Major NBA domino falls amid coaching chaos as Sixers land championship winner Nick Nurse
Nick Nurse’s return to teaching subsequent season will include a former Atlantic Division rival.
The 76ers reached an settlement with Nurse, in line with ESPN on Monday, 5 weeks after the Raptors parted methods with the coach who guided them to an NBA title in 2019 and gained the NBA’s Coach of the Year award in 2020.
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It grew to become the most recent teaching carousel domino to fall throughout the NBA after the Bucks, Suns, 76ers, Raptors, Pistons and Rockets all parted methods with their coach — with the Milwaukee, Phoenix and Philadelphia vacancies shocking, given that each one three completed as a few of the prime groups of their respective conferences.
The Bucks employed Adrian Griffin, one in every of Nurse’s prime assistants in Toronto, over the weekend, and the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Nurse thought-about a possible reunion with 76ers president Daryl Morey “enticing.”
The pair labored collectively in Houston, the place Nurse coached their G-League workforce earlier than leaving to change into a Toronto assistant in 2013.
Nurse will now get to work alongside 2023 NBA MVP Joel Embiid with the 76ers, which superior to the second spherical of the postseason however misplaced to the Celtics — after which fired head coach Doc Rivers.
Across 5 seasons with the Raptors, Nurse compiled a 227-163 document within the common season, along with main the postseason run — with Kawhi Leonard because the centerpiece — in his first season after taking up for Dwane Casey.
But a 41-41 common season, and a loss within the play-in event, in 2022-23 was sufficient for the Raptors to maneuver on from Nurse, and he began a stretch the place three of the 4 NBA Coach of the Year award winners between 2018-19 and 2022-23 have been fired.
Mike Budenholzer (Bucks) and Monty Williams (Suns) have been the opposite two.
In the primary teaching rent of the offseason, Houston selected former Celtics coach Ime Udoka, who had been suspended for the complete 2022-23 season after an improper intimate relationship with a feminine workers member.
Then, the Bucks selected to provide Griffin his first probability at being a head coach, with a roster headlined by Giannis Antetokounmpo.
And with the 76ers near formally hiring Nurse, simply the Suns, Pistons and Raptors have openings that stay.
