G
ood luck with these guys.”
Those were Nick Nurse’s final words after being fired by the Toronto Raptors back in April. Relayed by president Masai Ujiri, they are open to interpretation.
One version – the one Ujiri leaned into at the time – is the literal one. After 10 years with the franchise and a by-any-measure successful five-year run as head coach, Nurse wished only the best to a team and organization that had helped him put him on the map.
Of course, there is another possible take: Basically, ‘Good luck trying to win with these chumps, I’m out of here.’
Whatever you choose to read into it, it’s clear the Toronto Raptors are at a crossroads. Their glorious 2019 NBA championship will be five years in the past by the time the 2023-24 season winds up. The only rotation player from that run remaining on the roster is Pascal Siakam, and the three-time all-star spent most of the summer hearing his name featured prominently in trade rumours. Coming off a 41-41 season, a ninth-place finish, and an ugly loss at Scotiabank Arena in the first play-in game, the Raptors are trying to make as fresh start as possible without turning over the roster and diving into full rebuild, and all the uncertainties therein.
In the hallway leading to the Raptors’ dressing room there are photo tiles of each member of the team’s basketball operations staff, posing with a loved one. ‘We’re a family’ is the obvious message. Nothing lasts forever, it turns out. In addition to Nurse, the Raptors parted ways with 13 assistant coaches, their long-time head athletic trainer, their head of team security, their travel coordinator and their longest-serving athletic therapist. As such, one of this off-season’s projects was to replace the tiles of the departed with those of the newcomers. But as of the Raptors’ final preseason game, it was still on the to-do list, with the tiles to be replaced marked by sticky notes. It’s a lot of sticky notes, a visual reminder of the sweeping effort to change the vibe and determine, once and for all, whether the Raptors’ woes last season were a Nick Nurse problem or something bigger. Following an exhaustive search that canvassed a wide swath of candidates before short-listing to five and then three, Rajakovic was the somewhat surprising winner, the front office’s choice to help answer that multi-million dollar question.
