Sixers win the coaching lottery with Nick Nurse

The Sixers haven’t had a lottery pick since 2018, but they hit the coaching jackpot Monday afternoon.

Former Raptors coach Nick Nurse reportedly agreed in principle to a multiyear deal. It’s a stunner of a hire. It’s a Powerball win. Nurse sees more promise in Philadelphia than in Phoenix. I’m not sure I agree, but then, I don’t have a ring. Nurse does.

The hiring puts Nurse, 55, on the bench where Brett Brown and Doc Rivers failed to get past the second round of the playoffs in each of the past six seasons.

Nurse facilitated that failure in 2019, when, on a Sunday night in Ontario, Kawhi Leonard quadruple-doinked a last-second, Game 7 jump shot that kept Brown, Joel Embiid, Jimmy Butler, and Ben Simmons from the Eastern Conference finals. No combination of players and coaches has come as close. It’s been 22 years since Allen Iverson and Larry Brown took them past the semis. Nurse might have the secret that gets them over the hump.

» READ MORE: Sixers to hire former Raptors coach Nick Nurse as their next head coach

He clearly was the best of the popular options.

Former Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer seemed like a decent fit, but he would have been the consolation prize. He won a title in 2021, but did so on the back of Giannis Antetokounmpo. Bud had Jrue Holiday, a former Sixer, running the point. Bud had P.J. Tucker, a current Sixer, running the locker room. Bud had wing talent around Giannis, who was his Greek Freakiest self in that playoff run. But without Khris Middleton last season, the Bucks fell in seven games to the Celtics in the semis. A back injury to Giannis this postseason sped their first-round exit as a No. 1 seed, losing to Butler and the No. 8 Heat.

The rest of the candidates made little sense.

Former Suns coach Monty Williams, who spent a year as Brown’s lead assistant in the 2018-19 season, could never come back here. He understands the climate, which is feverish; the Sixers’ culture, which is poisoned; the ownership, which is absentee; and the principal player, Embiid, who just is not his kind of player.

Jay Wright? The NBA would be a spotlighted prison for him. If he can’t handle one-and-dones and NIL and the transfer portal at cloistered Villanova, he could never handle the NBA, since that’s essentially what college basketball has become. And I’m not sure Embiid would make it through one of Jay Wright’s practices.

Frank Vogel, the Wildwood, N.J., native and 2020 NBA title winner with the Bubble LeBrons, had as much chance as Ace Darling, Wildwood, N.J., native and professional wrestler, whose real name is Charleston Diggler, which is a far better wrestler’s name than Ace Darling.

Mike D’Antoni? Ridiculous. Always was. Always will be.

There is no better person to coach Joel Embiid than a person who knows best how to stop Joel Embiid.

The other two masters of this strategy were unavailable. Brad Stevens was busy running the Celtics, who on Monday were trying to become the first team to erase a 3-0 series deficit. Erik Spoelstra was trying to keep his Heat from becoming the NBA’s most shameful footnote. That’s OK. Nurse did more with less.

Primarily using 34-year-old Marc Gasol, a ground-bound statue who gave up two inches and 30 pounds. The Raptors traded for Gasol specifically to guard Embiid in the playoffs. Nurse delivered a master class in targeted defensive scheme. He also incorporated an eclectic superstar in Leonard with a fiery veteran in Kyle Lowry, a nascent young talent in Pascal Siakam, and deftly used shooter Danny Green and Serge Ibaka, who transitioned into a bench player at the end of that season.

Nurse also oversaw the development of undrafted point guard Fred VanVleet, who has averaged 19.3 points and 6.7 assists the last four years — an indication that young backcourt talent Tyrese Maxey will be in good hands.

If any coach could satisfy, motivate, and direct that odd group in Toronto, dealing with Embiid, Maxey, Tucker, and possibly James Harden should be more than manageable.

I spent two weeks during that series lingering with the Raptors players and assistants. At that point Nurse was a rising star who would win coach of the year the next season, but it was his first season as a head coach, and he’d lucked into Leonard, who was the NBA’s best player that year. He was affable and smart and comfortable with himself. Everybody was wondering about this guy with the rusty goatee who always wore a black Travis Mathieu golf cap — until Nike got word and made him a signature “NN” chapeau.

The answers:

No, every player is not treated the same, but yes, every player is accountable. He is flexible when it comes to assignments. He is a masterful at amplifying strengths and minimizing weaknesses. He welcomes input from players. He is effectively without ego. Analytics are his second language. He understands the international nature of the game; he spent 11 years coaching in Europe.

He knows what his new boss will want, too. When Daryl Morey ran the Rockets, Nurse coached the Rockets’ G-League affiliate Rio Grande in 2011-12 and 2012-13 and won the title in 2013 before landing an assistant’s job with the Raptors.

There’s no doubt that when Morey landed in Philly in November 2020, the two people he most wanted to poach were Harden from the Rockets, then the Nets, and Nurse. He traded for Harden in 2022. That hasn’t worked out. He hired Nurse on Monday.

This was a much better move.

» READ MORE: Nick Nurse is the Sixers’ new head coach. Here’s what our writers think about him.