Pay attention to the Sixers. They are doing things even Daryl Morey and Nick Nurse have not seen.

I get it. Nurse won an NBA title. The only reason Morey didn’t win one was because he had to beat one of the best teams of all time. Whatever the numbers say, can the Sixers really match the 2018-19 Raptors’ combination of depth and top-end, two-way talent (Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Lowry, Fred Van Vleet)? They might not even be better than they were when they lost to those Raptors at the buzzer in Game 7.

Point is, the conversation can be had.

Joel Embiid is leading the league in scoring at 35.1 points per game and is a better all-around player than he has ever been. The year after the Sixers lost to the Raptors, Embiid would have ranked 16th in the league in scoring had he qualified. This year, the guy ranks 19th in assists!

Meanwhile, Tyrese Maxey is averaging more points than any sidekick Embiid has had. A year ago, people wanted to trade him for Damian Lillard, who currently ranks 12th in the league in scoring at 26.3 points per game. Maxey? He’s averaging 26.1, which ranks 13th.

But the biggest reason to pay attention to the Sixers isn’t their superstars. It’s their energy, and their depth. Most of all, it’s the way those elements are deployed by their coach. With all due respect to Brett Brown and Doc Rivers, the Sixers have never had a coach like this: obsessed with the game and its grind on a granular level but also keenly aware of his players’ strengths, how to deploy them, and how to communicate those things in a way they accept.

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“Looking back historically, when did I think we were ready in Toronto?” Nurse said on Thursday. “My first year there, probably not until late February or March when we got to where we knew who we were and who we were going to be going forward and what we were able to accomplish. I don’t really have a timeline on it. You never quite get to the end. You are always adding and subtracting. We played like seven different defensive schemes last night in the game, and we haven’t played all of those before. But we are trying to build up some of that stuff.”

This is the opposite of roll the ball out there and let your stars do their thing. Which is ironic, and perhaps instructive, because Maxey and Embiid are combining for more points per game than any pair of stars in the league. In fact, the irony contains multitudes. The Sixers spent the better part of a decade trying on costars like bargain bin sneakers. Then, everyone gave up on them because they whiffed on Harden. The whole time, the NBA was becoming a league where you couldn’t just cobble together a bunch of big names and get yourself a championship.

Look at last season’s conference finals: the Nuggets and the Lakers, the Heat and the Celtics. These weren’t your superteams of yesteryear. Sure, they each had a superstar and trusted sidekick. But what really made them great was their depth, and their defense, and the way all of the complementary pieces fit together. Bruce Brown, Derrick White, Marcus Smart, Austin Reaves — these guys were all difference-makers.

“I think we fit the mold of a team with depth,” said Tobias Harris, who has flourished under Nurse. “We have a lot of guys who can play, but we also have a lot of guys who are versatile enough to play different positions and defend different positions. I think that makes us a very good team and we’re going to be a very good team in the playoffs with having different guys who can switch and make shots and do little things on the court. Obviously with Tyrese and Joel out there scoring the way they are scoring, they just need everyone to complement in the right way. I mean, this summer, obviously there was a lot of different stuff going on, but to where we are now, we have a great group of guys, great group of basketball players.”

There isn’t a better, or more accurate, advertisement for this team. The Sixers are for real. Morey and Nurse surely know it.