From the Eagles to the Phillies, the Sixers to the Flyers, we’ll find out how much coaching matters.

Does coaching matter in professional sports? At first, the question seems ludicrous because the answer seems so obvious: Yes. Duh. There’s a difference between Andy Reid and Rich Kotite, between Bill Belichick and Rod Rust, between Roy Rubin and every other man who has coached the 76ers. Let’s move on to a topic where there’s real debate, such as whether Saquon Barkley is a human being or a football-toting cyborg.

OK, but there are many realms within coaching, many responsibilities that a coach has, many ways that coaches can be judged to be good or bad. Are they running the right system for their team? Are they — as Reid loves to say — putting their players in the best position to make plays? Are they inspiring? Do their players trust them?

» READ MORE: Sixers fans are angry. They want more transparency about Joel Embiid ... and everything else.

It’s funny, though. Maybe I’m just creating a straw man or revealing a blind spot here, but it’s rare that people evaluate coaches in the major professional leagues on the most basic and essential aspect of the job: Are you helping your players play the sport better?

I don’t just mean, Is Kellen Moore scheming A.J. Brown open? I mean, Is someone on the Eagles’ staff teaching A.J. how to run his routes better? (No offense to Brown, whose routes are just fine, thank you, as is everything else about his game when he’s healthy. Just needed a handy example.)

The operative word there, of course, is teaching. That’s what coaching, at its core, is, and it’s easy to presume that, by the time athletes reach their sports’ highest levels, there’s little fundamental or technical left for them to learn, if anything. Oh, you’re gonna show Steph Curry how to fine-tune his jump shot? Good luck with that, Coach.

But if you look at the Eagles, the Phillies, the Sixers, and the Flyers — all at varying stages of ascent or descent — it’s not too much to say that the future of each team will come down to how well its coach can teach its players to play better or differently.

Had the Eagles added a pass rusher at Tuesday’s midseason trade deadline, no one would have been shocked. They could stand to apply more pressure on opposing quarterbacks, and every year at this time, “Howie Roseman will be working the phones” becomes the most overused phrase in sports. But part of the reason that the Eagles stood pat was their belief that the edge rushers they already have can and will improve.

Nolan Smith, for instance, has 2½ sacks this season after recording just one last season as a rookie, and he has spoken about how Jeremiah Washburn, the Eagles’ defensive line/linebackers coach, has helped him refine his pass-rushing technique. Bryce Huff is still here, despite his hefty contract and so far paltry production, so if there’s a way for Washburn or defensive coordinator Vic Fangio to tap into whatever QB-hunting ability Huff demonstrated with the Jets, now would be the time.

“Really comes down to, as a position coach or as a coach, being a bulldog,” head coach Nick Sirianni said. “If we keep telling you the same thing, at some point you’re like, ‘This guy is going to be relentless. If I keep messing this up, this guy is going to be relentless. And now I’ve got to fix this because he ain’t going to shut up about this.’”

John Middleton has been making the media rounds lately, and in at least one of those interviews, he acknowledged that, during the Phillies’ divisional-round loss to the Mets last month, something that bothered the team’s fans bothered him, too: The big-swinging Phillies chased and missed too many pitches and didn’t put the ball in play often enough.

“We need to learn from” that series, Middleton, the franchise’s managing partner, told the Athletic. “I think some old dogs need to learn new tricks. I know by the time you get to the majors, and particularly by the time you’re a veteran, you’ve got a style. It’s yours. But I’m going to remind the guys in spring training of two stories.”

The stories involved two of the best players in Phillies history. During a stint in the minor leagues, Roy Halladay scrapped every pitch that his father had taught him and created a whole new repertoire. The change transformed him into a Hall of Famer. When Middleton shared that anecdote with Mike Schmidt, the Hall of Fame third baseman told him that he understood: He himself had used “three completely different swings” throughout his 17-year career.

“And that’s the message I’m going to give people in spring training,” Middleton said. “The reason those guys are in the Hall of Fame is because they were willing to change. They were willing to adapt. … If they can do it, then we have to at least try to do it.”

Which means that Kevin Long, the Phillies’ hitting coach, has to at least try to help them do it.

There’s so much that’s wrong about the Sixers right now, especially after the revelation Thursday that Tyrese Maxey will be out at least a few weeks with a hamstring injury, that it’s difficult even to contemplate what Nick Nurse could do to make things right.

For the sake of this exercise, let’s assume that, sometime before the end of 2024, Nurse will be able to put Maxey, Joel Embiid, and Paul George on the floor together for a lengthy stretch of time. Throughout the Summer Olympics, Embiid said that, because George and Maxey are so talented, he looked forward to not having to be the centerpiece of the Sixers offense for once. He could “be there to support” and “make sure I involve my teammates.”

That is not a role that would come easily to Embiid — the screen-setting, the tenacious rebounding, the deference. It didn’t in Paris with Team USA. For Embiid to follow through on it, Nurse and his staff would have to be — to borrow Sirianni’s term — bulldogs about it. Plus, given how dire the Sixers’ straits are, their best hope might be to forget about those three players collaborating in any meaningful way. It might be this simple: Get the ball to the big guy as much as possible, and hope his body doesn’t break again.

John Tortorella benched Matvei Michkov on Thursday, and under the category of “Bets You Could Make about the 2024-25 Flyers,” that one was the safest of the safe. More than once, Tortorella told reporters that the decision was “just part of the process.” He did not elaborate on his reasons for having Michkov sit.

This is Tortorella’s most important task as the Flyers’ head coach, and perhaps his most delicate. Michkov, the prospective centerpiece of the franchise, is just 19, and Tortorella wants to make him a fully rounded player — not just gifted on offense, but conscientious on defense. It’s a worthy goal. Michkov has time and room to grow into that player, if Tortorella and his assistants can … here’s that word again … teach him how.