After five years, 227 wins, three playoff appearances and a championship, the Raptors have fired Nick Nurse. Although Nurse had earned a reputation as one of the NBA's brightest tactitians, he lacked tact in other areas; he butted heads with players and front office members as the Raptors regressed from a 48-34 team to a 41-41 one that missed the playoffs entirely. With Nurse seemingly poised to take over in Houston, the Raptors are kicking off a coaching search of their own as they try to chart the franchise's hazy future. Headlined by Ime Udoka, these are the four candidates the Raptors should consider to be their next coach.
Jay Triano
The most accomplished Canadian basketball coach this side of James Naismith, the 64 year-old Triano was a major part of the Sacramento Kings' rebirth this season. As Sacramento's de facto offensive coordinator, Triano oversaw the best offense in NBA history, choreographing a beautifully intricate attack around Domantas Sabonis and De'Aaron Fox that scored 119.4 points per 100 possessions.
From 2008-2011, Triano coached the Raptors, but was fired after the team sunk into its post-Chris Bosh malaise. Since then, he's rehabilitated his image by becoming one of the NBA's most innovative offensive minds. Beyond his time with the Kings, Triano also quarterbacked top 10 offenses during his time with the Portland Trail Blazers (2014, 2015, 2016) and Charlotte Hornets (2022). For a Raptors team that has often been unimaginative and stodgy on offense even during their best years under Nick Nurse, Triano could be the antidote they need.
Kevin Young
As the Suns associate coach, the 41 year-old Young is considered one of the NBA's ascendant young coaching stars. Previously an assistant with the Sixers, Young interviewed for the Philly job in 2020 but ultimately joined the Suns bench after the Sixers hired Doc Rivers. With the Suns, Young is credited as one of the driving forces behind the devastatingly efficient pick-and-roll heavy offense that carried the team to the NBA Finals in 2021 and a league-high 64 wins last season.
It's only a matter of time before Young gets the head job somewhere; he was already a finalist for the Wizards job last year. This year, Young has a chance to add yet another accomplishment to his rapidly burgeoning resume: an NBA championship. In 2019, the Raptors took a chance hiring a well-regarded, up-and-coming assistant in Nick Nurse and won a championship because of his forward thinking—could history repeat itself with Young?
Kenny Atkinson
Atkinson might just be the best coach in the world who isn't an NBA coach. From 2016 to 2020, Atkinson did yeomen's work with the Nets, leading them back from the abyss to make the playoffs in 2019. Once Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant arrived, though, he became the Nets' first sacrifice to their mercurial new gods and was abruptly fired in 2020 for not playing DeAndre Jordan enough.
After getting canned in Brooklyn, Atkinson has found refuge as a lead assistant on elite teams; in 2020 and 2021, he was Ty Lue's consigliere with the Clippers. Last year, he joined the Warriors' staff and helped lead them to a championship. Over the summer, the Hornets offered him their head coaching job, but Atkinson turned them down to stay with the Warriors, presumably waiting for a more stable and attractive job to open up. The Raptors, with their stable culture and decade of almost uninterrupted excellence, would certainly qualify. If the Raptors want to maintain their mostly winning ways from the Nick Nurse regime, Atkinson could turn this team back into a winner immediately.
Ime Udoka
This is who the Raptors are going to hire. Despite being a documented sex pervert, Ime Udoka will be the most sought after coach this offseason and he has been friends with Raptors head honcho Masai Ujiri for years. Having led the Celtics to the Finals last year, Udoka is widely considered such an elite coach that it's worth putting up with his baggage and the inevitable backlash of hiring him.
Udoka's credentials as an elite coach, though, are hazier than his reputation might suggest. A long time assistant with the Spurs who apprentinced under Gregg Popovich, Udoka turned the Celtics into a juggernaut from January to June in 2022. But even as the Celtics advanced to the Finals, the road was pocked with potholes and near-misses. It took them seven games to squeak by an injured and undermanned Bucks team that was missing Khris Middleton. Similarly, the Miami Heat nearly pipped them in the Eastern Conference Finals, foiled only by a wrongfully disallowed Max Strus three and a Jimmy Butler game-winner that rimmed out.
To wit, the Celtics had the best roster in the league and Ime Udoka had Will Hardy and Joe Mazzulla, two young coaching whizzes, backing him up on the bench. It remains to be seen if Udoka in Toronto can still barely beat worse teams in the Playoffs without a loaded team and a genius support staff.
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