Nick Nurse expects growing pains as Sixers learn new system and get healthy

Nick Nurse has a philosophy about making mistakes.

The new 76ers coach knows mistakes will happen. For him, the goal is to understand why those mistakes are being made.

“We are all still learning a lot,” Nurse said following Thursday’s practice. “We are doing some lengthy scouting reports. … And we are doing it like, just get the reps. That’s what the preseason is for. That’s what putting a new staff together is for.

“It’s the same for the players, I’m doing some different things. So it is a big departure for them.”

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So right now, the focus is finding out what players can do. That involves letting them try new things.

“Sometimes it’s a mistake and it applies to the coaching as well,” he said. “We’ve got to get them in front of the groove and figure out who’s better on offense, defense, who’s better on special teams, all that kind of stuff.”

While experiencing the growing pains, the Sixers will figure out if things are salvageable.

They do realize that building their foundation is going to take some time. But with a veteran-laden team that picks things up quickly, they should be able to make a decision on what works fairly rapidly.

But Joel Embiid and James Harden have only been able to figure things out at practice after missing the first two preseason games. Furkan Korkmaz is also sidelined with a hamstring strain. Nurse said Embiid and Harden were still ramping things up for a return to play.

Danuel House Jr. missed Wednesday’s 112-101 preseason loss to the Celtics at the Wells Fargo with knee tendinitis.

At practice, Embiid has been getting used to reading his teammates in the new free-flowing offense. The reigning MVP and two-time scoring champion likes the adjustments, Nurse said.

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“I think he feels like he’s got a good understanding of which direction things should go, being able to mix it up, again, a little bit of unpredictability on that for him,” Nurse said. “And we also did some of the things that he’s really good at, too, which is pound it inside to him.

“And he looked awesome out there today. He’s getting there in shape. He looks really good.”

Harden, who has yet to speak to the media since ending his holdout on Oct. 3., participated in practice and stayed afterward for shooting drills with Tyrese Maxey.

Korkmaz and House didn’t practice Thursday.

Korkmaz may be able to get through the non-contact portion of Friday’s practice and be a full participant in the ensuing days. Meanwhile, House has some soreness in his knee after being a late scratch from Wednesday’s game. The Sixers are not overly concerned about it. All indications suggest he should be a full participant in Friday’s practice. The Sixers just wanted to give him another day of rest.

It’s “nothing major,” House said. “Rehab it, get it right, I’m good.”