When former Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse took the job as head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, the directive was pretty clear: win.
While the 76ers had built up championship expectations over the last several seasons, they’re a franchise that has yet to even sniff the conference finals since a second-round victory over the Raptors in 2001.
Nurse was potentially the man to bring them over the proverbial hump, having won a title in 2019 with the Raptors, due in no small part to his victory over Philadelphia in an epic seven-game series that concluded with an all-time buzzer-beater from Kawhi Leonard.
It’s safe to say Nurse’s 76ers are not looking like contenders right now, with a record of 3-14 and a 14th-place standing in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.
That’s a full game back — and two wins — behind the Raptors, who sit at 5-14. Sure, the current iteration of the Raptors might be hardly a good bar to measure yourself against, but it’s got to be at least a little odd for Nurse to see his former squad, with little to no expectations on the year, outperforming his current one.
ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne published the kind of article this week that you’d never like to see about your sports team: a 2,000+ word deep dive into the franchise titled “Leaks, team meetings, losses: The factors driving the Philadelphia 76ers’ dreadful start.”
Much of the issues for the 76ers have to do with an oft-injured Joel Embiid, who has played just four games this season. The 2023 NBA MVP has hardly looked like himself when he’s been on the court, either, putting up a career-worst -12.7 plus-minus per 100 possessions, by far the lowest mark (and only negative) of his career.
Known for being one of the sport’s most impactful players, a series of chronic injuries appear to be catching up to Embiid.
“We need to start winning,” Nurse said following an hour-long team meeting after a loss last week to Miami. “[The] meeting was brutally honest. Everybody wants the team to succeed and right now we’re not. We’re losing and there’s all kinds of issues and reasons for why, and we’re trying to get it taken care of.”
Given that the 76ers have gone 1-3 since the now infamous meeting, it doesn’t seem like many of Nurse’s — or the rest of the franchise’s —methods have been paying off since then.
There might be two saving graces for 76ers fans, however. Rookie guard Jared McCain is looking like the odds-on favourite to win the rookie of the year, and in a weak Eastern Conference, the 76ers sit just 3.5 points out of a play-in spot.
But that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy to get there. Scoring for much of the rest of the team has been a major issue, too. Outside of Tyrese Maxey at 25.7 points per game, the next closest scorer who has suited up in five games or more is McCain himself, at 16.5 points per game.
Nine-time All-Star Paul George hasn’t exactly hit the ground running in his first season with the team, putting up just 14.9 points a night in eight games, a pretty severe drop off from 22.9 a year ago.
There are many questions about the 76ers’ future and very few answers, particularly if Embiid’s health remains a mystery in the foreseeable future. It’s a nightmare situation for just about everyone involved, Nurse included.
While he might not quite be on the hot seat given how much time is left to turn the season around, it’s clear that Nurse and the 76ers have some work to do to save this year from a total disaster.
Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
