76ers Will Reportedly Meet With Former Raptors Coach Nick Nurse

The Philadelphia 76ers are expected to meet with former Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse sometime this week, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Nurse would become one of the first prospects to pick up a meeting with the 76ers since they parted ways with Doc Rivers earlier this week. Shortly after the Sixers made their decision to fire Rivers final, a list of six coaching candidates, including Nurse, were linked to Philadelphia.

“We’re taking a careful process with the coach,” said Sixers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey, who will be leading the search. “We do not think it’ll move quickly. It is true, we’re going to look at all of the candidates, we’re already very encouraged by the candidates that have reached out.”

Along with Nurse, the Sixers are expected to take a look at Mike Budenholzer, Mike D’Antoni, Monty Williams, and Frank Vogel. Also, current Sixers assistant Sam Cassell will be considered for the job as well.

As for Nurse, he’s coming off a ten-year run as a member of the Toronto Raptors’ coaching staff. After joining the Raptors’ staff as an assistant in 2013, Nurse eventually found himself promoted to the head coaching job after the Raptors wrapped up with Dwane Casey.

During his five-year tenure as Toronto’s head coach, Nurse’s Raptors won an NBA Championship. Although the Raptors made the playoffs two other times, they couldn’t get beyond the Eastern Conference Semifinals in either run. Along with an NBA title, Nick Nurse has a Coach of the Year honor on his resume as well.

What Went Wrong In Toronto?

Since winning the NBA title in 2019, the Raptors have seen a steady decline. Although it seemed they were approaching rebuilding territory this season, the Raptors’ front office made win-now moves at the 2023 trade deadline.

Nurse and the Raptors hoped to make a playoff push by getting through the NBA Play-In Tournament this season, but they came up short against the Chicago Bulls while attempting to play for the eighth seed.

In weeks prior to Toronto’s Play-In matchup, Nurse made it clear that there would be a deep reflection period at the end of the season. Before the Raptors faced the Sixers in Philadelphia, Nurse hinted that change could be coming his way when the 2022-2023 NBA season concludes.

“I think when this season gets done, we'll evaluate everything and, even personally, like, I'm going to take a few weeks to see where I'm at," Nurse said back in April. "See where my head’s at and just see all of the relationships with the organization is everything. It's been ten years for me now, which is a pretty good run. And I don't know, over those ten years, we've got to be up there with number of wins with anybody in the league. I don't even know where that is, but we've had a lot of good seasons.”

As the first round of the 2023 NBA Playoffs played out, the Raptors decided to make the call to move on from Nurse. As soon as the former Raptors head coach became available, he was quickly linked to the Houston Rockets, who called it quits with Stephen Silas at the end of the regular season.

Although Nurse was considered to be a strong candidate for Houston, the Rockets ended up hiring former Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka. Since Houston took a different route, Nick Nurse hasn’t had much of a market. With Rivers out of the picture in Philly, the Sixers will give Nurse consideration.