Category: Sixers/NBA

For a coach who’s had success at every level, Nick Nurse has had his share of celebratory offseasons.

But this offseason was a nightmare for the 76ers coach.

“You live your summer based on how your last season went,” Nurse said. “It’s reality. Or for coaches, I guess. … My main goal is that when two people get up from their seats and are walking out the door, they’re saying, ‘Man, those guys played their [butts] off tonight.’ We didn’t do that, either, and that’s what I’m striving for, and I think that’s what this fan base deserves, and that’s what we’re going to keep striving for.”

It’s hard to know whether these Sixers will continue to be the product they fielded a year ago, when Joel Embiid and Paul George spent more time in street clothes than jerseys and Tyrese Maxey struggled to score enough points to produce wins without a consistent costar.

Or, by getting younger, bigger, and more athletic, have the Sixers made a significant modification, with an emphasis on playing faster and being more balanced?

The Sixers open the season Wednesday night with a mandate for change. A second straight losing campaign for a team with three max-contract players — Embiid, George, and Maxey — will force that.

Yet the desired changes might be challenging to implement when the core players the Sixers depend on essentially are the same.

And that could become even more problematic, because with every sudden move or on-court collision, Embiid’s health odometer could max out.

Embiid looked good in his new role as a facilitator in Friday’s exhibition finale against a makeshift Minnesota Timberwolves squad. We’ll get a better idea of his level of play Wednesday against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden.

But the Sixers are taking a day-to-day approach to the availability of the 2023 MVP, who underwent two left knee surgeries in a span of 14 months and played in just 58 games over the last two seasons.

And what about George, who signed a four-year, $211.5 million contract two summers ago? He played in only 41 games last season because of various injuries. Knee surgery three months ago will sideline him at the start of the season for a second straight year. Additionally, Trendon Watford (left hamstring tightness) will miss Wednesday’s game.

George had been a full participant in this week’s practices. In fact, Jared McCain, who is recovering from right thumb surgery, was the only Sixer who did not practice on Monday and Tuesday.

The Sixers probably don’t know when they last had that much practice participation.

“We are all just locked in,” Kelly Oubre Jr. said. “And we all have that chip on our shoulder and those voices in the back of our head about the disappointment from last year.

“So it’s just going out there and winning one and playing the right way and creating that identity each and every night.”

The Sixers trust that their new identity will pay dividends. It’s about playing fast, playing hard, and playing differently while having fun.

“Like I said, with what we have and the versatility we can put out there on the court, it’ll be nice when we play in different ways,” Maxey said.

Defensively, the Sixers want to cause havoc when they pick up the ball. Their up-tempo offense will help them take advantage of a roster loaded with athletic perimeter players.

“But sometimes we’re going to have to slow the game down,” Maxey said. “We do have Joel; we do have Paul. Those guys are really good in the half court. And we also have VJ [Edgecombe], Jared, Quentin [Grimes], who are very good in the full court. So we’ll see.”

After facing the Celtics, the Sixers will head home to face the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday and the Orlando Magic on Monday. In a positive for them, they’ll play 14 of their first 23 games at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

They’re also slated for 16 sets of back-to-back games, beginning with Monday’s game against the Magic, then at the Washington Wizards on Tuesday.

A good test of their ability to compete in the Eastern Conference comes in their Nov. 5 road game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are the conference title favorites.

And we’ll get a pretty good idea of this team’s competitiveness during a crucial 12-game stretch starting in December. Nine of those games are against teams that reached last season’s playoffs, highlighted by a Dec. 28 road game against the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder.

But for now, the Sixers are beaming with confidence.

“Competitiveness. Extremely competitive. Extremely versatile,” Maxey said of what stands out about the team. “We can do a lot of different things. We’ve got a lot of guards that can do a lot of different things, some bigs that can play different positions. A lot of talent, and I think this team’s buying in early.

“As long as we can stay in that space, buying into what we’re trying to do … good team. Good opportunity.”

Tyrese Maxey poked his head around a makeshift curtain inside the 76ers’ practice facility, then dropped a smiling “Hey, buddy” to VJ Edgecombe.

Edgecombe, the prized rookie guard, had just revealed during his first media day news conference that, on a summer visit to Disneyland organized by Maxey, Edgecombe’s new teammate had made him “wear some, like, Goofy hat. I had no choice.”

“I’ll make him wear it again when we go to Orlando,” Maxey said before disappearing back behind the curtain.

That playful public exchange demonstrates another step in Maxey’s evolution into a Sixers cornerstone. Now entering his sixth NBA season, Maxey is a bridge between veterans such as former MVP Joel Embiid (who nicknamed Maxey “The Franchise” because of his diligent work ethic and endearing personality) and youngsters such as Edgecombe, who can learn plenty from Maxey’s impressive early career.

But the 2024-25 season was miserable for the Sixers and disappointing individually for Maxey, who missed the final 22 games with a finger injury after becoming an All-Star and being named Most Improved Player in 2023-24. Now, the 24-year-old point guard feels responsible for setting the standard with daily habits and a playing style that can fuel an immediate turnaround — and last into the future.

To do that, Maxey has continued to commit to connecting with teammates. And to playing freely. And, now, to speaking up.

“I have just been a lot more vocal on things that I see and things that I want to try to help fix,” Maxey said. “And that’s not just because I’m older. I think it’s more because I want to win.”

Once Maxey’s injured little finger healed, he invited Justin Edwards to his hometown, Dallas, to train. A few weeks later, right after the draft, Maxey called Edgecombe to arrange workouts together in Philly. They wound up in Los Angeles, where Sixers assistant coach Rico Hines stages his well-known summer pickup games.

Cue the detour to the Happiest Place on Earth.

Though it was silly to witness “a lot of 6-foot-7, 6-foot-8 guys trying to ride a roller coaster,” Maxey recently said, he does believe fostering off-court friendship can lead to on-court cohesion. It is why Maxey also has begun dabbling in video games, which he previously did not play much but is a common hobby among his younger teammates.

Yet the fun peppered what Edgecombe now realizes were “regular ’Rese workouts.” During those morning sessions, Maxey drilled shooting and finishing with the rookie, how to play with pace, and how to find different angles while handling and distributing the ball.

“It was a sign that he actually cared,” Edgecombe said. “He actually wants to also see me get better and build chemistry.”

This has been an emphasis from coach Nick Nurse since the James Harden trade in 2023, when the ball literally and metaphorically was handed to Maxey. Using one’s voice is simply part of organizing the team as a point guard, Nurse said. When asked for examples of Maxey’s vocal uptick during this preseason, Nurse repeated the word “many.”

“I don’t want to tell you what they are,” Nurse said. “But there have been many. Many that would have been surprising, that he wouldn’t have done a couple years ago. Many.”

That description already is different from last season. There was not as much opportunity for Maxey to arrange summer workouts with teammates because he uncharacteristically backed off his own training to limit injury risk before he could sign his max contract in July. He said he planned to immediately become more vocal with teammates once practices began, but “I didn’t really get going the way I needed to.”

Neither did the Sixers, to be fair. A team with championship aspirations face-planted during a 3-14 start, with Embiid and fellow perennial All-Star Paul George sidelined by injuries that lingered for the rest of the season. One time Maxey did hold a teammate accountable when he called Embiid out for tardiness during a postgame team meeting in a November loss at the Miami Heat, and it leaked to the media.

And although Maxey had morphed into an effective on-court partner for Embiid, he struggled as the team’s top offensive option.

Maxey acknowledged that he faced defensive coverages he had never seen before. He averaged a career-high 26.3 points and 6.1 assists, but his efficiency dipped and turnovers went up. The finger injury derailed his normally dangerous three-point shooting, including an 0-for-10 mark in a late-February loss on the same Madison Square Garden court where he had catapulted himself into national stardom in the previous spring’s playoffs.

As the season progressed, Maxey did gain confidence in “manipulating” the opposing defense. That became a focus in offseason film study, during which he critiqued possessions when he got sped up and deciphered how to lure specific defenders into an action. He also recruited high school friends to mimic “blitzing” and other swarming schemes, a callback to when he used those pals to help him identify passing reads during the 2023 offseason.

“My rookie year through my third year, I used to get so angry at Joel sometimes when [he’d] be getting double-teamed,” Maxey said, “and I’m like, ‘Bro, I’m wide-open.’ And he’s like, ‘Bro, I can’t see you.’

“Then people started double-teaming me, and people were like, ‘Bro, I’m open.’ And I said, ‘Trust me I really can’t see you.’”

Beyond Maxey further establishing that leadership, Nurse now wants him to resume firing a barrage of three-pointers in transition and from even farther beyond the arc. His offseason checklist also included increasing strength on his 6-foot-2 frame so he can play with more physicality when driving into the paint.

Those skills are weapons within the Sixers’ systemic offensive tweaks, with a goal to play faster, emphasize passing, and generate buckets even when Embiid and/or George miss time.

Edgecombe, Quentin Grimes, and, eventually, Jared McCain also are capable ballhandlers, allowing Maxey to play more shooting guard. Maxey’s experience — first in a three-guard lineup his one college season at Kentucky, then while sharing the floor with Ben Simmons and Harden as a young professional — has prepared him to toggle between both backcourt roles.

During early practices, Nurse said, Maxey would alternate between bringing the ball up on one possession, then deferring to Edgecombe on the next. By Day 3, the coach said, Maxey began to identify gaps in the defenses and opportunities to unleash his speed on cuts and when coming off screens.

And when Maxey told his coach that he did not feel he had the ball enough in the Sixers’ preseason opener against the New York Knicks in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Nurse countered with, “That was about as free and easy as you’ve played offense that I can remember.”

“You had great shots,” Nurse told his point guard. “You had some cuts for backdoors. … You did that without dribbling in circles for 20 seconds and trying to find something, flying into brick walls. You just were really moving.”

That on-court rhythm is powered by a fresh mindset. Maxey candidly acknowledged the emotional weight of last season, while absorbing the mounting losses (and being tasked with attempting to explain them in interviews) for the first time in his basketball life. There were times his family and close friends remarked that he was not smiling as much.

So he began “really focusing” on his mental health, regularly journaling and putting goals in writing. His joy had noticeably returned during an appearance at summer league in Las Vegas, when he held a joint media availability with close friend and new Sixers signee Trendon Watford. At media day, he opened his press conference by asking onlookers if he should keep the white arm sleeve with his game day jersey.

“My spirits have to be high for this team and for this organization and for my game as well,” he said. “I think that’s what I’ll do this year, and we’ll be better.”

That spirit has appeared during one-on-one drills at the end of practices, when his opponents have ranged from George to Edgecombe to two-way forward Dominick Barlow. Kyle Lowry, a 20-year NBA veteran and long-respected leader, has “pushed” Maxey to speak up during the more intense segments of practice. Ditto for fellow veteran Eric Gordon, who recently said “it’s been time for [Maxey] to be a leader.” Embiid first approached Maxey about this at the end of the 2023-24 season and appreciates that the point guard balances Embiid’s quieter demeanor.

“That’s why it’s such a good match,” Embiid said. “… But it goes back to just him being a good kid. Willing to learn. Humble. Listens. I think that goes a long way.”

When a reporter began a media day question to Maxey with “Six years ago,” he jokingly responded with a whistle and “Why you got to do that?” He called himself “old” several times during the preseason, even though he turns 25 next month.

But after totaling an efficient 27 points and seven assists in the Sixers’ win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in Friday’s preseason finale, Maxey casually leaned back in his locker room chair. He spoke glowingly about Embiid’s return from knee problems and Edgecombe’s early development, bridging the veteran and young portions of the roster. When asked about his final preparations before Wednesday’s season opener at the Boston Celtics, he started with “just stay in a flow state,” a mantra he heard from his younger brother during the summer, and “I took it from him.”

Three days later, Maxey stood under a basket inside the Sixers’ practice facility, arm slung around McCain. He told McCain that he missed playing with him, that he will make the Sixers even better once he returns from thumb surgery.

Then, Maxey walked across the court for his final media session before the 2025-26 season begins. Six minutes later, he chugged right back to that basket on the opposite end, to put up more shots.

“He’s happy. He’s a worker,” Nurse said. “He’s in here early. He wants to practice. He wants to go over things. And that’s part of being a leader, too — that you’ve got that mental motor that’s capable to continue to work over and over every day.”

JP Clark has been named head coach of the 76ers’ G League affiliate, the Delaware Blue Coats.

He replaces Mike Longabardi, who was promoted to an assistant coach with the Sixers this summer. Clark had served as a Blue Coats assistant since 2021. Before joining the organization, he spent seven years with the Los Angeles Clippers. He started his professional basketball coaching career with the Boston Celtics, first as an assistant coach for their G League affiliate, the Maine Red Claws. He later served as a Celtics player development assistant.

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to coach this team and work with the great people in this organization,” Clark said. “I extend my sincere thanks to Daryl Morey, Nick Nurse, and [Blue Coats general manager] Ariana Andonian for this tremendous opportunity and for their confidence in me.

“I look forward to building on the Blue Coats’ strong history of player development and winning to achieve even greater accomplishments together.”

During his tenure in Delaware, the Blue Coats won a G League title (2023) and a Winter Showcase Cup (2021). The team also amassed three Eastern Conference titles.