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Not a fit five years ago, Mike Budenholzer won't be a Toronto Raptors' fit now - Toronto Sun

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Depending on your perspective, the Raptors search either got a whole lot easier Thursday or a whole lot harder.

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With news that the Milwaukee Bucks were parting ways with NBA championship ring-wearing head coach Mike Budenholzer, a potentially very big name dropped right into Masai Ujiri’s search lap.

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Of course, there’s also the chance the search hasn’t changed at all.

Budenholzer is a product of the vaunted Gregg Popovich tree, one of the many who have served under the great Pop and gone on to their own successes elsewhere.

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Budenholzer served a stunning 17 years as an assistant under Pop and two years before that as a video coordinator before venturing out on his own where he had plenty of success in his first head job in Atlanta taking a previously middling team to a Conference Final following a 60-win season.

He would go on to another 60-win season in Milwaukee four years later in his first of five seasons with the Bucks which would include that 2021 championship.

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But after five years in Milwaukee and a surprising first-round upset by No. 8 seed Miami in a series marred by the tragic death of Budenholzer’s brother in a car accident and strongly impacted by injuries to Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Bucks determined his shelf life was past due and showed him the door.

Almost Immediately social media was abuzz with suggestions that former Raptors’ head coach Nick Nurse, himself coming off a five-year run that included a championship, would be the perfect replacement.

Not long after that came more suggestions that maybe Budenholzer and Nurse should just trade houses and take over the other’s previous spots of employment.

It’s tidy — and we all like tidy — but there’s really very little chance of it happening.

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Unlike Milwaukee’s interest in Nurse, the Raptors have already kicked the tires on Budenholzer and decided the fit was not there for them.

Instead, they reached onto their own bench and promoted Nurse as a first-time head coach. The dividends were immediate with that championship the very first year.

Budenholzer was actually the Raptors’ first interview five years ago but it was apparent rather quickly that it wasn’t there for either Budenholzer or Ujiri.

Budenholzer, like Ime Udoka this time around, quickly took himself out of contention by signing on with another team – in this case the Bucks.

Ujiri turned to a list that included Ettore Messina, the Italian mastermind of CSKA Moscow’s success through the early 2000s and who would later hold a spot on Popovich’s bench before returning to Europe and the international game. He was thought to be the front-runner.

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Messina was a finalist for the job along with Nurse. Also in contention then was Jerry Stackhouse, then coming off a season with the Raptors 905 and now in his fifth year at Vanderbilt and again considered a candidate for the open job in Toronto.

So, Budenholzer becoming a candidate again this time around seems unlikely. If he wasn’t a fit five years ago what would make him a fit now?

Budenholzer is a very respected coach in NBA circles, has twice been named NBA coach of the year and finished second to Nurse in 2019 when he won his award. No coach has won the award more than three times, something done by Popovich, Pat Riley and Don Nelson.

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He’ll get another head coaching job.

Ujiri, based on conversations and his description of what he is looking for in a new head coach, is much more likely to go fresh and new as he did last time around with Nurse than to recycle a guy like Budenholzer as experienced and respected as he is.

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Again, he passed on him once. Why would that change now?

In any event it’s not like he’s lacking for strong candidates with or without Budenholzer.

Becky Hammon, who was also in the conversation in 2018 the last time the job was open, is considered a very strong possibility this time around.

Hammon though is walking the fine line of juggling one opportunity while trying to do justice to her current role as head coach of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces.

The Aces are defending WNBA champs and have to be Hammon’s priority right now. That doesn’t mean she can’t interview and see where this goes, but it would be unfair to publicly start talking about another job when you’re still employed elsewhere. The Aces have reportedly given Hammond permission to interview with the Raptors but it’s clear from her refusal to speak about the Toronto opportunity publicly that she is very sensitive to the optics of the situation.

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It would be a mistake to view Hammon’s candidacy as anything less than serious. There’s also the very real possibility that the next head coach of the Raptors has yet to be even mentioned as a candidate. That was closer to the case when Nurse was hired.

As for Nurse’s chances of landing in Milwaukee, we view that much more likely than Budenholzer coming to Toronto.

Nurse is still considered around the league as the fresh and young innovator he was when he took the head job five years ago in Toronto. A disappointing season this past year can be easily explained away as a combination of bad mix of personnel and bad circumstances so that shouldn’t hinder him in future employment much.

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And there’s no question Nurse hadn’t made an impression on the Bucks front office the way he game planned for, and limited Giannis Antetokounmpo in that 2019 Eastern Conference Final.

In fact, the lure of what Nurse might come up with for Antetokounmpo working on his behalf would almost certainly be a huge attraction for the Bucks’ front office.

mganter@postmedia.com

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