A source told PhillyVoice on Monday night that the Sixers and former Raptors coach Nick Nurse have reached an agreement for Nurse to take over as the team’s head coach. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN broke the story first.
Among the candidates the Sixers were considering, Nurse always seemed like the ideal combination of established relationships and fresh perspectives, having amassed a 227-163 record in five years with the Raptors.
He was acquainted with Sixers lead executive Daryl Morey during his tenure as head coach of the Houston Rockets’ G-League affiliate. He also demonstrated his willingness to participate in various franchise-wide G-League experiments. However, Nurse does not appear to have any direct ties to James Harden, unlike a candidate similar to Mike D’Antoni, which makes this seem more like a “best man for the job” choice for Philadelphia.
One of the reasons Nurse was able to win a championship with the Raptors in 2019 during his first season as head coach was his willingness to try new things. While Kawhi Leonard’s dominance in the postseason was the main factor in Toronto’s victory, Nurse employed innovative defensive strategies with a long and athletic team to upset the (admittedly injured) Warriors during the Kevin Durant era in the NBA Finals by using box-and-one defense. Following Leonard’s departure that summer, Nurse’s creativity paid off as the 2019–20 Raptors stormed to a 53–19 record in a COVID–shortened season before going into the bubble.
As head coach of the Sixers, Nurse’s main task is to devise an offensive scheme that revolves around Joel Embiid, or if the player decides to return as a free agent, Harden and Embiid. Over the previous two seasons, Nurse’s teams had difficulty in the halfcourt as his creative talent moved on to more promising opportunities. A team built around Embiid and Harden could suffer fatalities as a result of Nurse’s recent tendency to overwork his stars and rely on them to carry the offensive load. However, this could also be a result of situational factors.
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In addition, Nurse is a little more of a public provocateur than former Sixers coach Doc Rivers, being willing to make light of players in public if he believes it will help them progress. We’ll see how his personality fits in with the group, but one could argue that is a good thing for a team that didn’t seem to have the necessary fire in the belly towards the end of their season in Boston.after he gets to Philadelphia.
Nurse felt like the best candidate in the field, a coach with high-level experience, skills that fit their needs, and interest from other teams with stars of their own, especially since they preferred to pursue an established candidate over an up-and-comer with less pedigree. Securing Nurse is a positive indication for Philadelphia going forward, and we’ll watch to see what other big additions might cause a stir this offseason.
