Raptors Rapture’s Mike Luciano doesn’t support the idea of fired Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka — who was suspended in September before training camp due to a workplace conduct violation and fired in February when Joe Mazzulla had his contract extended — replacing Nick Nurse in Toronto.
Luciano noted that Nurse’s name could pop up in rumors at any time if Raptors fans lose faith in his performance before namedropping Udoka as a replacement option. “The Toronto Raptors will likely head into next season with Nick Nurse as the team’s head coach, but that doesn’t mean that they are totally done looking for a replacement that could step in if Nurse’s performance is not deemed satisfactory,” Luciano prefaced before saying, “In fact, Toronto is reportedly extending feelers out to gauge the availability of former Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka.”
Luciano then said that Udoka being hired would be a “slap in the face” and that the Cs being good without Udoka is a sign his influence on their success is overblown. “Udoka being hired would be seen by many as a slap in the face, as he is fresh off losing his job in Boston due to an improper workplace relationship,” Luciano said. “The fact that interim coach Joe Mazzulla has Boston working like a top in his absence has to be alarming for front offices.”
The Boston Celtics lack in one key area under Joe Mazzulla that they didn’t under Ime Udoka
While it’s true that Boston is better nearly across the board under Mazzulla during the 2022-23 season, it’s also true that the area they are not is a highly important category: defense. Brian Scalabrine went on “The Lowe Post” podcast with ESPN’s Zach Lowe to call out this defensive slippage.
“They don’t guard at nearly the clip that they used to guard at,” Scalabrine said. “It used to be that everyone’s fighting to be the best defender on the team. It was a good rivalry…It used to be a thing. They used to take pride in guarding the ball. They used to take pride in shutting down the other team’s best player. I actually believe they have moments of that. But they’re far from, far from a 48-minute per game team that sits down defensively and really works on that side of the ball.”
Hopefully Mazzulla can get the Celtics back to the Udoka-era level defense that propelled the team to an NBA Finals appearance.