Soon after Nick Nurse sat down with the media in his traditional season-ending press conference on Monday, the Raptors head coach planned to meet with team president Masai Ujiri.
The two planned to rehash the season, said Nurse, with everything up for discussion. How can he coach better? How can the team play better? How can they make the roster better?
While reports last month had Nurse as a top target for filling the Lakers’ head coaching position after Frank Vogel was fired at the end of the regular season, he certainly didn’t sound Monday like he was going anywhere.
He went as far as to brush aside the rumors entirely.
“I don’t know where that stuff comes from, and I’m focused on coaching this team,” Nurse stated.
The Lakers and Vogel parted ways after L.A. failed to reach the post-season.
Nurse, who has two more seasons on the contract extension he signed with the Raptors in the fall of 2020, talked to reporters for 40 minutes on Monday after the team was ousted from the playoffs by Philadelphia in six games last Thursday.
A season that started with low expectations amid huge question marks about the roster ended with a sense of pleasant surprise. Nurse called it a “great season.” His young roster had been a revelation, enduring setbacks around COVID-19 and injuries to earn the No. 5 seed in the playoffs. They beat the league’s best teams in the regular season with hustle and hard work, a lunch-bucket identity largely stamped into the Raptors’ culture by Kyle Lowry before the all-star guard left for Miami.
And now, Nurse is excited to get back to work with Ujiri on next season. “If you’re trying to time it out, when you think we have another shot to win [a championship], well, I’m ready. I’m ready to get back in the hunt. Today,” Nurse said. “I coach to win.
