Thunder assistant coach Adrian Griffin has agreed to join the Raptors’ staff as the lead assistant to new head coach Nick Nurse, Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports reports.
Griffin served as an assistant to Billy Donovan the past two seasons. Griffin, who had a nine-year playing career, has also coached with the Bucks, Bulls and Magic.
Griffin interviewed for head coaching openings with the Rockets and Magic prior to joining Donovan’s staff.
The Sixers don’t have enough room on their roster to take on all six of their 2018 draft picks, let alone sign free agents this summer or bring 2017 draft-and-stash prospect Jonah Bolden over from Israel. For that reason, Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer says that moves can be expected.
Pompey lists multiple scenarios in which the Sixers could shake up their payroll, either packaging first-round picks and a player to move into the top five in hopes of landing Luka Doncic or Michael Porter Jr., or simply just trading into the top seven or eight and targeting Mikal Bridges.
Of course the Sixers could also be slightly more ambitious and put together a package of their 2018 No. 10 pick, Markelle Fultz, Robert Covington or Dario Saric and look to make a play for Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard.
There’s more out of the Atlantic Division today:
Assembling a staff will be the first priority for Nick Nurse, who was officially hired as the Raptors’ new head coach earlier today, writes Ryan Wolstat of The Toronto Sun. With many of Dwane Casey’s assistants possibly following him to Detroit, Nurse, an assistant in Toronto for the past five years, may have to build his staff from scratch.
One possibility, according to Wolstat, is Nate Bjorkgren, a longtime friend who worked on Nurse’s staff at Iowa in the G League. Bjorkgren landed a job as an advance scout with the Raptors last fall after being let go when Earl Watson was fired in Phoenix. Wolstat also cites a report out of Italy that Spanish National team head coach Sergio Scariolo and former German National Team head coach Andrea Trinchieri are being considered. Nurse was a successful coach in Europe for 12 years before coming to the United States.
Current Raptors assistant Rex Kalamian isn’t expected to remain on staff, according to Wolstat, and may take a job with the Clippers if he doesn’t go to the Pistons.
There’s more tonight out of Toronto:
JUNE 13: Nurse and the Raptors have agreed to a three-year, $10MM contract, reports Wojnarowski (via Twitter). That’s a much more team-friendly deal than the one Casey reportedly signed with the Pistons (five years, $35MM+), which makes sense, given Nurse’s lack of NBA head coaching experience.
The Raptors have issued a press release indicating they’ll introduce Nurse as their new head coach in a press conference on Thursday afternoon.
JUNE 12: The Raptors are hiring assistant Nick Nurse as their new head coach, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who adds that the two sides are finalizing the details of a contract. The report comes on the heels of Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link) writing of a “growing expectation in NBA coaching circles” that Nurse would be Toronto’s pick.
A report earlier this week indicated that Toronto’s decision would likely come down to Nurse and Spurs assistant Ettore Messina, who was meeting with the team for a second time about its head coaching vacancy. Nurse, a top assistant under former head coach Dwane Casey, had been considered a frontrunner throughout the process.
A longtime coach in various leagues, including the British Basketball League, Nurse was a two-time champion in the BBL and won two more titles in the G League in 2011 and 2013. Following that second G League championship, he joined Casey’s staff in Toronto, where he has spent the last five seasons. Nurse – who was voted a top up-and-coming coaching candidate by NBA executives earlier this year – received much of the credit for revamping the Raptors’ offensive system to great effect in 2017/18.
Despite the improvements to their offense and a franchise record for regular season wins, the Raptors were once again bounced unceremoniously from the playoffs by LeBron James and the Cavaliers this spring, which led to Casey’s firing. Considering the Raptors have won between 48 and 59 games in each of the last five seasons, the bar will be set high for Nurse. Along with president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri, Nurse will have to find a way to keep up the club’s regular season success while turning the squad into a more formidable postseason opponent.
In addition to Nurse and Messina, the Raptors interviewed Rex Kalamian, Ime Udoka, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Mike Budenholzer, and Jerry Stackhouse during their head coaching search. Budenholzer – who was considered an early favorite to replace Casey – and Stackhouse took other jobs, while the other candidates weren’t considered finalists.
It will be interesting to see if Kalamian and other Toronto assistants remains on the Raptors’ staff with Nurse, or if they make the move to Detroit to join Casey. As we noted earlier today, Casey will have the freedom to pick his own staff with the Pistons.
The Raptors were the last NBA team without a head coach in place, so once they make things official with Nurse, all 30 jobs around the league will be filled.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Spurs assistant Ettore Messina had a second interview this week for the Raptors‘ head coaching vacancy and is believed to be a finalist for the job along with Toronto assistant Nick Nurse, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports.
Messina was a highly regarded coach in Europe before joining Gregg Popovich’s staff in 2014. He won four EuroLeague championships, along with multiple titles in Italy and Russia. He took over the Spur’s head coaching duties when Popovich’s wife died during the playoffs.
Messina also interviewed for head coaching positions this spring with the Hornets and Bucks.
Nurse, an assistant with the Raptors since 2013, also has extensive overseas experience. He spent 12 years there, mostly in Great Britain, and was twice named British Basketball League Coach of the Year. He is credited with helping the Raptors overhaul their offensive approach before the start of this season.
The Raptors have been searching for a head coach since deciding to fire Dwane Casey on May 11.
The Raptors plan to trim their group of coaching candidates down to three finalists in the next seven to 10 days, writes Michael Grange of Sportsnet.
Spurs assistant Ettore Messina is expected to be on the list, along with longtime Raptors assistant Nick Nurse, according to Grange. He expects the other finalist to be Sarunas Jasikevicius, who briefly played in the NBA and has become one of Europe’s top coaching propects.
Jasikevicius, who serves as head coach of EuroLeague team Zalgiris Kaunas in Lithuania, interviewed with Raptors president Masai Ujiri over the weekend at the NBA Global Camp in Italy.
Spurs assistant Ime Udoka, who is among the finalists for the Pistons’ head coaching vacancy, may also get consideration from the Raptors, Grange adds.
Toronto hopes to hire a new coach by the end of the month, and Nurse should be considered the front-runner, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports, who adds that several outside candidates are still being considered. Nurse is viewed highly by the front office after revamping the Raptors’ offense heading into this season.
The organization may talk to some more candidates before a final decision is made, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
The NBA draft is two and a half weeks away, and the free agent period will follow shortly thereafter. However, Detroit doesn’t have a first-round pick in the draft or cap room for free agents, so special advisor Ed Stefanski isn’t rushing to get a new head of basketball operations in place. In fact, as Keith Langlois of Pistons.com details, it sounds as if Stefanski is prioritizing the head coaching search.
“The priority right now is going for a head coach,” Stefanski said. “You would almost say simultaneously trying to find the front office, but a head coach is important so we can get that person to put arms around our players and make sure they’re doing their offseason program and developing. The summer is when these players really develop and that’s huge for the franchise.”
Here’s more on the Pistons, including a few notes on that search for a new head coach:
The Raptors interviewed their G League head coach, Jerry Stackhouse, for their head coaching job last week in Chicago, Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports tweets.
Familiarity could work in Stackhouse’s favor. He moved into a coaching two years after he retired in 2013, serving as an assistant to former coach Dwane Casey. He took over the head coaching job with Raptors 905 prior to the 2016-17 season and guided them to a championship. They lost in the finals to Austin this past season.
The Raptors were reportedly interested in hiring ex-Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer before he selected the Bucks. Stackhouse is just one of three in-house candidates being considered as Casey’s replacement. Nick Nurse and Rex Kalamian also fall into that category.
Stackhouse is also considered a candidate for the Pistons’ head coaching position. Detroit was one of the teams Stackhouse played for during his long NBA career. He was one of many candidates interviewed by the Knicks before they chose former Grizzlies head man David Fizdale.
Mike Budenholzer, who agreed tonight to be the Bucks’ next head coach, was also the Raptors’ top choice, tweets Michael Grange of Rogers Sportsnet. Budenholzer met with Toronto’s front office on Monday, but no job offer was extended, relays ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
Assistant coach Nick Nurse appears to be the current front-runner for the Raptors’ job, according to Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports (Twitter link). Nurse has spent the past five seasons as part of former coach Dwane Casey’s staff.
Lewenberg describes him as a “forward, innovative thinker,” which is an important quality to the Toronto front office (Twitter link). He adds that there’s a good chance someone else will hire Nurse if the Raptors don’t make him their head coach.
Toronto seems very focused on internal candidates, Lewenberg notes, as fellow assistant Rex Kalamian is being considered for the opening, along with Jerry Stackhouse, head coach of Raptors 905 in the G League (Twitter link). Other than Budenholzer, no one from outside the organization has interviewed for the position.
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