While the general idea of a Year 1 coaching boost sounds nice for the Sixers, the team’s Nick Nurse for Doc Rivers swap won’t equate to radical changes in every imaginable area.
The Sixers’ game plans will still largely revolve around reigning MVP Joel Embiid. And as the NBA world waits to see what’s next for James Harden and Jrue Holiday, many of the Sixers’ key players from last season — Tyrese Maxey, Tobias Harris, PJ Tucker, De’Anthony Melton — remain on the roster.
The Sixers will absolutely not be identical with Nurse at the helm, though. Here are ways we think he can make a real impact this season:
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Different kinds of connections
Between his time as a player and a head coach, Rivers has over 3,000 games of NBA experience (counting the playoffs). Though he obviously has not struck the right notes in every player relationship, that volume of work has often served him well and generated immediate respect.
Nurse was once a player and coach simultaneously at a level far below the NBA. Soon after graduating from Northern Iowa, he accepted a player-coach job for the Derby Rams in the British Basketball League. On a winding path to the NBA, Nurse learned how to build teams, adapt rapidly and speak with earned authority.
“I carry it all forward,” Nurse wrote in “Rapture,” his 2020 book with Michael Sokolove. “Every crazy, maddening, fulfilling day of that three-decade odyssey.”
NBA
This Sixers team is full of players on expiring contracts, which won’t be new to Nurse.
“You’ve got to instill that you’re playing to win the game,” Nurse said on the Old Man and the Three podcast with JJ Redick and Tommy Alter. “And I always say 1A. is can we increase each player’s value in the marketplace? And No. 1 always helps that.”
The transition game
The Sixers’ half-court offense was a major strength last season. The team’s 102.6 points per 100 half-court plays ranked fourth in the NBA, according to Cleaning the Glass.
However, the Sixers didn’t play much in transition. Their 135.3 points per 100 transition plays actually led the league, but the Sixers were 24th in transition frequency. The team has considerable room to improve with transition defense, as well.
Nurse’s history with the Raptors suggests he’ll continue to value transition basketball. Even if Embiid is trailing the play, expect Nurse to encourage Maxey to push the ball down the heart of the floor.
Melton and Paul Reed also have natural pace-pushing qualities up Nurse’s alley. And perhaps Harris will profit more in transition — as both a downhill driver and a spot-up shooter — like he did a few years back alongside Ben Simmons.
Creative answers
Despite the end result simply not being good enough, Rivers’ gut-feel decisions did regularly yield positive outcomes last postseason.
Rivers started Reed when Embiid was sidelined by a right knee injury and allowed him to play through some tough stretches in wins over Brooklyn and Boston. He trimmed the Sixers’ rotation to eight players in their Game 4 overtime win over the Celtics, removing Jalen McDaniels. In Game 5, he turned to Danuel House Jr. and the veteran wing gave him a strong performance.
When Boston played its two-big lineup of Robert Williams III and Al Horford in Game 6, the Sixers had a bitterly disappointing performance on wide-open three-pointers (6 for 25). Rivers opted to stick with PJ Tucker in his starting lineup for Game 7. Although Tucker made three corner jumpers in the first quarter, the Sixers ultimately got blown out by Boston.
In Rivers’ shoes, would Nurse have discovered a solution to win Game 6 or 7? It’s impossible to know. At a minimum, he would’ve had many alternatives in mind — an offensive wrinkle to get Embiid an easier catch or two down the stretch of Game 6; a box-and-one defense on Jayson Tatum in the second half of Game 7; a burst of full-court pressure to try to force turnovers and flip momentum.
During the regular season, Nurse wants to experiment so that the Sixers have diverse options they can call upon in the postseason.
“If it doesn’t work and it’s a really bad idea … we’re going to crumple it up pretty quick and move on to something else,” Nurse said at his introductory Sixers press conference. “But if it does (work), we kind of put it over here. Sometimes we call it our playoff toolbox — something we tried that worked on a certain guy that we may need down the road.
"And it really starts with asking them to be open-minded. ‘Be open-minded here, and we’re going to do some things that you probably haven’t done before.’ And I know that because sometimes we as a coaching staff don’t even know what they are. They present themselves with a certain group of guys against a certain opponent in a certain situation. So it’s open-mindedness and a collaborative effort, really.”
A former adversary’s perspective
Unlike Rivers, who came to Philadelphia from the Western Conference's Clippers, Nurse has experienced tense playoff clashes against the Sixers that should help in having a nuanced grasp of his new team.
He understands very well, for instance, that 1-on-1 coverage and occasional double teams aren’t sufficient against Embiid. He’s fully aware that Maxey has become a tremendous shooter who can torch a team for 40-plus points … because Maxey scored a career-high 44 in Toronto last October.
Nurse accepted the Sixers job with a keen sense of where his best players are relatively weak, too. He knows Harris’ physical strength hasn’t translated to much production in terms of drawing fouls or grabbing offensive rebounds, Maxey has tended to play it safe with his pick-and-roll decision-making, and the Sixers have frequently struggled to play passable defense when Embiid sits. All of that background should be useful.
Player development
Nurse’s hiring alone won’t dramatically elevate the Sixers’ young players.
After huge hits such as Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet, the Raptors were light on shining developmental success stories the past few years and Nurse took valid criticism for playing his established starters very heavy minutes. His presence does not guarantee that Maxey, Reed and Jaden Springer will blossom.
Compared to Rivers, though, our impression is that Nurse will be more personally involved in day-to-day, developmental-focused instruction. Already, we’ve heard from Reed and rookie two-way guard Ricky Council IV that Nurse has done “very hands-on” coaching on shooting form.
Nurse clearly cared about player development in forming his coaching staff, too. Rico Hines is widely considered a development expert, while Bobby Jackson, Bryan Gates, Matt Brase, Coby Karl and Doug West are among the new Sixers assistants with G League (and/or D League) coaching experience.