The Toronto Raptors have fired their head coach Nick Nurse and are looking at former Boston Celtics boss Ime Udoka as a serious candidate for the position, ESPN reported on Friday.

"To watch us play this year was not us," Raptors president Masai Ujiri said. "I did not enjoy watching this team play. I think that spoke loud and clear to everything that went on this year. It bothered all of us. It bothered coach too, but sometimes we have to make change and we have to move forward."

Four years ago, Nurse, in his first season as the boss of the Raptors, led them to finish the regular season with a 58-24 record. In the post season, the team knocked out the Orlando Magic, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Milwaukee Bucks to reach the NBA Finals and then beat the reigning champions Golden State Warriors to win their first championship in franchise history.

The NBA Finals Most Valuable Player of that series Kawhi Leonard left the Raptors after the title-winning season. In the following years, they lost other key players in Marc Gasol, Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka. Pascal Siakam took over from Leonard to become the team's leader while OG Anunoby grew into one of the league's best 3-and-defense players. The Raptors drafted Scottie Barnes with the fourth pick in 2021, building the best depth in the two forward positions of the league.

Nurse's style of coaching of having players trap the opponents' ball-handler defensively and stopping at nothing to drive fast break fit the Raptors' lineup well. That is why they appeared in the playoffs twice in the four years since 2019 and made every opponent sweat irrespective of the result of the game.

Nonetheless, without a player of top-10-level caliber on their roster, the Raptors have had a visible ceiling of performance. They lost to the Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament this season and failed to reach the playoffs.

"The feel, the spirit of who we really are, it's been very disappointing for us," Ujiri said. "We want to gain momentum back as a team. Togetherness, culture, all the things we've stood for here, I think we lacked this year."

Like Nurse, Udoka reached the summit of his coaching career in his first season in the Celtics by leading the team to the NBA Finals in 2022. However, he parted ways with the them after being suspended for a year because of multiple violations of team rules.

It shouldn't be hard for Nurse to find a new job as an NBA head coach. ESPN revealed that the Houston Rockets have been interested in hiring him. Meanwhile, as the boss of the Canadian national team, Nurse also has the duty to help the team perform well enough in the coming FIBA Basketball World Cup to secure an automatic qualification for the Paris Olympics in 2024.