after reading through a bunch of coaching threads... I feel like I'm the only one who's happy with any of the top candidates. give me nurse, vogel, or udoka and I'm just as happy. we will see the coaching improve by MILES either way. yes I have my preference too, but none of us can say with certainty who will be the best for this group. most people were strongly against MDA being hired but he absolutely unlocked harden into an MVP.
This is such a huge decision by Stone, and when you get down to it, Fertitta. I’m guessing that it’s between Nurse and Udoka. I’ll be surprised if it’s someone else, unless both simply don’t want the job. I’ve been for Atkinson, because I assumed that the Raptors would keep Nurse, but the more I think about Ime Udoka, the more I like the idea of him coaching our incredibly young team, along with whoever we bring in to play with them, however they’re acquired. If I flipped a coin between the two, I have to admit I’d hope it came up Udoka. Either way, though, Nurse or Udoka, the Rockets come up aces. If we don’t end up with one of them, I won’t be a happy Rockets fan, something I’m been for a really, really long time. Wherever I’m sitting, I’m on the edge of my seat.
why isn't vogel in the mix? a decade of success, championship experience. udoka had 1 good year and the team didn't miss a beat without him, plus is there going to be any controversy leading to distractions for our young team? I'm not advocating one over the other, I think they're in the same tier and I'd be happy with either (or nurse). but I'm interested in why so many people would be upset with vogel who has been one of the best coaches in the league for a long time.
I'll be happy with any of Nurse, Udoka, Vogel and Atkinson. Vogel and Nurse have hoisted the trophy as coaches. Udoka got to the Finals in his first year as a Head Coach. Atkinson got the absolute most out of guys like Caris LeVert and D'Angelo Russell and played a large role in putting that team in the position to lure a couple superstars.
Well, yesterday Vogel was the guy, today Nurse is a "strong candidate", so I'm sure Udoka and Atkinson are up next to "breaking news : possibly maybe potentially could be the Rockets next coach"
And what about the two conference finals to which he took the Pacers? If he "sucks," why have the Pacers sucked much more since he left?
I don't know if these have been shared before, but I see 4-5 hours of Nick Nurse from Summer 2022 basically rambling about coaching: (spoiler tag to my post doesn't take up a lot of space) Spoiler You get a real good idea about his defensive philosophies, his basic offensive "action" (which I'm pretty sure he'd run here), some tidbits about his stint with RGV/Houston, trying to stop Harden ("I'm not going to watch that sh*t" regarding Harden scoring 50+ with 20+ FTs), etc. I've only personally watched 1.5 of these videos, so probably a lot more. But yeah, you can get a good sense of how he coaches with these.
They like to keep the wheels spinning for sure...Yesterday there were reports of the Nurse rumors dying down, today it's a totally different story. Maybe the Udoka interview pushed Ujiri to fire Nurse and try and secure him instead. I like this much activity, hopefully it nets us a great coach for this group.
I really want Udoka or Nurse. But Vogel would be a good consolation prize, as would Atkinson. They are all good coaches. However, given our youth we really need a coach that can connect with our players, is a culture-setter and big on accountability. i think there are some coaching candidates that can excel there more than others. if the rockets lose any of these candidates to other teams we have to start asking if Stone is a liability for our franchise. We need to avoid getting Lovied on this; we need to get our guy, not settle for 2nd or 3rd. I want to see us really get this hire right. For me this starts the clock on Stone; it’s the first major decision of the offseason (firing Silas being a foregone conclusion). If we end up with leftovers that’s a bad sign.
Ime, you ARE a Rocket! https://theathletic.com/4436536/2023/04/21/nick-nurse-out-raptors-coach/ What went wrong Nurse and the front office did not see eye to eye on player usage this year, especially when it came to some of the younger, less proven players on the roster. Rare is the executive-coaching pair that is perfectly aligned, but it was notable. The results were below everybody’s expectations. Some of the coach’s relationships had frayed, too. Gary Trent Jr. said after the season that he got used to the coach’s criticism coming out in the media before Nurse told him in person, and more players had issues with Nurse privately. — Koreen Possible candidates to succeed Nurse League sources tell The Athletic that former Celtics coach Ime Udoka is expected to be among the candidates interviewed for the job. Other possible successors could include Patrick Mutombo and Jerry Stackhouse. Mutombo was the head coach of the Raptors 905 G League team the previous two years before joining Monty Williams’ coaching staff in Phoenix this season. Stackhouse was the head coach of the Raptors 905 team in 2016-18 before moving on to be an assistant for the Memphis Grizzlies. He is currently the head coach at Vanderbilt. — Charania Backstory Nurse arrived in Toronto in the offseason of 2013, the same year Ujiri took over as president of basketball operations from Bryan Colangelo. Nurse’s arrival was part of a staff overhaul meant to augment the perspective of Dwane Casey, whom Colangelo hired as head coach two seasons prior. Nurse came from Houston’s Rio Grande Valley G-League team, which at the time was at the forefront of what would become the pace-and-space revolution in the NBA. He mostly focused on offense during his time as an assistant and also helped develop the team’s younger bench, which featured future All-Stars Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam, as the Casey-led Raptors peaked with a 59-win season in 2017-18. After Casey’s dismissal, Nurse got the job following a coaching search that included Mike Budenholzer, who eventually accepted the Milwaukee job, Ettore Messina, Udoka and others. Between the time he accepted the job in June to July, the Raptors traded franchise stalwart DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and a future first-round pick for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green. Nurse’s job became more about ego management than x’s and o’s, with the Raptors needing to mesh the Raptors’ existing culture and the always-prickly Kyle Lowry with the reality of not only trying to keep Leonard happy and healthy for the year but also to entice him to stay for the long-term. He and the Raptors were not successful on the latter front, and there were certainly squabbles within the team during the 2018-19 season. However, the Raptors stayed together, ultimately winning a title, helped by Nurse’s creative defensive scheming — most notably breaking out the “box-and-one” defense in Games 2 and 3 of the Finals, which Steph Curry memorably called “janky.” https://theathletic.com/4437548/2023/04/21/raptors-nick-nurse-out-coach/ “To watch us play this year was not us,” Ujiri said on Friday, more than an hour after the Raptors announced Nurse’s firing. “I did not enjoy watching this team play. I think that spoke loud and clear to everything that went on this year. It bothered all of us.” Ujiri went on to speak about a lack of togetherness, spirit and the need to re-fortify the Raptors’ culture. None of that is wrong, per se, but it also isn’t a map forward. This team wasn’t always pulling in the same direction this year, but it also wasn’t an especially toxic situation. If there was a dearth of spirit, perhaps it is because the Raptors had shown themselves, time after time, unable to string together wins against good teams. As the evidence mounted, the belief wilted. As 3-pointer after 3-pointer clanged off the rim, turning into free throw after free throw in the season’s embarrassing finale, there was a knowledge that this team, as constituted, wasn’t going to win meaningfully this year. Nurse’s utility in Toronto had clearly expired. It is not that players had tuned him out — they forced the most turnovers per possession in the league, a core tenet of Nurse’s aggressive, demanding defensive philosophy — but his style of delivery was becoming tiring. After the season ended, Gary Trent Jr., said he had gotten used to hearing Nurse’s criticism of his defence in the media before he would hear it from the coach himself, and he was not the only player who had issues with Nurse. Ujiri would only say that the players “expressed themselves in many ways” in season-ending meetings with the front office. Then there was the issue of the younger players on the roster, with Ujiri plainly saying he was not pleased with their development. He didn’t put that all on Nurse, but he cited “role orientation” and a lack of opportunity to show their growth as problems. Nurse played his starters more than any other coach in the league. The math Ujiri is doing is clear. There is a more complex equation to attack. In one of the rare moments when Ujiri wasn’t talking about intangibles on Friday, he mentioned shooting was an obvious deficiency of the roster. He also talked a lot about “fit,” and with respect to everyone else on the roster, that comes down to three players: Scottie Barnes, O.G. Anunoby and Pascal Siakam. “I think they’re getting better individually, but we didn’t get better as a team, so that’s on me,” Ujiri said. “If our players were not getting better or didn’t have value, then I think there would be issues (about the viability of the roster). But our players have value and they got better individually.” You can quibble with the part about individual improvement — of the three forwards, only Anunoby meaningfully surpassed expectations this year, and most of that improvement came on the defensive end — but Ujiri is undoubtedly drawing on his conversations at the trade deadline when speaking about their value. … Ime Udoka, the former Celtics coach who the team suspended for a year (and eventually replaced on a full-time basis) for reported crude language and improper relationships with a subordinate, makes sense in the context of the above. Midway through the 2021-22 season, there were discussions about breaking up Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown because they didn’t mesh well enough. They both flourished after that rough half-year, and only the most first-world of stylistic concerns remain. (To be clear, the details of what caused his suspension should very much factor into whether or not the Raptors, who have been very vocal about the importance of women in their organization and across pro sports, should very much matter when considering Udoka.) The Raptors aren’t the Celtics, though. When Boston was floundering around .500 last year, Brown and Tatum were 25 and 23, respectively. It was still reasonable to believe they could find new ways to not only co-exist, but excel together. It is a bit harder to believe in this situation that Siakam and Barnes are suddenly going to become complementary of one another — not impossible, but difficult. Whether it’s Udoka, someone with past ties to the organization like Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse or Phoenix assistant Patrick Mutombo or someone else entirely, the new Raptors coach will only be able to work with what Ujiri gives them. If Ujiri wants to see that play out a little more, that’s probably fine. It is possible some of his players use their trade value as their contracts get closer to ending, but free agency should not be the organization boogeyman it once was. “Character. Quality of a person. Energy,” Ujiri said when asked what he’ll be looking for in a new coach. “What kind of energy are we going to get, because we need that. Discipline, style of play. (There are) so many things we’re going to look to as we start this search.”
