Joel Embiid finally got his coveted MVP. What’s next for the Sixers star?

Before a 76ers home game against the Toronto Raptors late last season, Nick Nurse outlined how challenging it had become to defend Joel Embiid.

“You’ve got to worry about him running you over and laying it in,” said Nurse, then the Raptors’ coach before becoming the Sixers’ leader during the offseason. “You’ve got to worry about him [in an] early post-up. You’ve got to worry about him steamrolling down the lane on the pick and roll with [James] Harden. Now, he’s got [off-the-dribble game], too, and he’ll also pick and pop for three. …

“What’s made it hard is he makes all those shots, just like one after another, after another, after another, after another. That gets a bit discouraging.”

Embiid went on to win his long-coveted NBA Most Valuable Player award, after using that extraordinary blend of force and skill to lead the league in scoring for the second consecutive season at 33.1 points per game. Still, the Sixers hit a second-round playoff ceiling — and then 2021 and 2022 MVP-winning center Nikola Jokic led his Denver Nuggets to the NBA title — diminishing the validity of Embiid’s accolade in the eyes of some outsiders.

So what does Embiid do for an encore, especially as this Sixers season begins with a new coach and disgruntled star point guard?

When asked about his goals, continuing to pour the ball into the basket is not at the top of Embiid’s list. Instead, he expressed a desire to be a defensive player of the year contender as the anchor of Nurse’s ultra-aggressive system. Perhaps more important, Embiid views himself as a hub in Nurse’s uptempo ball-movement offense, insisting he has “always wanted to play that way.”

“Make those passes and making it easy for everyone else,” Embiid said. “I think, this whole year, that’s going to be my big focus — to just try to get as many assists and trying to get my teammates involved as much as possible. …

“I never liked just being an [isolation] player. I don’t think that’s the right way to play, and I don’t feel that’s the right way to win. I like this system.”

That unselfish approach aligns with one of Embiid’s favorite catchphrases: “I can’t win alone.” It also builds on Embiid’s recent progress as a playmaker, even while becoming arguably the league’s most dominant scorer.

He averaged a career-high 4.2 assists per game in each of the last two seasons. That coincided with his move from primarily operating with the ball on the low block out to the mid-post area near the free throw line, where it is more difficult for opponents to double-team and where he has a more complete picture of the floor. Last season, then-Sixers coach Doc Rivers commended Embiid for the possessions when he intentionally baited an extra defender in order to open a passing opportunity, morphing him into a “graduate”-level facilitator.

That knack could be even more valuable in Nurse’s more equal-opportunity offensive system, which trusts several players to handle the ball coming off a screen. And after years of matching up against Embiid — including in an epic seven-game 2019 playoff series, and in a first-round matchup two seasons ago — Nurse found himself in position to construct a plan with the superstar big man.

In their initial conversations, Embiid and Nurse talked about playing with more unpredictability. Though Embiid appeared in only one preseason game — which he primarily used for conditioning and rhythm while going 3-of-12 from the floor — he flashed his willingness to swing the ball. Teammate Danny Green, who played with Embiid from 2020 to 2022 before returning to the Sixers this season, has noticed Embiid “trying to pick apart the defense” more in practice, instead of defaulting to plowing toward the rim to draw a foul.

“We’ve just got to relieve some of the pressure, right?” Nurse added. “[Opponents] are overplaying or they’re sending multiple people at him. We’ve got to find either easy baskets out of that, or wide-open looks.”

That’s a “two-way deal,” Nurse said. It requires teammates to feed Embiid the ball at advantageous spots on the floor, at the proper time. Building that synergy will be particularly important in the pick-and-roll game with Tyrese Maxey, forming a tandem that fuses speed, power, and shooting while Harden’s status remains uncertain after his return to practice Wednesday. After Tuesday’s team workout, Embiid and Maxey sat on either side of personal trainer Drew Hanlen to dissect film.

As soon as Embiid lures that extra defender, Nurse said, “you’ve created offense.” Embiid, meanwhile, has been identifying the optimal angles and spacing to then kick the ball out of the swarm.

An early hiccup: Embiid said teammates during the preseason finale were sometimes unprepared to receive the ball from him off a cut. Veteran forward Tobias Harris echoed that sentiment Tuesday, saying Embiid has been “surprising a lot of guys” with how he now reads the defense and delivers passes. Kelly Oubre Jr. recently recalled a “wild pass” from a practice that Embiid threw over his head to the “dunker” spot underneath the basket, which prompted a collective “whoaaaa” reaction.

“It’s not forcing a lot of things,” Embiid said. “It’s just about making the right play every single time. Just keep it simple. Because what I’ve understood, since I’ve been in the league, being in my position, the ball is always going to find me.

“I’m always going to have opportunities, so I should never be chasing the ball.”

If Embiid is publicly gunning for any individual honor, it’s defensive player of the year.

During training camp, Embiid slyly said that he believed that award should solely go to big men because their intimidating presence can alter an opposing offense more than the blocks and steals statistical markers. Nurse, meanwhile, has challenged Embiid to take more “swings” to inherently increase his chances of rejecting a shot — and also tasked the big man with switching and trapping on the perimeter during the preseason finale.

“I’m really good defensively,” said Embiid, who last made the All-Defense team in 2021, “but I think it’s really been forgotten. I want to get back to that level.”

Embiid also continued to assert his offensive dominance during preseason practices, occasionally forcing Nurse to scrap the concept he planned to drill because the reserves “can’t stop him.” Consider that a reminder of the long list of Embiid’s scoring options that Nurse laid out six months ago. Harris added the Sixers know that, whenever their collective offense goes cold during a game, they can still turn to Embiid to get a bucket or draw a trip to the free throw line.

Yet Embiid wants to follow up his MVP season with one that more involves his teammates. That aspiration can surface in subtle ways, such as when he ran extra sprints alongside veteran guard Patrick Beverley following a recent practice.

“You can be the MVP. You can do it by yourself,” Beverley said. “But if that’s not winning championships or getting you to the next level, it’s something that you have to [adjust].

“As a leader of your team, a guy like that wants it … it kind of forces you to stay on your [expletive], too.”