Letting go of Dwayne Casey, who had been an excellent coach for the Toronto Raptors, and promoting Nick Nurse to be the Head Coach may have been seen as a gamble when Masai Ujiri decided in 2018. However, it’s paid massive dividends, with Nurse blossoming as one of the league’s best coaches, winning a championship, and then developing the roster into what looks like it will be a serious playoff team for years to come.
Nurse’s excellent coaching and the Raptors’ success have brought a ton of attention to him, and with the Lakers currently searching for a new Head Coach, Nurse’s name had been mentioned as a top target. The man himself spoke about being focused on the job at hand in Toronto, but now Ujiri himself has spoken about the rumored interest, poking a little fun at the Lakers in the process.
Masai Ujiri on reports of the Lakers' interest in Nick Nurse: "No team has contacted me. And I see all the stuff that you guys see. I dream like they dream. I want Messi. I want Renaldo. I want Kobe Bryant. So they can keep dreaming. I dream too."
— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) May 3, 2022
“No team has contacted me. And I see all the stuff that you guys see. I dream like they dream. I want Messi. I want Ronaldo. I want Kobe Bryant. So they can keep dreaming. I dream too.”
Letting go of Nurse now, with the Raptors having a clear identity in their team and their roster-building would prove to be quite hazardous for the franchise. And Masai Ujiri has been one of the top executives in the NBA since he took over the Raptors job, so there’s no way he would let his coach walk away to another team even if it is the Lakers.
As for the Lakers, the firing of Frank Vogel and how it was handled has not reflected well on the team at all. Quin Snyder, another reported target, was seemingly not impressed with how the franchise parted ways with Vogel. A good coach is a very important thing to have in the NBA and if Nurse is off the table, which it appears that he is, the Lakers need to move on to other targets quickly.
