Update (June 13, 2018, 2:20 p.m. ET):
The Toronto Raptors have hired assistant coach Nick Nurse to head coach on a three-year deal worth nearly $10 million, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski:
Nick Nurse has agreed to a three-year, nearly $10M deal to become head coach of the Toronto Raptors, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 13, 2018
Original story follows:
The Toronto Raptors are promoting assistant coach Nick Nurse to become the team’s new head coach, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
The Toronto Raptors are hiring assistant Nick Nurse as the franchise's new head coach, league sources tell ESPN. Sides are working through details of contract now.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 12, 2018
Nurse was widely regarded as the favorite for Toronto’s head coaching job, which became vacant one month ago when the franchise let go of former coach Dwane Casey. The Raptors chose Nurse over San Antonio Spurs assistant Ettore Messina, who is expected to interview for other head coaching vacancies in the future.
Rex Kalamian, assistant with the Raptors, and Jerry Stackhouse, now an assistant with the Grizzlies, were also two candidates for the Raptors head coaching job.
Nurse, 50, has been coaching in the game of basketball for roughly three decades. He started as an assistant at small colleges, rising through the ranks before eventually joining the NBA’s D-League in 2007. He coached the Iowa Energy and Rio Grande Valley Vipers until 2013, landing an assistant coaching job with Toronto in 2013 — and now becoming their head coach.
Former Raptors coach Dwane Casey has since moved on to become head coach of the Pistons, filling in for Stan Van Gundy. Van Gundy has yet to express interest in returning to an NBA bench next season, league sources told Def Pen Hoops.
