3 places Nick Nurse might coach after being fired by Raptors
By Ian Levy
2. Houston Rockets
As long as there have been rumors about Nurse and the Raptors parting ways, the Rockets have been mentioned as a possible destination. They slogged through a campaign with an obvious and troubling lack of development from their young players and wasted no time in firing head coach Stephen Silas once the season was over.
However, Marc Stein recently shared in his paid Substack that these rumors appear to be cooling off: “What I did pick up over the weekend, interestingly, was the first whiff of pessimism I’ve heard regarding Houston’s chances of hiring Nurse even in the event that he and the Raptors part ways. Beyond the possibility that he stays in Toronto, perhaps Nurse has other options that are not plainly apparent.”
Nurse will likely have multiple options to consider and the Rockets will almost certainly be one of them, even if they’re no longer the favorite. As bad as they were this season, they still have a wealth of young talent with the potential to be molded into a competitive playoff team. The Rockets also have a strong chance of landing the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft and several additional picks in the next two or three years. If Nurse really wants to start over with a chance to build something from the ground up, this may be as good an option as there is for him.