Raptors firing jump-starts NBA coaching carousel

Three weeks ago, Nurse said he wanted to "take a few weeks and see where I'm at" after the season, which ended with the Chicago Bulls' comeback win over the Raptors in the play-in tournament. Toronto team president Ujiri didn't need a few weeks to decide to replace his championship-winning coach, who had a year left on his contract.

"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," Ujiri said in a statement.

The personnel Ujiri wants to put in place? ESPN reports Toronto will strongly consider former Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka, who has a long relationship with Ujiri, partly stemming from their connection to the Nigerian national basketball team. Udoka took the Celtics to the NBA Finals in his first year, before the team suspended him for "multiple violations" of team policy.

Toronto hiring Udoka would take one of the most prominent head coaching candidates off the market, and opens the door for Nurse to potentially take the vacant head coach job in Houston. That in turn affects the pool of candidates for the only other open job, Detroit Pistons head coach.

Normally there's more turnover in the coaching ranks, but Atlanta hired Quin Snyder at the All-Star break, and Brooklyn gave Jacque Vaughn a multi-year extension in February. There's always a chance that playoffs results could lead to an unexpected firing - Doc Rivers is on the hot seat if Philadelphia can't get out of the second round - but right now, there are only three available jobs.

Ujiri's comments also suggest Toronto may be willing to move on from players that were the core of their championship team. Fred VanVleet and Jakob Poeltl are free agents, Pascal Siakam is heading into the last year of his contract and OG Anunoby has seemingly been on the trade block since last year.

Whatever happens, we expect the coaching hires to start coming fast. With limited jobs and limited top candidates, both sides can't afford to wait and see where they're at.