Nick Nurse and the Sixers practice more than most NBA teams. Why? ‘I like to work, and I like to be prepared’

Nick Nurse described himself as “a little cranky” during Thursday morning’s coaches’ meeting, perturbed that the 76ers have not gotten much practice time recently.

“… And then they reminded me that we did stack up a lot of days [in previous weeks],” Nurse recalled.

Thursday was the Sixers’ first off-day practice since Dec. 26, a departure from their consistent dose of team workouts between games for the bulk of the early season. That philosophy could be viewed as unconventional in today’s NBA, where keeping players’ bodies fresh during the regular season and playoff grind often takes precedence. Yet with so much newness still surrounding the 23-10 Sixers — from the coaching staff to four players who arrived following training camp in the James Harden trade — they understand that, right now, they need the reps.

“He gives me that old-school style, where he likes to practice, likes to be very detail-oriented,” veteran forward Marcus Morris said of Nurse. “And I like it, man. I’m an old-school guy myself. … It’s not just to do it. I commend him on that, and guys are buying in.”

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Scheduling and uncontrollable circumstances — including a mandatory Dec. 31 off day following a back-to-back, plus a plane issue delaying travel from Orlando to Houston and canceling a planned Dec. 28 workout — contributed to the recent lack of practices. But the Sixers also made Jan. 1 an optional session, then took Wednesday off before returning to work at their facility in Camden on Thursday ahead of a home back-to-back against the New York Knicks and Utah Jazz. Those decisions often stem from discussions with the medical, training and strength and conditioning staffs, which track player health and workload.

Before the recent breaks, however, multiple players acknowledged the more stringent routine has been an adjustment. Under former coach Doc Rivers the previous two seasons, the Sixers did not hold formal, full-team practices when there was only one day in between games — though they almost always had a morning shootaround on game days, which many other coaches around the league have reduced or eliminated.

When asked if he is practicing more here than with previous teams and coaches, veteran forward Nico Batum responded with an emphatic “mhm.” Morris was even more candid, saying his last team, the Los Angeles Clippers, “never practiced.”

“We’re all kind of getting used to it,” Morris said. “… I had to put my hat on and start to realize that, ‘All right, this is different right here.’”

Nurse’s reasons for being eager to practice are simple: “I like to work, and I like to be prepared.” The Sixers also still feel like they are playing catch-up, with four rotation players (Morris, Batum, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Robert Covington) all joining in September or later. NBA teams hold unofficial workouts during the summer months, before training camp the first week of October.

The Sixers’ in-season team workouts have been described as energetic, with arena DJ “Ghost” providing the soundtrack at every home practice in Camden and shootaround at the Wells Fargo Center. They are also meticulous, down to the player-development coaches wearing jerseys that match the upcoming opponent’s color and specific player numbers. Yet they are also efficient, with Oubre appreciative that “we don’t come in here and waste time.”

“[Nurse is] very, very smart,” added Batum. “I like his approach. … He’s finding a good balance between get the good work [in], and don’t go crazy.”

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Nurse still likes to mix in “live” contact work when possible. On days that need to be less physically demanding, they will run through intricacies such as out-of-bounds sets, which require some players to know multiple positions because of injury-prompted lineup changes.

The coach also credited Joel Embiid with helping the Sixers maximize practices and shootarounds. Nurse said the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player sets the tone with “the intensity and the focus” during drills centered on the coverages defenses deploy against him, allowing teammates to recreate schemes to a degree that Nurse found more challenging at previous stops.

“He knows there’s a lot of stuff coming at him,” Nurse said. “So he gets everybody to a level of concentration and speed.”

Added Embiid: “[If] I’m going hard, you’ve also got to go hard. Or if they don’t go hard, I’m going to get [ticked] off and I’m going to get on somebody. I haven’t had to do that, but that’s the mindset that we all have.”

Despite entering Thursday ranked second in the NBA in defensive efficiency (110 points allowed per 100 possessions) and fourth in offensive efficiency (120.4 points per 100 possessions), Nurse estimates he has only installed about 60% of his schemes. That means this is still a learning period for the coaching staff, with frequent adjustments and dialogue with players to explain the “why” behind certain philosophies or infuse their feedback. It’s a “tricky” balance, Nurse acknowledged, between “insisting” on specific principles and remaining malleable.

“It is experimental, and it’s almost testing [what] you’re doing,” Nurse said. “All we care about is that we all come together and figure out which schemes and which way we can do things that are the best for our group eventually down the line.”

That, of course, also comes with practice. Yet by Thursday afternoon, Nurse had recognized that giving players a blow the previous day meant they were mentally and physically refreshed for a “sharp” session during which coaches “[threw] a lot at them.”

Another reason his crankiness had eased?

“We get tomorrow’s shootaround, too,” Nurse said, “so we’ll be OK.”