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With the Toronto Raptors firing Dwane Casey after the team failed to get by the Cleveland Cavaliers for the third straight year, the coaching search will start immediately to find their next head coach.
Toronto has fired coach Dwane Casey, league source tells ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 11, 2018
With the roster that the Raptors already have in place, it will be a highly sought after job with a lot of big-name candidates throwing their hats in the ring.
One early favorite to replace Casey according to Kevin O'Connor of the Ringer, is former Atlanta Hawks head coach, Mike Budenholzer.
Watch out for Mike Budenholzer as the next Raptors head coach… https://t.co/UrVpQIpcIP
— Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) May 11, 2018
Since the Hawks and Budenholzer decided to part ways earlier this season, Budenholzer has interviewed for almost every opening that the NBA has had, including just recently for the Milwaukee Bucks job.
According to sources at UPI.Com, Budenholzer is the favorite to land that job, but with the Raptors job now open, it might be harder for the team to land him.
For Budenholzer, it wasn't anything that he did wrong with the Hawks, they are just going through a rebuild and decided they wanted a different coach to lead them in that.
“I am grateful for the five years that I spent as coach of the Atlanta Hawks and will always cherish the incredible contributions, commitment and accomplishments of the players that I was fortunate enough to work with here,” Budenholzer told ESPN. “From ownership to management, support staff to the community, I'll look back with great pride on what we were able to achieve together with the Hawks.”
The Hawks and Budenholzer agreed to a buyout, but if he does get a job this year the Hawks wouldn't have to pay as much. For that reason, there were rumors he would wait a year until he took a new job, but with the Raptors opening up, it might be too good to pass up.
