Report: The Raptors Have Fired Nick Nurse

Fresh off of a loss in the Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament that saw the team’s season come to an end, the Toronto Raptors have decided to make a change at head coach. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN and Shams Charania of The Athletic, Toronto has fired Nick Nurse, who helped guide the franchise to its only NBA championship back in 2019.

Per Wojnarowski, one expected candidate for the position is former Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka.

The move comes on the heels of a 41-41 campaign that saw the team sneak into the Play-In and host a win-or-go-home game against the Chicago Bulls, which they would go on to lose, 109-105. It marked a step back from last year, when Toronto won 48 games and made it to the first round of the playoffs before getting eliminated.

A longtime assistant under former Raptors coach Dwane Casey, Nurse was elevated to the head coaching role following Casey’s firing in the aftermath of the 2017-18 season. During Nurse’s first year at the helm, Toronto won 58 games and knocked off the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals. While the team saw Kawhi Leonard leave in free agency following that season, the Raptors still managed to be formidable in 2019-20, as they went 53-19 and made it to the conference semifinals, with Nurse getting named the NBA’s Coach of the Year.

The team struggled to hit those highs again over the last three seasons, in part due to their relocation to Tampa for the 2020-21 season due to COVID restrictions. In all, Nurse went 227-163 during his time in Toronto, and Wojnarowski reports that the expectation is he’ll be a “prominent candidate” for the coaching vacancy in Houston.