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A new head coach for the Raptors may be on board sooner rather than later.
Multiple NBA sources say the franchise is moving to a second round of interviews for the job that became vacant when Nick Nurse was let go last month after five seasons.
One source said Raptors vice chairman and president Masai Ujiri has narrowed the list of candidates to three and final interviews are being scheduled, although that number was not independently confirmed.
Names of the finalists were not available but, after casting a wide net through every level of coaching candidates around the world, it appears Ujiri and general manager Bobby Webster are close to a hire.
Nurse was let go on April 21 and Ujiri said that day it might take until the NBA draft on June 22 before a replacement was found. That timeline has been advanced and it is likely the Raptors will have the 10th head coach in franchise history in time for the pre-draft workout process.
The Raptors have the 13th pick in the draft. While having a head coach and staff in place by then would be nice, it’s a necessity.
There are several legitimate possibilities that have emerged in conversations with multiple league sources:
- Steve Nash would be a good fit and may thrive under with a more stable management and roster situation than he had to deal with in a tumultuous tenure with the Brooklyn Nets.
- Sacramento associate head coach Jordi Fernandez is among the most highly regarded assistants in the league and was a finalist for the vacant Phoenix job that a source says has been narrowed to Nurse and Doc Rivers.
- JJ Redick may not have any coaching experience but as an ex-player he would command respect and be an out-of-the-box hire who would set the Raptors apart from many other franchises.
- Sergio Scariolo, the former Raptors assistant and current coach of the Spanish national team, may want to become the first truly international head coach in the NBA. Ujiri and Webster flew to Italy to conduct an interview earlier this month.
- Monty Williams has a proven track record with the Phoenix Suns and is highly respected throughout the league, but it’s unclear whether the Raptors formally interviewed him.
- David Adelman of the Denver Nuggets is one of the most-touted assistants in the league but he’s also tied up for a couple of week as his current team seeks an NBA championship.
- Chris Quinn of the Miami Heat is in the same situation as Adelman but is considered one of the best assistants around.
- Becky Hammon, the head coach of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, drew some initial interest but she never became a serious candidate.
There are sure to be others whose names haven’t surfaced in the first round of interviews. The Raptors are notorious throughout the NBA for not leaking their intentions or what they have done or plan to do and the emergence of a “surprise” name would be keeping with the franchise’s method of operation.
But the exhaustive search that Ujiri and Webster undertook after Nurse’s departure has moved into the final stage.
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