Nick Nurse, Tyrese Maxey, and Tobias Harris have to earn their money for the Sixers with no Joel Embiid

The Philadelphia 76ers are spending just under $170 million on their 2023-24 roster. Joel Embiid accounts for slightly more than $47.6 million of it. That leaves more than $120 million worth of basketball talent on the rolls.

With three soft teams on deck this week before a couple of brutal stretches down the road, this would be a good time for the guys making that $120 million to start earning it. This would be a good time for the $9 million head coach, Nick Nurse, to validate his hiring last summer.

Tyrese Maxey wants a $200 million contract? Super. Earn it. Tobias Harris wants to stay relevant in the NBA after his deal expires at the end of this season? Super. Earn it. Nurse wants to burnish his reputation as a guy who makes lemonade from lemons? Super. Earn it.

If nothing else, the end of Embiid’s regular season gives this trio of coach and costars a chance to make hay.

» READ MORE: The trade deadline can’t save the Sixers from life without Joel Embiid

Harris has been a $180 million role player for five years; he can finally stop living on the laurels of being the best of limited options for the Magic, Pistons, and Clippers. Harris hit 8-of-11 shots Monday against the Mavericks. The Sixers lost, 118-102, and fell to 4-11 without The Process. Harris needed to shoot more.

Maxey’s an All-Star, and he dropped 51 points just two games ago, but real All-Stars produce every night independent of their support. That’s what makes you an All-Star and not a coattail rider, like Ben Simmons. Maxey didn’t play like an All-Star on Monday: 6-for-16, 15 points, some key misses close.

Nurse, the 2020 NBA coach of the year, in Toronto navigated the labyrinth of Kawhi Leonard’s oddities and won a championship, squeezed the best years out of an aging Kyle Lowry, and created Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, and OG Anunoby from whole cloth. He should be able to get 15 points and 10 rebounds from Paul Reed every three out of four games.

Can they do it? They didn’t on Monday, but I reckon they can. They’ve done it before.

When Embiid missed a four-game road trip over Christmas week, the Sixers won twice.

“That was a good stretch for us,” Maxey said before Monday’s loss. “This time, I mean, we’ve got to get some guys back. See how it goes.”

One of those guys is Harris, who missed three of the Sixers’ last six games. They are 1-5 in those games. During the four-game Christmas trip, Harris averaged 21.5 points, more than five points above his average the last two seasons, and took about 18 shots per game, six more than he has the last two seasons.

More of that, please, said Nurse.

» READ MORE: Joel Embiid’s latest knee injury puts Sixers in danger of tumbling down the East standings

“Obviously, Tyrese is going to shoot more. Tobias has to, too,” Nurse said. “If those two guys are firing pretty good, and then a couple of other guys can give us in the 15- or 16-point range ...”

“We needed to find out who was going to be there. Really there,” Nurse added. “I think that’s the case now, The problem is, I’m missing two or three other guys, too.”

He’s talking about forward Nico Batum and his 35-year-old hamstring, which cost him time earlier this season and cost him a fourth straight game Monday. De’Anthony Melton’s best season to date had stalled due to a back injury; he missed his 12th straight game on Monday. Harris wasn’t fully recovered from his latest bout with an illness, but he started and played well.

We all knew this was coming. Be it hand, leg, hip, knee or even eye (twice), an Embiid injury is as predictable as the sun rising in the East and the tide rising twice a day.

This time, Embiid’s chronically troublesome left knee is slated for its second meniscus surgery. The procedure almost assuredly will cost him the last 34 games of the regular season, and his recovery likely will bleed into the first round of the playoffs, assuming the Sixers reach them. Given the personnel that remains and their 30 wins in the first 48 games, they should make the playoffs. Once there, no Eastern Conference team is unbeatable in a seven-game, first-round series.

Assuming a .500 record means a playoff berth — no team at or above .500 has missed the playoffs since 2018, though several teams far below .500 have qualified — then the Sixers need to win about 11 more games. If they win from 13 to 15 games, they’ll have a shot at the No. 6 seed and avoid the play-in tournament.

Can they?

The landscape looks rough. Entering Monday night’s visit by the Mavericks, 22 of the Sixers’ 34 remaining opponents had winning records, including the Mavs. Which makes the next three games — at home Wednesday against the Warriors, at home Friday against the Hawks, then at Washington on Saturday — of tantamount importance.

After that three-game respite, five of their following six games are against the Celtics, Bucks, Cavaliers (twice), and Knicks, who are 1-2-3-4 in the conference.

» READ MORE: What are Joel Embiid’s options? A doctor explains how he could approach lateral meniscus surgery.

They need points and minutes from Kelly Oubre Jr., who has shown glimpses of stardom in his nine seasons. They need points and minutes from center Mo Bamba, now Reed’s backup. They need points and minutes from Patrick Beverley, who needs to be less of a pest and more of a leader.

“Can we get the guys here to buy in, and fight, and give ourselves a chance to win?” Nurse said. “If we can get those guys to level-up and play ...”

Those guys won’t matter if Maxey and Harris, the main guys, don’t produce.

“We know what we have to do,” Maxey said. “We have to step up and lead those lineups. It’s going to be good for us.”