He's been talked about in multiple threads, but didn't see an official one. I'm rooting for him to take over this hot mess...
Someone on realgm said that he flew to Houston and back recently (not for a game). Wonder if anyone else has heard that? Nurse will have options though so I wonder if what he wants is control/influence of front office too.
This is encouraging. I have my favorites but let's be honest there are a lot of people with more established track records than Silas. If we can gain an advantage let's do it and it doesn't even have to be the last coach we have to hire for this group (who knows). A guy who's won a title as a HC is a huge plus for me. Still prefer Atkinson, but Nurse is second from the candidates I've heard. Problem is teams will now offer him a lot to compete with our offer and with coaches there's money (which people can match) and situation (would he pass up the Clippers job if offered a team with great franchise players?). I'm still happy to be hearing they are interested in aggressively changing the culture, which is what we all want.
Great. Nurse and Scariolo. Get Harden or Jaylen Brown. Get rid of Silas and his folks, get rid of KPJ and Nix. Draft...Wemby or best available or trade the pick.
If you Google "Nick Nurse" the blurb on the side actually says, " Nicholas David Nurse is an American professional basketball coach, author and former college basketball player. He is the head coach of the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association and the Canadian men's national team. Wikipedia" But when you link to Wikipedia it has the corrected team as Raptors. Very interesting...
Nick Nurse is under contract next season with the Raptors I believe. Last year he stated that he did not want to coach as a lame duck, and would want a long term extension to stay with the Raptors. As far as I know, the Raptors have not offered Nick Nurse a long term deal. This could be a situation where Nurse is using whatever leverage he can to get a long term deal from the Raptors or wherever else. We think of him as being young, but he isn't that far off of 60 and has a couple younger kids and a wife. So there is a good chance he is either going to retire and spend time with his family OR at his age, will want one last long term commitment from a team. I would be happy with him coaching the Rockets, he is very good and innovative and has shown the ability to discipline players.
big name coaches typically negotiate the ability/budget to hire a certain number of their own assistants. Atkinson walked away from the hornets job over details around hiring his own staff. I would imagine nurse would want the same. the rockets did not offer that during their last 2 coaching hires (Silas, MDA). it will be interesting to see if they do so this time. I would assume nurse would want griffin and Bjorkgren.
I find it hard to believe Nurse has legit interest here but obviously he would have to be the ideal candidate if he had legit interest. I DO however think Houston is a convenient leverage point for Nurse to use when trying to negotiate a contract with Toronto just like the availability of Udoka is a convenient counterpoint for Toronto. You gotta think that a place like maybe Dallas would have more immediate opportunity for a big name coach like Nurse or for that matter Udoka. Kidd has gotta be gone as soon as they’re soon to be disappointing first round exit…. The only way Houston dips into respectability as a coaching destination is if they hit a grand slam this off-season and get Wemby AND sign a Harden type player on some cost effective deal AND trade assets in for a Jalen Brown or a Mikal Bridges AND get a few other vet role players without losing more than one of Green, Sengun, or Jabari AND somehow KPJ is offloaded to some other team in one of the transactions above. I mean - the odds of just a couple of those things happening are soooo slim - but all of them? It’s like a 9th inning walk off grand slam for a title unbelievable.
I don’t watch the Raptors often but after reading this he sounds like a damn good coach. Most of his “weaknesses” are exactly the strengths I want in a coach.
Once Silas gets fired, are you planning to do another one of you thorough, coaching prospects threads?