NBA Coach of The Year: The favourites to win the award this season

#5 Nick Nurse(Toronto Raptors)

Nick Nurse played assistant coach to Dwane Casey of the Toronto Raptors for the past five seasons.

Dwane Casey's firing after the Raptors were beaten by LeBon's Cavaliers last year in the playoffs was one of the most baffling coach ejections we had seen in a while.

Nick Nurse was promoted to the head coach position in June of 2018, and boy, did he have some humongous shoes to fill.

The blockbuster trade of Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green coupled with the departure of DeRozan was too big a tectonic shift to handle for any coach.

But as of late, Nurse has proven to be fairly proficient at his job of holding the Raptors roster together and not just making it work but instead, excel.

Many might strip him of the credit of Toronto's recent success because of how superhuman Kawhi looks, but in reality, Nurse has been at the forefront of the recent Raptors transition.

He has recorded 21 wins in this season for Toronto so far, comfortably seated at the No. 1 spot in the league right now.

With the Raptors coasting through the regular season currently, what remains to be seen is how well Nurse can command the troops and keep his nerves in check when the playoffs would just be around the corner.