The Sixers were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs last spring and have been one of the NBA’s most disappointing teams so far in 2024/25, but they haven’t given any consideration to making a head coaching change, sources tell Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link).
According to Fischer, 76ers head coach Nick Nurse and president of basketball operations Daryl Morey “remain aligned” on how to navigate the team’s injury-plagued season.
Former MVP Joel Embiid has been limited to 13 appearances in 2024/25, while offseason free agent addition Paul George has missed 17 games and standout rookie Jared McCain suffered a season-ending knee injury in December. Tyrese Maxey, Caleb Martin, Andre Drummond, Kyle Lowry, and KJ Martin are among the other Sixers players who have missed time due to various ailments, forcing Nurse to use 28 different starting lineups through 47 games.
Fischer adds that key figures in the organization were encouraged by the way the team competed during its recent four-game winning streak, which came to an end on Friday with a tight 137-134 loss to Denver. Embiid didn’t play in any of those four victories, while George was inactive for two of them.
Doc Rivers‘ hiring as Philadelphia’s head coach during the 2020 offseason predated Morey’s arrival in the front office by about a month, so Nurse was the first coach Morey hired during his tenure in the club’s front office.
The former Raptors head coach took over for Rivers in the spring of 2023, leading the Sixers to a 47-35 record last season and a 66-63 (.516) overall regular season mark through his first year and a half with the organization.
Trust the process
The way this team is built, everything revolves around Embiid. No Embiid, no chance.
What’s a coaching change going to do? They’re littered with injury prone players with huge contracts. If Maxey wasn’t on that team, they may as well go through the process again.
Nurse is not the issue anyway, it’s the fact that Morey handed over $500 million to Embiid and PG this offseason when both guys are in the 3rd act of their careers and look like their bodies are breaking down. Embiid was having a great season last year in Nurse’s 1st season, possibly better than his MVP years, but once again got injured.
The team has actually played well as of late to Nurse’s credit, but this team is still going nowhere with the 2 highest paid players in street clothes
How on Earth the Nuggets allow 134 points from the lowly Sixers, including an astounding 28 points from trashcan center Guerschon Yabusele, a dirty player in the Euroleague who fell on Argentinian National Team leading scorer and most impactful player Gabriel Deck’s leg, who tore his ACL in that play. Putrid defense by the Nuggets, who are bound to a first-round exit with a 6th ranked or even a play-in team with that kind of defensive play.