Nick Nurse never minds having options.
Speaking Tuesday in between press conferences for Tyrese Maxey and Paul George, Nurse sounded like he believes the Sixers have assembled a more flexible team this summer.
“You hear me talk a lot about versatility,” the Sixers’ head coach said when asked about Caleb Martin. “I think we’ve got a lot of guys who are versatile — can play a number of positions, guard a number of positions, and just enhance our team by being versatile in general.
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“But listen, I love Caleb. I think his competitive spirit, how hard he plays and his athleticism are kind of what got him to where he is right now. I’m excited to see what it’s like with Caleb.”
With 13 standard roster spots filled, have the Sixers meaningfully improved their versatility on defense?
The team has five players who are 6-foot-3 or under in Maxey, Kyle Lowry, Eric Gordon, Reggie Jackson and rookie Jared McCain. However, none of those guards are inherently doomed by their height defensively.
Maxey keeps on adding muscle. Lowry knows as well as anyone how to scrap effectively at 6 feet. Jackson has an incredible 7-foot wingspan. Gordon is accustomed to switch-everything defense from his Rockets years.
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“I’ve always liked to use my strength on defense,” Gordon said in a virtual press conference on July 10. “Try to be physical as much as I can with guards — and also bigs. I can guard bigs a lot. As I’ve seen from previous years, Nick Nurse, he switches a lot and he’s very feisty on defense. … I think I jell here pretty well and it’s all about making the most of it.”
On the wing, Martin, George and Kelly Oubre Jr. should indeed be able to handle assignments ranging from star lead guards to taller forwards.
Behind Joel Embiid, the Sixers are set to replace Paul Reed with Andre Drummond. It’s an intriguing swap.
As Drummond showed during his 2021-22 Sixers stint, he keeps his hands active, picks up some surprising steals and is open to adventure on the fast break.
Drummond’s been well above average in steal rate for centers throughout his career; he ranked in the 95th percentile for big men last season, according to Cleaning the Glass. He’s much heftier than Reed and better equipped to do traditional center jobs like protect the rim, but Drummond also has turnover-forcing instincts on the perimeter that Nurse will likely appreciate.
The 30-year-old big man breaks up lobs, snags pocket passes and even occasionally swipes the ball from guards. For Drummond, drop coverage doesn’t automatically mean sitting back and letting the play develop in front of him.
Along with the fundamentals, perhaps Nurse will install and implement a bit more zone defense this season. The Sixers were zone-heavy in summer league under assistant coach Matt Brase.
Whatever initial options Nurse turns to, he’s very open to exploring.
“My mindset right now is that most of my ideas are going in pencil,” he said. “I’ve got some thoughts on things, but we’ll experiment and try a bunch of different things.
“I think what we go into training camp running on both sides of the ball will take some twists and turns and evolve to where it gets to by the end of the year. So I just kind of want to see how it looks and unfolds without making it too narrow of a box.”