Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse revealed that he will look to contemplate his future following the 2022-23 season.
Prior to their 117-110 loss against the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday, Nurse admitted in front of the media that he will weigh his time to take a deep reflection on whether he will choose to remain or not as the Raptors’ head coach.
“First of all, I think when this season gets done, we’ll evaluate everything, and even personally, I’m gonna take a few weeks to see where I’m at, you know? Like you said, where my head’s at. And just see how the relationship with the organization is and everything. It’s been 10 years for me now, which is a pretty good run. I don’t know, over those 10 years we got to be up there in number of wins with anybody in the league. I don’t know even know where that is, but we’ve had a lot of big seasons,” Nurse said, via ESPN’s Tim Bontemps.
“And then, right now, my head is to make this as long of a season as possible. This team needs playoff experience. So that is where I’m at right now … finish out these six, see where we land, see if we can’t creep up a spot or two in the standings, and then give them hell in the playoffs, see if we can get in a real series and take it from there.”
Nurse has been tied with Toronto since being tapped by Dwane Casey as his assistant in 2013.
After five years of shortcomings under the leadership of Casey, the Raps called Nurse to primarily lead them. And in his first year of being a head coach, he quickly guided the franchise to its first title with Kawhi Leonard emerging as their one-year savior.
After their championship campaign in 2018-19, the Raptors have maintained their success, but eventually went on to be inconsistent as the following years went on. After qualifying in the playoffs last season, they now find themselves in the depths of the East with a 38-38 record.
Due to struggles and inconsistencies, the club has been a main component of trade chatter until midseason, but they still proceeded to compete and remain intact upon the addition of Jakob Poeltl. Now, they are yet to see the recovery that they are aspiring for with two weeks left until the season concludes.
A potential departure of Nurse soon in the offseason can only be considered a major domino for the Raptors to finally enter a new stage of their franchise books.
