CAMDEN, N.J. — The NBA trade deadline is a wild time for everybody around the league. The rumors are flying. Every day there’s something new. Players see their names involved in many different scenarios leading up to the Feb. 8 trade deadline.
The Philadelphia 76ers are no different. They figure to be one of the more active teams at the deadline considering the assets they possess from the James Harden trade and President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey’s tendency to pull the trigger on deals at any moment.
Due to the nature of the deadline, coach Nick Nurse has to handle the next couple of weeks with care when it comes to his players.
“It’s always difficult and I think that you really just got to zero in day to day with them and try to get them to try to quiet some of that stuff,” said Nurse. “Like once you get in here, man, you gotta focus. Like here’s your chance, you know, you’re on the court and you’re going to get better. You’re trying to figure things out.”
At the same time, Nurse understands what’s going on.
“It’s not that easy, because I think that people talk about us as being a team that could — we’ve got assets, we’ve got expiring contracts, we’ve got — we’ll be talking,” Nurse added. “It’s not like it’s not out there every single day that this team’s gonna be making some moves and that can’t be easy for anybody. You imagine if we were all sitting around wondering if we were gonna be packing up our stuff any day now, right?”
This is the nature of the NBA around this time of the year. Teams and players will be mentioned in plenty of rumors between now and the deadline. Nurse will be challenged to make sure everybody is focused on what needs to be done on the floor.
“The reality of it is not that easy, but just try to get them to really think in the each day and stay in the what we’re doing right now and not get ahead of ourselves and try to slot in, hold your rotation, move your rotation up, stay ready if something else happens to some other guys or whatever,” he finished. “All that kind of stuff is, I think, the reality of it and just try to put it out there and handle it the best you can.”
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