The Philadelphia 76ers made a splashy hire on the coaching market when they brought in Nick Nurse to replace Doc Rivers. The Sixers moved on from Rivers after three seasons of regular-season success, but three consecutive second-round exits.
Nurse is known for his outside-the-box thinking and his ability to maximize the talent on his rosters. He brings innovative defensive ideas to Philadelphia, and the hope is he’s the right guy to lead the way toward a title.
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ESPN’s Tim Bontemps hopped on “The Hoop Collective” and praised the Sixers for the hire:
I think it’s a great hire for Philly … if you’re moving on from a coach like Doc Rivers, like Phoenix did moving on from Monty Williams, like the Bucks did moving on from Mike Budenholzer, you in theory if you have a championship-level team, you want to bring in an experienced championship level coach. Obviously, Nick’s proven he can win a title. They had a chance to win another one in the bubble. They were in another Game 7 with Boston that went right down to the wire in the bubble. If they win that game, maybe they had won the title that year, and I think if you look at where the Sixers are from a talent standpoint, Nick’s certainly got an ability to really boost them.
As far as that talent, the big question surrounds James Harden. Obviously, if he leaves, the Sixers will still have MVP Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey to rely on, but without Harden, one wonders what Nurse can do.
Bontemps added:
Well, we’ll see what happens with James Harden this summer, but they’ve still got Tyrese Maxey, they still have Joel Embiid, the MVP of the league. He’s under contract long term, they’ve got some solid flexibility potentially going forward, and I will say, I’d I’m a coach looking at these jobs, I trust the front office and ownership situation and Philly a lot. Josh Harris and David Blitzer are pretty solid, sound owners at this point. They spend money on the team. Daryl Morey has proven over time he repeatedly gets star players and it’s a pretty big market. Like they’ve got a young guy in Tyrese Maxey, who I think has shown he can grow as a player still going forward. Obviously, there’s a big question with James Harden what happens with them, but if he does end up leaving, I suspect Daryl Morey will find a way to turn that into something. Even if it’s just a trade exception to do things with. So I think it’s, obviously, them getting Nick. I think he’s really good coach.
Nurse is a terrific hire when considering what was on the market. Monty Williams is another terrific coach, but one can assume that he could take a year off when considering everything that the Phoenix Suns went through in the 2022-23 season. Nurse also has ties to Daryl Morey and that is always a plus in this situation.
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