In a rather surprising development, the Philadelphia 76ers have hired Nick Nurse as their new head coach. The opportunity to coach MVP Joel Embiid and his previous connection with Sixers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey played a pivotal role in his decision to commit to Philadelphia.
Nurse brings championship pedigree to the table from his time with the Toronto Raptors, where he won the 2019 NBA championship and earnied the 2020 Coach of the Year award. According to multiple reports, after being courted by multiple teams, his decision came down to either Phoenix or Philadelphia, with the Sixers ultimately emerging victorious in their pursuit of the free agent coach.
Nurse’s coaching style, characterized by an aggressive approach to defense, yielded impressive results during his tenure with the Raptors. Turnovers plagued the Sixers throughout their postseason run, which is something that Nurse led teams have historically minimized.
The 55 year old brings a career 227-163 record at the NBA level to Philly, good for a .582 win percentage across 5 seasons in Toronto. In addition to his impressive NBA resume, Nurse has also won 2x D-League championships, as well as D-League coach of the year honours, to go alongside 2x British Basketball League championships and an English Cup from his time overseas.
The hiring of Nurse is now the 2nd high profile signing of a former Raptor coach in recent days. Earlier it was announced that Nurse’s former assistant Adrian Griffin had been chosen as the new head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks.
The former Raptors bench boss’s hiring also marks the end of the Doc Rivers era in Philadelphia, after he was relieved of his duties following three consecutive flameouts in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Although Rivers brought stability and experience to the team, his tenure ultimately ended with a disappointing Game 7 loss to the Boston Celtics in this year’s conference semifinals.
Sixers fans now hope that Nurse will be able to get the team past the 2nd round of the playoffs for the first time in over 20 years in 2023-24.
With the hiring, that now leaves only three head coaching vacancies to be filled across the association: Detroit, Toronto, and Phoenix.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Peetlesnumber1. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.