Rumours swirl on Nurse’s future

Be forewarned.

The chirping has already started around the NBA, and it’s going to become more prevalent as the Raptors season reaches its ultimately disappointing conclusion.

You’ll hear that Nick Nurse may be out as the coach, you’ll hear that he’s destined for Houston, and then you’re going to hear that Ime Udoka is the front-runner to replace him in Toronto if they go outside the current staff, which seems likely. Possible? Anything’s possible. Likely? Well, how many saw Dwane Casey being let go and DeMar DeRozan getting traded in a two-month span five years ago?

But what’s real is that the chatter is out there surrounding Nurse, his future and what the Raptors might do whenever this season ends.

Conversations over the past 10 days or so with people closely connected to Atlantic Division rivals of the Raptors, and others with direct ties to the league, have begun to focus on the coaching situation as much as anything to do with the roster.

Whatever happens, it hasn’t been decided and won’t be until this season ends. There have been no loud whispers around the team, but everyone knows everything’s on the table when a season ends in disappointment and questions persist.

That always leads to chatter around the league, and that’s certainly where we are today.

The Nurse questions, which have come from scouts, front-office officials, assistant coaches and people

on the periphery of the league, have been presented in two forms.

Is his time here at an end? Should, or would, the Raptors make a change just to infuse the franchise with new energy?

And the other part, the Houston part, just won’t leave the rumour mill.

Nurse certainly has ties there — check out his G League history — and one scenario presented this week would have Gersson Rosas, a former Rockets executive acting as an adviser to the Knicks after leaving Minnesota, returning to Houston and trying to bring Nurse with him.

Meanwhile, Udoka is an interesting name for a variety of obvious reasons. He’s close to Masai Ujiri, he had success in Boston and maybe he’s been away from the game long enough.

Quite aside from whether he’s a good coach or not — and there are mixed opinions on that — the story behind his suspension and ultimate dismissal as Celtics coach is going to be an issue.

I don’t know exactly what happened, you certainly don’t know exactly what happened and if fans trust Ujiri and Bobby Webster to do their due diligence, that would probably be wise.

We are, though, months away from that even being a possibility, and obsessing over it now is a waste of time.

Adrian Griffin should get a look, Earl Watson should get a look and I’d say Sergio Scariolo should get a look. And there will be dozens of others.

If, that is, the job’s open.

And is there any reason it should be?

It’s not like Nurse is solely, or even primarily, responsible for what’s transpired this year.

The roster has been flawed since the first day of training camp, a handful of players did not progress nearly as fast as management wanted and there were critical injuries.

Coaching was just part of it: mixed and matched rotations; leashes that were too short at times, too long at others. The minutia of in-game decisions is often just noise. Every coach makes some decisions that work and some that don’t each night, and they tend to even out between right and wrong in the long run.

And Nurse has certainly had an unprecedented run of success.

An NBA championship in his first season. The Raptors, even minus Kawhi Leonard, could quite easily have repeated had COVID-19 not ruined life.

The Tampa Tank year was such an abomination and aberration it shouldn’t be discussed in polite company any more.

A 48-win, 2021-22 season with a handful of new guys in new roles.

Yes, 2022-23 has sucked at several levels, but there’s more than enough blame, responsibility and explanation to go around.

Nothing may come of it and Nurse, with one year left on a lucrative deal, may very well be back, but the talk is legitimate nonetheless.

And as the season winds down, it’s unlikely to get any quieter.

Who goes if Dowtin stays?

If the Raptors convert Jeff Dowtin Jr. to a full-on NBA employee next week — it’ll be after Tuesday’s game in Charlotte — who will leave is very much unknown.

It’s a hard call for Ujiri and Webster because they know they’re dealing with real people with real lives. Disrupting that so late in the season will hurt them.

Same with the players. They all know the reality, that one of their brothers will have to leave for one of them to remain.

It’s just an ugly part of the business.

The smart money is on waiving Joe Wieskamp to make room for Dowtin — if they indeed plan to make that move — but that’s just the prevalent speculation.

Cards and letters

We’re going to put a mid-afternoon Saturday deadline on submissions for Ye Olde Mailbag each week now because it has to get posted earlier Sunday than it has been. I don’t want to get up at the crack of dawn each Sunday and have a ton of work to do.

So, get your questions in to askdoug@thestar.ca as soon as you can. It’d be much appreciated.