3 Raptors who deserve blame after disheartening play-in exit

2. Nick Nurse

The Raptors have been bombarded by rumors that Nurse is eyeing a change of scenery, preferably one that helps him land in Houston. Based on how the season ended, there may be a large contingent of Raptors fans that won’t shed a single tear if he leaves.

Nurse’s inability to adapt his preferred style of play is one thing, but his tinkering (or lack of same) has been frustrating. Players are either kept in roles that don’t work for weeks on end or see their responsibilities shift every day. As such, the team’s effort and consistency were all over the place.

Nick Nurse might leave the Toronto Raptors.

Nurse’s biggest issue, exacerbated by the fact he never was able to construct a worthwhile bench, was him continuously running his starters into the ground with ridiculous minute workloads and a lack of load management. No wonder they looked gassed in the fourth quarter all the time.

Sometimes, it’s just time for a facelift. Nurse has won just one playoff series without Kawhi Leonard on his team, and the Raptors are not responding to his usual diatribes about effort as well as they did in past seasons. He might need to rebuild Houston while Toronto takes a look at other assistants.