Raptors fire head coach Nick Nurse

According to Charles Curtis of USA Today on Friday, the Toronto Raptors have fired Nick Nurse of Carroll, Iowa. Nurse had been the Raptors head coach the last five seasons. Since 2018-19, he posted a record of 227 wins and 163 losses for a winning percentage of .582. Nurse also had a record of 25 wins and 16 losses in the postseason, and was famously known as the only Raptors head coach in franchise history to win the NBA Finals, an accomplishment he achieved in 2019.

When the 2022-23 National Basketball Association came to a season’s end for Toronto, there was wide speculation that Nurse would not be back. Rumours from the Toronto media for a while have had Nurse being linked to the Houston Rockets and the Raptors showing interest in former Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka.

Nurse’s 227 regular season wins are the most in franchise history. He is only behind Dwane Casey of Indianapolis, Indiana, who has 320 wins. After coaching the Toronto Raptors from 2011 to 2018, Casey took a job to coach the Detroit Pistons. He coached the Pistons from 2018 to 2023, before resigning on April 9. Casey will remain with the Pistons in a front office role.

There are now three NBA franchises looking to hire head coaches next season. They are the Raptors, Rockets and Pistons.

In the NBA on Friday, expect the Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets to take a 3-0 series lead over the Atlanta Hawks and Minnesota Timberwolves respectively. The Celtics 5.5 point favourites, and the Nuggets are 2.5 point favourites. Due to the fact Cleveland has momentum in their series against New York after their 107-90 win, I like the Cavaliers to take a 2-1 series lead as a 1.5 point underdog.

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