Two days before it was reported that former Raptors assistant Nick Nurse would become the team’s new head coach, Jerry Stackhouse walked away from the organization. The promising young coach, then the G League Raptors 905’s bench boss, joined J.B. Bickerstaff as an assistant for the Memphis Grizzlies.
For many, this was just another move in the annual off-season coaching carousel. But to some ardent Raps observers (including this one), it was a step backwards for the team’s evolution — and quite possibly an egregious error by the seemingly infallible Masai Ujiri and the Raptors front office.