Raptors need to rediscover 'spirit' of championship era after firing Nick Nurse

Masai Ujiri knew that something was wrong with the 2022-23 Toronto Raptors in late November when they lost back-to-back games in New Orleans and Brooklyn by a combined score of 27.

“There was something there that did not seem right at all, and from there, it started taking a turn,” the Raptors president and vice chairman said at his end of season press conference on Friday morning.

The Raptors went on to finish the season 41-41 as the No. 9 seed in the Eastern Conference. But it wasn’t until the final game of the season, when the Raptors blew a 19-point lead late in the third quarter of an elimination game to the Chicago Bulls in a lifeless display of effort that saw them turn the ball over multiple times and fail to defend on a string that Ujiri knew that something had to change. It was a tipping point, if you will.

“That game, the last [of the] year really summed up what has gone on in this organization, the feel and spirit of who we really are,” Ujiri said. “It’s been very disappointing for us. We want to gain momentum back as a team, togetherness. All the things, culture, that we have stood for here, I think we lacked this year.”

“I think it was difficult for all of us, everybody,” Ujiri went on. “...To watch us play this year was not us. I did not enjoy watching this team play.”

If those words weren’t enough of an indictment of the 2022-23 Raptors, firing head coach Nick Nurse after five years at the helm of the team and with one year and $8 million remaining on his contract surely was. The Raptors decided to let Nurse go on Friday morning after one of the most frustrating seasons in franchise history — one where Nurse and his coaching staff played whack-a-mole, plugging one hole just to create another issue altogether. Repeatedly. Throughout the entire season.

The issues were numerous: a lack of accountability from the players and coaches, a lack of development at the back end of the roster leading to the star players playing heavy minutes and taxing their bodies, and a style of play that technically did what it set out to — the Raptors led the league in turnover percentage and ranked second in transition play — but never seemed to get all of their most important players rolling at the same time.

With that being said, Nurse was inarguably the most successful coach in franchise history over his five seasons at the helm, posting the best winning percentage in team history with a 227-163 (.582) record, making three playoff appearances, winning two Atlantic Division and one Eastern Conference title, and the 2019 NBA Championship. But fifty percent of marriages end in divorce, and Nurse eventually wore out his welcome due in Toronto to a strenuous style of play that asked a lot of his players defensively, a lack of role-definition and hierarchy on offence, and hard-headed attitude that might have fit well with a more veteran team in 2018-19, but failed adapt to a changing league and more youth-oriented Raptors team in 2022-23.

“The decision to make a change like this is never arrived at easily or taken lightly, especially when it comes to a person who has been an integral part of this franchise’s most historic accomplishments, and who has been a steady leader through some of our team’s most challenging times,” Ujiri said in a press release on Friday morning. “This is an opportunity for us to reset, to refocus, to put into place the personnel and the players who will help us reach our goal of winning our next championship.”

So, what does that next era of Raptors basketball look like? And who will be around to celebrate it? According to Ujiri, if the Raptors are going to get anywhere near the levels of success that they had in their previous era — which included five-straight 50-win seasons and a championship — they are going to have to rediscover the spirit and energy of who they were when they were successful. In other words, they are going to have to actually enjoy playing together, not just for themselves, but for each other.

“You could see it throughout the year. There was never that full excitement. There was never that full spirit. There was never that feel of togetherness,” Ujiri said of the Raptors. “It wasn’t us. This year wasn’t us. I think everybody saw that.”

“We’ve got to build spirit back here, the culture, those things that bring us together to move like we’ve always done here. We need that back.. it’s very vital for us to have incredible energy that lifts people and gets us to work together.”

Of course, words like “spirit,” “excitement,” “togetherness,” and “culture” are all opaque and hard, if not impossible, to define. Fans who view the game from a more analytical perspective will want clear-cut solutions rather than vague words of affirmation, but Ujiri has always been one to prioritize the intangibles. After all, it was Ujiri who moved down in the 2022 NBA Draft to acquire Thad Young, a 16-year NBA veteran who was brought in more to help mentor the young locker room than to play in important games. And it is Ujiri who will build out the new coaching staff and roster with those intangibles in mind.

In fact, when asked what the No. 1 quality he will be looking for in a new head coach, Ujiri answered: “Character. Quality of a person. Energy. What kind of energy are we going to get? Because we need that.”

While that was all Ujiri would say about the next head coach, who he hopes will be in place by the 2023 NBA Draft on June 22, he did give insight into his thinking on which players will be around next season to take direction from said coach.

After all, personnel changes are going to be made, because even if Nurse takes the brunt of the blame for this season’s shortcomings — and it's debatable if he should — the roster is half-baked, lacking in shooting, advantage creation, and guard depth, and Ujiri has acknowledged the roster deficiencies and taken responsibility for it himself. But Ujiri also made it clear that the Raptors were not going to blow it up and rebuild, saying, “You don’t necessarily have to tear down your team to build it back up.”

Instead, Ujiri is concerned with finding, or re-signing, players that are unselfish and are committed to the team. He said the plan is for both Jeff Dowtin Jr. and Otto Porter Jr. to be a part of Raptors going forward. But as for the rest of the roster, Ujiri said, “Sometimes there comes a time when there’s a little bit of complacency, I think. When there was a little bit of complacency with us I think some selfishness seeped in."

“I just want to know how we’re going to do better. And whoever wants to do better, whoever wants to play the right way, whoever wants to win, whoever wants to win is going to come with us.”

The Raptors are always going to be a team that prioritizes player development above all else. And their new head coach will have to be someone who not only prioritizes development in the same way, but fosters growth by putting players in the right positions to succeed and gives them chances to make mistakes with a focus on the long-term.

As Ujiri put it, “I think [our players are] getting better individually, but we didn't get better as a team, so that’s on me.”

Only letting go of Nick Nurse clearly says that it was also on him. The Raptors new head coach has to find a way to get players to buy into the fact that the only way they are going to have success in a league as competitive as the modern NBA is by propping up each other, as opposed to focusing only on themselves.

Despite his run with the Raptors coming to an end, Nurse will continue in his role as head coach of the Canadian men's national team, as confirmed by Canada Basketball on Friday.

“Canada Basketball and our Senior Men’s National Team coach, Nick Nurse, are focused on this summer’s FIBA Basketball World Cup and qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Nick will continue to be our head coach, as we work to achieve our goals this summer and next.”