The team’s front office wasn’t pleased about the timing of that, although it was not a primary reason for the separation between the team and Nurse. In hindsight, it’s a bit funny that Nurse chose a late-season game in Philadelphia as the time to speculate on his future with the Raptors.
NICK SCHWARTZ AND IT DOES THIS FREE
Harden’s free agency and the rest of the offseason will determine the exact roster Nurse will work with, but his adaptability will be put to the test. The Sixers were the best 3-point shooting team in the NBA last season, while Toronto was one of the worst. Philadelphia, with a small backcourt ( Tyrese Maxey, and perhaps James Harden) and a dominant center (Embiid), profile as a team with very different strengths and weaknesses. Those Raptors teams were positionless, with similar-sized wings and forwards that flew around the court on defense. And it will be on Nurse, along with Embiid and the supporting cast, to remedy the Sixers’ postseason woes.įrom a schematic standpoint, it will be fascinating to see Nurse adjust to his new personnel.
He employed a box-and-one against Steph Curry in the NBA Finals. He once almost won a game in Philadelphia by throwing a full-court press at the Sixers in the final few minutes. In Nurse, the Sixers are getting a proven tinkerer and outside-the-box thinker. Rivers largely had the regular season figured out with this team, but for three straight seasons, he could not guide them past any of the East’s top teams. It sounds simple, but the Sixers need to get over the postseason hump. And after the Sixers fired a coach that Embiid supported, they are bringing in a former adversary whom the Sixers star has developed a respect for over the years. Embiid just won the MVP, but yet again, he and the Sixers fell well short in high-stakes playoff games. Nurse will find Embiid at a crossroads moment in his career. Embiid and Nurse even sniped back and forth in the media about officiating during that second series.
NICK SCHWARTZ AND IT DOES THIS SERIES
Nurse’s Raptors eked out a second-round series against Embiid and the Sixers in 2019, while Embiid enacted a small measure of revenge in the 2022 first round. They once held Embiid to zero points in a game. The long and athletic Toronto teams double and triple-teamed Embiid more aggressively than any team in the NBA. For most of Embiid’s career, perhaps his most prominent rivalry has been Nurse’s Raptors. Thirteen years later, with Nurse an NBA champion coach, they reunite in Philadelphia.īut the most fascinating part of this hire will be how Nurse works with Joel Embiid. In 2011, Nurse was hired as coach of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the G League affiliate of the Houston Rockets, who were run by Daryl Morey at the time. The relationships with the key figures are the first place to start. The Athletic’s instant analysis: What Nurse brings to Philadelphia
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