Raptors to make call about Nurse's future as coach in offseason: report
When Nick Nurse won the NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors in his first year as an NBA head coach back in 2019, it seemed like he’d be able to coast off those good graces for the rest of his career.
Well, that honeymoon phase is long over. Nurse’s Raptors sit 23-28, 12th in the Eastern Conference, with rumours about trades and internal frustrations coming out on a near-daily basis.
And Nurse himself is the target of the latest high-profile rumour.
According to NBA insider Shams Charania, Toronto is expected to take a good, hard look this offseason at whether they’ll be continuing forward with Nurse.
“Nick Nurse’s future as Raptors head coach is expected to come into focus this summer,” Charania wrote today in an article for The Athletic. “There’s been frustration throughout the roster and staff with the team’s play at points of this season, and that has been directed toward Nurse at times too, according to sources.”
Charania didn’t explicitly say the Raptors would be firing Nurse this offseason, or that there’s no possibility he ends up sticking around.
Nurse has been with the Raptors for nearly a decade, signing on with the organization as an assistant coach in 2013 before being named head coach in 2018.
Per Charania, Nurse is heading into the final year of his contract extension next season.
“Sources say he will be entering the final year of his contract going into next season. After the 2019-20 season, Nurse – who guided the Raptors to the 2019 NBA championship, won Coach of the Year in 2020, and is regarded among the league’s best coaches – signed a contract extension through 2023-24 worth $8 million per year. The length of the deal has not been previously disclosed by the team.”
While there might not be any immediate news on Nurse’s long-term future in the NBA, at the very least, it’ll be a storyline to monitor over the next coming months.
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