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One month after firing Dwane Casey for again failing to get past LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Playoffs, the Toronto Raptors have promoted assistant coach Nick Nurse to Head Coach, according to ESPN.
Nurse has six seasons of head-coaching experience in the NBA G League, where he won two championships and a coach of the year award, and has been an assistant with the Raptors for the last five seasons.
In February, Nurse spoke with Sportsnet about what he learned from Casey:
“I’ve learned a lot about preparation from [Casey], the seriousness of attention to detail. He’s been around the league a long time, and he’s seen it all. That’s the biggest thing. We have to prepare the players and can’t leave any stone unturned. We have to know everything the other team is doing and really work hard and grind it out.”
Nurse is a two-time D-League Championship winning coach (2011, 2013) and was named D-League Coach of the Year in 2011, all with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.