CAMDEN, N.J.–The Philadelphia 76ers are off to a great start under the guidance of new coach Nick Nurse. They are 12-7 despite working in four new players amid the James Harden saga and they are 2nd in the league in offensive rating thus far.
However, that doesn’t mean they are a finished product. There is still work to be done with this group and Nurse knows it. His four new guys who consist of Nic Batum, Robert Covington, Marcus Morris Sr., and KJ Martin, still need to be brought up to speed on how he wants things to be done.
“It’s pretty technical stuff,” said Nurse. “Just the terminology and way we cover certain NBA sets. Anything that we do that’s maybe not that widely done, maybe a few things that we do that are a little different. All those kinds of things since they didn’t have training camp and all the lead-up time into that.”
In fairness to the new guys, and to Nurse’s point, they did not have training camp with the Sixers. They had camp with the Los Angeles Clippers. They had to go through and learn terminology with the Clippers that is completely different from what Nurse likes to use in Philadelphia.
“It’s getting there,” added Batum. “When you go through camp with another team, you got a new system…and just whatever so you just gotta get through it. It’s been pretty much a month now. I think we’re getting there. We’re getting there and we’re good and we’ll be fine.”
At this stage of the season, it’s all just about making sure everybody is on the same page. The Sixers are in a very good spot and with so much time left to go before the playoffs begin, one has to figure Nurse will make sure everyone understands where they need to be.
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