76ers name Nick Nurse head coach

Nick Nurse (Facebook)

The Philadelphia 76ers have named Nick Nurse of Carroll, Iowa as their new head coach according to Rogers Sportsnet. Nurse takes over from Doc Rivers of Chicago, Illinois, who was fired on May 16. 

Nurse was the head coach of the Toronto Raptors from 2018 to 2023. He won the NBA Finals with the Raptors in 2019 as Toronto knocked out the Golden State Warriors in six games. In the following season, Nurse was named the NBA Coach of the Year.

While with the Raptors, Nurse had an exceptional record. He was at 227 wins and 163 losses for a winning percentage of .582 in 390 regular season games. Nurse also has an excellent postseason winning percentage of .610 as he won 25 of 41 games.

Nurse is the second coach in three days with a Toronto Raptors connection to be named head coach with another franchise. On Saturday, reports came out that the Milwaukee Bucks are hiring Raptors assistant coach Adrian Griffin of Wichita, Kansas as their new head coach.

Still, the fact the 76ers made a coaching change at all should surprise many. Philadelphia had a solid regular season record of 54 wins and 28 losses for a winning percentage of .659, and the third best record in the Eastern Conference. They then reached the Eastern Conference Semifinals, before losing in seven games to the Boston Celtics. In the 76ers biggest game of the season, Rivers could not stop Jayson Tatum.

Prior to being the head coach in Toronto, Nurse was the assistant coach for the Raptors for five seasons from 2013 to 2018. During this time, he worked under the guidance of Dwane Casey of Indianapolis, Indiana.

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