. Casey was named Monday as the head coach of the Detroit Pistons.
Article Continued Below
Have your say
Nurse, an Iowa native, is a lifetime coach who has worked in myriad organizations. He was a two-time coach of the year in the British Basketball League and was involved with the British national team program. Before landing in Toronto, Nurse spent six seasons in the NBA G League with Rio Grande and Iowa, winning the coach of the year award in 2010-11 and a title in 2012-13. Nurse has also coached for 12 years across Europe. He got his start in coaching as a student assistant at the University of Northern Iowa in 1989 after finishing his playing career there as a guard. Nurse was seen as an NBA assistant coach likely to take over one of the nine head coaching vacancies in the league this off-season. Toronto was the last of those nine clubs to hire a new coach. The Raptors were reportedly interested in hiring Mike Budenholzer after he left the Atlanta Hawks at the end of last season. But Budenholzer took the Milwaukee Bucks job.
San Antonio Spurs assistant Ettore Messina, a coaching legend in Europe, was reportedly also the other finalist for the Raptors job. Other candidates believed to be interviewed by the Raptors included Toronto assistant Rex Kalamian and Lithuanian coach Sarunas Jasikevicius.
Article Continued Below
Jerry Stackhouse, the Raptors905 coach for the last two seasons, was hired over the weekend to be an assistant with Memphis. Casey, 61, posted a 320-238 (.573) overall record as Raptors coach, the most successful mark in franchise history. He led Toronto to four Atlantic Division titles in five years, and three consecutive 50-win seasons. The franchise had its eyes on an NBA finals appearance this year after winning a franchise-record 59 games in the regular season, the second best record in the league behind only Houston. But the Raptors fell short again, getting swept by the Cavaliers in the second round of the playoffs, the third straight season they fell to LeBron James’s team.
Read more about:
One month into their coaching search, Masai Ujiri and the Toronto Raptors have reportedly reached a decision on who will be the team’s next head coach.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Nick Nurse will be the franchise’s next head coach.
Earlier this week there were reports that Ujiri & Co. had narrowed their list down to two candidates: San Antonio Spurs assistant Ettore Messina, and Nurse.
Other candidates during the coaching search included fellow Raps assistant Rex Kalamian, former Raptors 905 head coach Jerry Stackhouse — who accepted a coaching position with the Memphis Grizzlies over the weekend — as well as EuroLeague coach Sarunas Jasikevicius. Mike Budenholzer was considered a top target and interviewed with the Raptors before accepting the head coaching gig with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Nurse, who won two D-League titles as a coach before coming to the NBA, has spent the past five seasons as an assistant coach with the Raptors under Dwane Casey, who was fired following the Raptors’ second round loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
This past season Nurse was credited with playing a major role in overhauling the team’s offence, finding ways to move the ball more and manufacture three-point shot opportunities.
The Raptors went from dead-last in the NBA in assists in 2016-17 (18 per game) to sixth (24 per game), and from 21st in three-pointers made per game (8.8) to fourth (11.8). The team also went from the NBA’s 10th-highest scoring offence the prior season to fourth in 2017-18.
After Casey was named the Detroit Pistons new bench boss on Monday, Toronto was the only NBA franchise without a head coach.
The Toronto Raptors didn't have to look far to name their next coach. ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reports that the Raptors are hiring current Raptors assistant Nick Nurse as their new coach.
The Toronto Raptors are hiring assistant Nick Nurse to become the franchise's new head coach, league sources told ESPN. Nurse is finalizing contract terms with Toronto, but met with president Masai Ujiri and general manager Bobby Webster on Tuesday morning to accept the job, sources said.
The move was also reported via Twitter by Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun.
Nurse, 50, joined the franchise five years ago and was a longtime assistant under former Raptors coach Dwane Casey. Nurse spent a decade coaching in Europe and won to championships and a coach of the year award in the British Basketball League. He also won a pair of titles in the G League with two different teams and was coach of the year there, too.
Nurse was tasked with overseeing the team’s offense alongside Casey and played a key role in Toronto's overhaul last season. After ranking 11th in True Shooting percentage and 21st in 3-pointers made in 2016-17, the Raptors moved up to fourth in both categories as the team enjoyed its best regular season ever.
In mid-May, the Raptors parted ways with Casey and were searching for a new coach ever since. Casey led the Raptors to a team-record 59-23 mark in 2017-18 and the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. But the Raptors were swept in the Eastern Conference semifinals by the Cleveland Cavaliers, setting in motion an earlier-than-expected offseason for Toronto. Shortly after Toronto's loss in Game 4 of the semis, Casey was named the NBCA Coach of the Year -- an award that is voted on by a panel of his coaching peers.
As of Monday night, Nurse was one of the favorites for the job -- along with San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Ettore Messina. Additionally, the Raptors interviewed Sarunas Jasikevicius for the job last week, per ESPN.
While the Raptors weighed their coaching candidates, every NBA team that had a coaching position to fill -- the Orlando Magic, Charlotte Hornets, New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons, Memphis Grizzlies, Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks -- has since found a new coach.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
The Toronto Raptors are finalizing a deal to promote their assistant coach Nick Nurse to head coach, according to two people with knowledge of the decision.
The Raptors have chosen Nurse, who essentially served as the offensive coordinator under their former coach Dwane Casey, to take over for Casey in the wake of Toronto’s second-round playoff exit, according to the people, who were not authorized to discuss the move publicly.
Casey was hired Monday as the new coach of the Detroit Pistons.
