Former Suns coach Watson set to join Raptors
The Toronto Raptors continue to remake Nick Nurse's coaching staff.
Former Phoenix Suns coach Earl Watson, who also enjoyed a long NBA career as a player, will be teaming with Nurse, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
Top Australian coach Trevor Gleeson is also reportedly set to come aboard, while Nate Bjorkgren, formerly Nurse's lead assistant and currently his right-hand man with the Canadian men's team, could return to Toronto after being let go by the Indiana Pacers.
Watson, meanwhile, is considered to be a player's coach. He spent parts of four seasons with Phoenix.
An interesting aspect of the Watson hire could be how it affects Pascal Siakam.
Watson has many connections to Siakam's camp.
He starred at UCLA on teams that also featured one of Siakam's agents, Todd Ramasar, and Rico Hines, a player development coach with the Sacramento Kings who also has spent multiple summers working hard on Siakam's game in Los Angeles. Watson has attended some of those camps.
As is always the case ahead of the NBA draft and free agency, the rumour mill has been churning, including some chatter about Toronto looking to move Siakam.
But bringing in Watson doesn't seem like an addition a team looking to deal Siakam would make.
It's no secret there were issues between Siakam and Nurse last season.
Siakam was suspended one game for walking off the court after fouling out against Philadelphia.
He was benched after a rough game on Feb. 24 and again in late March.
The result, as has been widely reported and verified by Postmedia, was a verbal altercation between Siakam and Nurse.
The Raptors denied a report that a frustrated Siakam had been fined $50,000 by the team as a result of the incident, and there has been no suggestion there was a huge divide between Siakam and his coach, just that he had grown frustrated for seemingly being singled out in a season filled with losses, injuries and Covid-19-related absences while playing in Tampa, Fla.
Everyone apparently wants to turn the page. Watson's arrival could help with that.