Nick Nurse’s first mission: Getting the Sixers to play team ball

The Nurse is a 76er.

Five words that were once whispers in dreams can now be shouted by Sixers fans with a force that will rattle Philly’s sports landscape down to its historic core.

The Answer (2023 version) is coming.

Nick Nurse has agreed to join the Sixers as not only their best coaching hire since Larry Brown, but perhaps the perfect match for MVP Joel Embiid.

» READ MORE: With Joel Embiid’s blessing, Sixers and Nick Nurse should have agreed to terms days ago

The NBA’s most sought-after candidate will lead one of the league’s most thirsty franchises. A champion coach on every level is coming to a place suffering from a 22-year Eastern Conference finals drought.

His hiring is supposed to dramatically change everything, just like the hiring of his predecessor, Doc Rivers, was supposed to change things. Like Rivers, Nurse comes to Philly with an NBA championship resumé.

Despite posting the league’s third-highest total of regular-season wins (154) during his three seasons, Rivers was let go after three straight second-round exits.

But the expectation is that Nurse’s multiyear tenure will be different. A team that has gone 1-12 in its last 13 second-round appearances now has a coach that clicks all the boxes. He has thrived with a superstar player (Kawhi Leonard). He’s known for making proper in-game adjustments and stymieing opponents with outside-the-box coaching tactics.

All this sounds good until you realize that the Sixers’ roster, as it currently stands, isn’t exactly championship caliber.

Embiid is the best player that Nurse will coach since winning the title in 2019 with Leonard, a member of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team. Yet there’s a lot of uncertainty with the Sixers in large part because of James Harden. Harden, also a member of that 75th anniversary team, intends to opt out of the final year of his Sixers contract to become a free agent in July. The expectation is that he’ll re-sign with the Houston Rockets, for whom he thrived for nine-plus seasons.

If Harden leaves, Nurse won’t have a point guard capable of replicating the 10-time All-Star’s ballhandling and facilitating skills. But if Harden stays, the coach will have to get the Sixers to buy into playing team basketball.

» READ MORE: Sixers mailbag: ‘Is the front office willing to trade Joel Embiid or is he untouchable?’

Often times, Tobias Harris, P.J. Tucker, Tyrese Maxey, and the other Sixers just stood around and watched Harden and Embiid in the two-man game. There were times when Rivers took Harden off the ball. But for the most part, Harden was extremely ball-dominant. He either wanted to score or make the pass to score. As a result, the ball wasn’t moving.

That’s why Harris and Tucker stood in the corners waiting for catch-and-shoot three-point opportunities. Maxey became a scorer when Embiid or Harden was off the floor and when the Sixers needed an additional offensive threat.

So the biggest thing Nurse must get the Sixers to do is play team ball. He has to integrate everyone into the offense. His challenge is being able to take advantage of all the strengths of his players.

At the same time, Nurse must help Embiid solve the defensive tactics similar to what Nurse’s team used against the big fella.

Embiid’s average against the Nurse-coached Raptors was 22.3 points. That’s the lowest vs. any team he has played at least 10 games against. His numbers in 13 playoff games against Toronto are worse. He has averaged just 21.5 points on 44.8% shooting — including 27.7% on three-pointers — to go with 3.7 turnovers.

Nurse jumped at the chance to coach Embiid. He knows that having a superstar should make things easier.

» READ MORE: Sixers win the coaching lottery with Nick Nurse

The coach did his best to make do with a Raptors roster that had its shortcomings last season. While they played hard, they couldn’t overcome being one of the league’s worst-shooting teams. Toronto ranked 27th in field goal percentage (.459) and 28th in three-point percentage (.335).

The Raptors also felt like they didn’t get the benefit of the doubt when it came to drawing fouls. Toronto forward Pascal Siakam was 17th in the league in free-throw attempts at 6.7 per game.

“It’s a superstar’s league, and we don’t have one,” Nurse told Sportsnet this season about the lack of calls.

Well, now Nurse has one in Embiid, who gets the benefit of the doubt. The first-team All-NBA selection’s 11.7 free-throw attempts ranked second in the league.

So Nurse should benefit from having his first star to build around since Leonard. And the Sixers have someone who won’t be afraid to gamble with the game on the line.

He is, after all, the coach the Sixers hired to rescue their hungry franchise.

The Nurse is a Sixer.