Former Raptors bench boss Nick Nurse lands 76ers coaching job

Nick Nurse certainly has a flair for creating drama and intrigue. Linked to every high profile vacant coaching job after being let go by the Raptors last month, Nurse has decided to sign on with one of Toronto’s most bitter rivals, the Philadelphia 76ers.

According to ESPN.com NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski, Nurse is poised to replace Doc Rivers as the head coach of the Sixers, ensuring Nurse remains highly visible to fans in Toronto.

After being a finalist for a coaching vacancy in Phoenix and also talking to the Milwaukee Bucks before they hired Adrian Griffin, Nurse will join forces with former rival Joel Embiid on a Sixers team that has failed to get past the second round of the playoffs for more than 20 years.

The Raptors and Sixers play each other four times every regular season and Nurse and Embiid have been in two epic playoff series in the last five seasons. Toronto beat Embiid and the Sixers in a seven-game Eastern Conference semifinal in 2019; the Sixers and Embiid eliminated the Raptors in a six-game first-round series in 2022.

It’s an interesting mix — Nurse loves to extend the minutes of his best players; Embiid has fought injuries off and on for his entire career — and the layers of intrigue are many.

The most intrigue will surround Nurse’s relationship with Embiid, the league’s most valuable player this season. Much will be made of Embiid’s criticism of Nurse’s tactics the last few seasons, criticism than ran the gamut from the way Nurse had the Raptors defend the Sixers centre to Embiid’s complaints about Nurse’s penchant for hectoring officials to get his team calls.

"I saw after the game last time (the Nets) kind of took the Nick Nurse route of begging for free throws and calling out the referees,” Embiid said after a game in a first-round series between Philadelphia and Brooklyn this spring. “They did come out and they got a lot of calls, which I guess is good for them.”

Much of that, of course, was gamesmanship between bitter rivals and Embiid’s tone will unquestionably change when Nurse is working the officials on his behalf.

And Nurse’s qualifications are undeniable. He had a 227-163 regular season record in five seasons with the Raptors, a 25-16 playoff record and was voted coach of the year in the 2019-20 season. Those numbers will go a long way in soothing any ill will between star player and coach.

But it’s unclear what kind of roster the Sixers will have when training camp rolls around in the fall.

James Harden can opt out of the final year of his contract and become a free agent in late June and is reportedly interested in rejoining the Houston Rockets. Four Sixers — Paul Reed, Georges Niang, Shake Milton and Jalen McDaniels — will also be free agents and the Sixers will have scant cap room to add to their core.

But Nurse, who was due to make about $8 million (U.S.) in Toronto had the Raptors not let him go with a year on his deal, obviously sees the Sixers as a challenge he can conquer. He has history with Philadelphia president Daryl Morey from when the two worked together in the Houston Rockets organization more than a decade ago.

Nurse taking the Sixers job leaves three coaching vacancies. The Raptors, according to sources, are conducting final interviews this week with a select few possibilities and could have someone in place early next week. The Suns may now focus more sharply on Rivers, who sources said was in a fight with Nurse for the job. And the Detroit Pistons have, sources say, narrowed their list to two: University of Connecticut coach Kevin Ollie and Milwaukee associate head coach Charles Lee.

Top Stories