Ever since Nick Nurse became a coach in the NBA, he was always part of the same organization. It all started in 2013 as an assistant, where he remained in this position during 5 years until he finally got a break at the head of the coaching staff. That same season in 2018/19, he took the Raptors to their first-ever NBA title after leading the Eastern Conference with a 58-24 record and then winning 16 out of their 24 playoff games.
After conquering the league’s trophy, Toronto struggled to get past his division’s Semifinals, and eventually decided to drop their coach at the end of this past campaign. Just as Philadelphia also decided to part ways with Doc Rivers this summer, they were tempted with signing Nurse even though he had recieved many offers.
On a recent episode of player Patrick Beverley’s podcast, the guard asked his new trainer if the rumors were true that he “turned down a lot of money” to coach the Sixers. The room burst in laughter when Nurse let out a blunt “maybe” as his answer.
“Just thought that the fit was right with me,” the 56-year-old said about his new club. “Love the ownership. Loved my connection with Daryl Morey. Obviously, he was in Houston when I was coaching Rio Grande. Just heard nothing but good things about Josh (Harris) and David (Blitzer). Obviously, I coached against them a lot. I think it’s a good team. A very good team and some awesome pieces here. So, here we are.”
About his coaching style, Nurse promises to keep his innovative schemes in Philly until he finds the correct formula to transform his roster into a winning team.
“The funny thing about all that stuff is, almost always it comes to me on the spur of the moment as to what’s needed right now… If it doesn’t work, whatever funky thing we try, we crumple it up real quick and throw it in the throat in the waste bin and don’t revisit it, but we got to try a bunch of stuff to see what we can come up with,” he said.
Coach Nurse speaks on what he’ll be expecting out of Paul Reed and Tyrese Maxey this upcoming season
As the new 76ers coach is getting to know his new players, he’s already anticipated what he wants from certain players and the new roles they’ll need to adjust too. In Paul Reed‘s case, for example, he wants him to trust in his offensive attributes.
“I do keep a pretty loose lid on the roles if that makes any sense because I think there is guys—there’s some guys maybe they never shot 3-pointer before and they’re not bad and we may need them to shoot more 3s or, or whatever it is. Paul Reed would be a good example for us for that,” he shared.
Paul Reed’s Per 36 numbers last season: ⬇️
13.7 points, 12.5 rebounds, 2.2 steals, and 2.4 blocks on 59% FG
Lots of hype this summer with reports that Nick Nurse could deploy him alongside Joel Embiid at times
His ADP of 143 is lookin’ NICE 🥵pic.twitter.com/Fm6qOkDxw2
— AB (@aburnshoops) September 20, 2023
As for rising star Tyrese Maxey, Nurse believes he can take advantage of his quickness to help support the Sixers on the defensive side of the floor.
“Yeah, we’ll start on the defensive,” he expressed. “I think he’s been blessed with all that speed and quickness and I think we need to figure out a way for him to use it for a little bit more of disruptive situations. I think he’s so fast that he can go get the ball a little bit more, right?”
