Nick Nurse hired by 76ers as latest NBA coaching domino falls

Nick Nurse’s return to coaching next season will come with a former Atlantic Division rival.

The 76ers reached an agreement with Nurse, according to ESPN on Monday, five weeks after the Raptors parted ways with the coach who guided them to an NBA title in 2019 and won the NBA’s Coach of the Year award in 2020.

It became the latest coaching carousel domino to fall within the NBA after the Bucks, Suns, 76ers, Raptors, Pistons and Rockets all parted ways with their coach — with the Milwaukee, Phoenix and Philadelphia vacancies surprising, given that all three finished as some of the top teams in their respective conferences.

The Bucks hired Adrian Griffin, one of Nurse’s top assistants in Toronto, over the weekend, and the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Nurse considered a potential reunion with 76ers president Daryl Morey “enticing.”

The pair worked together in Houston, where Nurse coached their G-League team before leaving to become a Toronto assistant in 2013.

Former Raptors coach Nick Nurse was hired by the 76ers on Monday.NBAE via Getty Images

Nurse will now get to work alongside 2023 NBA MVP Joel Embiid with the 76ers, which advanced to the second round of the postseason but lost to the Celtics — and then fired head coach Doc Rivers.

Across five seasons with the Raptors, Nurse compiled a 227-163 record in the regular season, in addition to leading the postseason run — with Kawhi Leonard as the centerpiece — in his first season after taking over for Dwane Casey.

But a 41-41 regular season, and a loss in the play-in tournament, in 2022-23 was enough for the Raptors to move on from Nurse, and he started a stretch where three of the four NBA Coach of the Year award winners between 2018-19 and 2022-23 were fired.

Nurse guided the Raptors to a title in 2019 and won Coach of the Year in 2020.AP

Mike Budenholzer (Bucks) and Monty Williams (Suns) were the other two.

In the first coaching hire of the offseason, Houston decided on former Celtics coach Ime Udoka, who had been suspended for the entire 2022-23 season after an improper intimate relationship with a female staff member.

Then, the Bucks chose to give Griffin his first chance at being a head coach, with a roster headlined by Giannis Antetokounmpo.

And with the 76ers close to officially hiring Nurse, just the Suns, Pistons and Raptors have openings that remain.