Report: Nick Nurse Needs Time To Consider His Future

This has been a trying season for the Toronto Raptors and head coach Nick Nurse. Now, according to a report from Tim Bontemps of ESPN, Nurse is seriously considering just where he stands with the team. 

Nurse says he will "take a few weeks to see where I'm at" after the season. 

The 2020 Coach of the Year and 2019 NBA Champion calls 2022-23 "a difficult season from a number of standpoints."

First of all, I think when this season gets done, we'll evaluate everything, and even personally, I'm going to take a few weeks to see where I'm at, you know?... where my head's at.  And just see how the relationship with the organization is and everything. It's been 10 years for me now, which is a pretty good run. I don't know, over those 10 years we got to be up there in number of wins with anybody in the league. I don't even know where that is, but we've had a lot of big seasons. 

In fact, the Raptors are No. 2 in the entire NBA in wins over the last 10 years, with 494. Second only to the dynastic Golden State Warriors (525). 

Nurse himself is in his 5th season as head coach, with an impressive .583 winning percentage, at 224-161. He was the assistant under former coach Dwane Casey before that. 

But for the first time in his half-decade at the helm, there have been questions about his coaching, and about the way the team is performing under him. There's a lot of talent on the roster, as evidenced by the great demand for their players at the trade deadline. But yet they've struggled the whole season to get back to the .500 mark, finally accomplished this past week. 

Is he really considering leaving the organization? "No," he said. "I'm concentrated on this job, for sure, and this game, essentially. But I think 10 years is a good time to sit back and reflect a little bit. So I think we're going to do that all when the season ends."

Since Feb. 1st, the Raptors are 15-9, and own the NBA's third-best defensive rating. That's largely thanks to the trade deadline acquisition of Jakob Poeltl, but still, Nurse is concentrating on getting this team to go as far as it can in the playoffs. 

The Raptors are currently tied for 8th in the East with the Atlanta Hawks. 

Photo:  Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports