CAMDEN, N.J. — The Philadelphia 76ers begin the Nick Nurse era on Thursday when they take on the Milwaukee Bucks on the road.
The Sixers hired Nurse after they let go of Doc Rivers after three seasons at the helm. Nurse is looking to get the Sixers over the hump in the Eastern Conference after the past second-round failures.
Tobias Harris has been around for the failures, and he believes the Sixers are ready to go in the new system under Nurse.
“I think we’re good,” said Harris on Tuesday. “I think we’re well prepared every day coming in here working. We’re a confident group, coaches establishing us, and the mindset to expect to win every single time we get on the floor, and we’re excited for this opportunity and get the season started and doing. It’s a hard-working group of guys who wanna win.”
The Sixers have fallen in the Eastern Conference semifinals in five of the previous six seasons and for each of the past three seasons overall. Despite the obvious contender title, they have a lot to prove in the coming season. Especially, after squandering a 3-2 series lead to the Boston Celtics in 2023.
“Honestly, our motivation just comes from within as a group,” Harris continued. “Not finishing the goal and the task last year. We still have a great group to make something happen and to be the best team that we can be. Outside chatter and whatnot, every guy in here is motivated internally in some way or another for their own sake.”
The guys on this roster who have been around understand that they have to get over the hump. Now is the time to step up and take that next leap in a very tough Eastern Conference.
“If you go down the whole roster, everybody has something to prove individually and collectively as a whole team,” said Harris. “It’s all about bringing all that together. We’re ready, we’re poised, we’re confident.”
With just a few days to go before the opener, Nurse echoed Harris’s sentiments about the work and the confidence in the group.
“I’m super pleased with the effort and the amount of hard work everybody’s put in,” beamed Nurse. “I just have to rate that at the top. Everybody’s just been super focused and hard working so that’s good and I also feel there’s a good spirit and chemistry here with this group so those are two big ones.”
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