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Grading Nick Nurse’s Tenure as Sixers Head Coach
By Sean Barnard
Published:
Nick Nurse is now in his third season as head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers. He holds a 91-108 record during this space, with the six-game series loss to the Knicks his lone playoff experience.
Nurse was brought in to help truly push this team into the championship-contending conversation, yet it’s impossible to assign him the bulk of the blame for why this has not come to fruition. With almost 200 games in Philadelphia and nearly 600 at the NBA level, it’s frustrating to not have a true grasp of what to grade his time at the Sixers’ helm.
The Good
When Nick Nurse was first hired for the job, the clear priority was to maximize Joel Embiid’s talent and optimize the team around him for a postseason run. He was brought in after Embiid’s MVP season in 2022-23, which finished with a heartbreaking Game 7 loss to the Boston Celtics in the second round.
It will get lost in the history books due to the meniscus tear that eventually ended Embiid’s season, but the 39 games he did play the following year were a notable leap forward from his MVP season’s production, and he was on pace for one of the most individually excellent seasons in NBA history. Embiid averaged 34.7 points, 11.0 rebounds, 5.7 assists, and 1.7 blocks on 52.9% shooting from the field and 38.8% from beyond the three-point arc. His 1.033 points per minute fell just under Wilt Chamberlain’s 1.04 points per minute for the most over a season in NBA history. Embiid deserves credit for this continued growth individually, but Nurse also does for optimizing him in his system. His growth as a passer is especially correlated to playing under Nurse.
The calculus for Nurse’s tenure has changed wildly since Embiid’s meniscus issues flared up. The big fella returned for the postseason, and being able to push the Knicks to six games was a respectable result given the context. Embiid was still a shell of himself physically, but averaged 33.0 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 5.7 assists across this series, in which Nurse did a solid job. His decision to use Kelly Oubre Jr. as the primary defender on Jalen Brunson had positive results, Tyrese Maxey had his true star breakout in the postseason setting, and Nurse had a good feel for how long to keep Nico Batum and Paul Reed on the floor.
Since this point, Embiid’s inconsistent availability has made championship aspirations unreasonable. A head coach is an extension of the organization, so the results must stick to him to an extent. But it is almost impossible to assign any significant chunk of blame to Nurse, considering he had no idea which of his top players were available on a night-to-night basis. The Sixers set the all-time NBA record with the most unique starting lineups last year, with 54 on the season. There were 30 different players to suit up in a Sixers uniform across the hellish season:
Coming out of this disaster season, Nurse has made a clear effort to set a tone for what the level of competitiveness needs to be. He has left the starters in games far later than he has needed to and utilized time-outs even when games have felt out of reach. Nurse has defended these decisions when asked by the media and stood by his thought process of breaking habits from last year. Having players like Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe buy in and lead the charge certainly helps, but Nurse deserves a bit more credit for serving as a culture setter than is sometimes talked about.
Another point Nurse has not been given enough public credit for has been the willingness to play Edgecombe extended minutes. Sure, this looks obvious now that we are halfway through his rookie season with the 20-year-old playing like a seasoned vet. But Nurse committed to Edgecombe as the starting shooting guard from day one and is playing him 35.8 minutes per game. This ranks fifth in the entire NBA, not just among rookies. Edgecombe is playing the fifth-most minutes of all players in the entire league. Plenty of coaches would have made the young player prove it or start him on the bench out or principle, but Nurse committed to the Baylor product right away and is being rewarded for this.
The Bad
Nurse has been branded as a basketball mad scientist and has the resume to back it up. Unlike the typical trajectory of NBA coaches, which involves being a former player or working your way up by serving as an assistant for an extended time, Nurse took a unique path. After playing college basketball for the University of Iowa, where he set the program record with a 46.8% three-point percentage, Nurse signed a deal to be a player-coach for the Derby Rams in the British Basketball League.
After one season, he elected to step into the coaching shoes full-time and returned to the United States. His first head coaching job was at the age of 23 for the small Grand View University. He accepted a few assistant coaching jobs at more notable college basketball programs in the Midwest before returning overseas and coaching throughout Europe for 11 years. Nurse coached in the British Basketball League and EuroLeague before finding a home at the then-NBA D-League and now G-League level.
The 58-year-old has talked pretty openly about how these experiences have forced him to think outside of the box in making decisions. But now three years into his Sixers’ tenure, this level of creativity has been a bit underwhelming. The flashes of pairing Embiid with Drummond, or playing three-guard lineups at a greater rate can raise an eyebrow, but it has not felt like the Sixers have ever had a massive edge because of Nurse’s creativity.
The Sixers’ late-game offense has also left something to be desired in some situations this year. Nurse has some successes he can point to, but largely it has felt like the late-game option is to identify the matchup he desires and then allow that player to create their own shot in isolation. It’s great when it works, and easy to nit-pick when it doesn’t. This missed shot by Maxey at the buzzer in the Nuggets loss isn’t an opportunity you go home upset with the look. But coming out of a timeout, it’s fair to hope for more than just Maxey beating a double-team off the dribble for an awkward floater:
When sorting through last season and who it wore on the most, Nick Nurse has a legitimate case. He became increasingly frustrated with injury questions and was more snippy and short as the season progressed. Nurse surely was as frustrated as anyone, but not being able to stand tall and face the music made the situation worse for everyone. In his defense, the Sixers organization could have done him some favors by having someone else speak to the media regarding the confusing injury outlook that Nurse was address. But his snarky attitude made an already bad season even worse.
By the end of the year, it became clear that the Sixers had pulled the plug on all hopes of competing for the sake of the draft pick. With the pick being top-six protected, this became increasingly important. But before this became the reality, it did feel like Nurse was willing to throw his hands up and wave the white flag at a quicker rate than one would hope. Especially given his history, this was disappointing.
Another strange critique of Nurse is that he is extremely bad at calling timeouts. Not in when he chooses to use them, but I have never seen a coach be ignored by referees and not granted TOs at the rate Nurse is. This has hurt the Sixers at times, and is a critique that has never even crossed my mind with another coach:
Final Grade: B-
Giving an incomplete would be a cop-out, so I will lock Nick Nurse in for a B- grade for his Sixers tenure thus far. The role of being a floor-raising and ceiling-raising head coach is very different, and Nurse has not exactly gotten what he has signed up for since coming here.
Last year was a massive failure, and Nurse has to wear this on his shoulders. But being able to climb out of it and put forth an impressive basketball product on the floor with some legitimate reason to believe is a difficult challenge that he has accomplished. This may finally be the season that it can be answered if Nurse is the right guy for the job. He and Embiid appear more aligned in the game plan for his availability and injury management, and Nurse has managed to optimize just about every individual player on this roster. Sitting at 20-15 and in the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference is well above what fair expectations were based on the number of question marks entering this year.
It may have been a more difficult job than he realized he signed up for. But give Nick Nurse a ton of credit for sticking it out and finding a way to lead the franchise on a hopeful path in what seemed to be a dwindling window to win. The injury qualifiers will remain, but Nurse deserves the benefit of the doubt to judge the remainder of the season for what it is now that he has the proper horses to run with.
Sean Barnard has covered the Philadelphia 76ers and general Philly Sports for over six years in a variety of roles and for multiple outlets. Currently works as a Content Writer for DraftKings Network, Sixers/NBA Insider for Philadelphia's Fox Sports the Gambler, and co-host of Sixers & Phillies Digest on Youtube. Forever Trusting the Process.