76ers

Nick Nurse hints at Philadelphia 76ers’ offseason direction during recent interview on “The Herd with Colin Cowherd”

Nick Nurse made his first media appearance since the team’s exit interviews that were held shortly after the New York Knicks eliminated the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA playoffs.

Nurse made a guest appearance on FOX Sports’ Colin Cowherd daily sports talk show “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” and discussed a variety of topics – including the direction of the 76ers’ front office, led by Daryl Morey and Elton Brand, plan to take this summer in adding another superstar to a roster that already features Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey.

Nick Nurse on The Herd discussing 76ers’ offseason plans:

“I think it starts about 24 hours after our final buzzer. Daryl [Morey] is really good at his job, I really got a lot of trust in him and Elton Brand and our owners — they really wanna get this thing right, and I think exploring every option right now, but then being ready for plan ‘B, C, D, E, F, G.’ Cause I think there’s a lot of things that can happen with free agency, with the draft, with trades. I think it’ll be an active summer, certainly, it will be for us — it has to be.”

76ers ‘Arsenal of Assets’ this Summer:

With approximately $55.5 million in cap space this Summer, the 76ers have the second highest amount of spending money in the NBA – the first being the Detroit Pistons at about $64.4 million, according to Spotrac.

On top of that, Philadelphia has just four players signed for next season (2024-2025) Joel Embiid, Paul Reed (non-guaranteed), Jeff Dowtin Jr. ($2.2 million team option), and Ricky Council IV (non-guaranteed). 

The 76ers netted the 16th overall pick in this year’s draft, and as a result of the James Harden trade, Philadelphia has a 2026 1st-round pick via Oklahoma City, Houston, or LA (swap worst), a 2028 1st round pick (unprotected), and a 2029 first-round pick via LA (protected for selections 1-3), along with Philadelphia having their first-round pick in every draft up until 2030 besides the 2025 draft. 

Point being, for the first time in years, the Philadelphia 76ers and GM Daryl Morey have a ton of flexibility this summer to add key pieces to the roster. They have immense financial firepower to target really any free agent on the market, while their arsenal of draft picks set them up perfectly to execute a trade.

Over the past few months, reports from various outlets have linked Philadelphia to the likes of Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Brandon Ingram, and even LeBron James.

There’s no doubt that Daryl Morey will target one of the “star players” listed above while also monitoring “disgruntled players” (shoutout Kevin Durant) if they become available via trade. Star hunting, however, isn’t the only offseason goal for the Sixers.

Nick Nurse stated the importance maintaining of team chemistry “a lot”

“We talk about [chemistry] a lot, obviously we’ve got a lot of cap space and a lot of roster to fill… Finding the right pieces that are gonna be able to space and shoot, defend and rebound, have some IQ, have some late-game moxie and guts, and the things that it takes is really the key for us to get to where we wanna go.”

Makes sense. The rotating cast of characters (and coaches) around Joel Embiid has been viewed as an “organizational failure” to properly build a roster around their generational talent. The 76ers’ performances in the playoffs are a clear indicator that the strategy used in previous years simply hasn’t worked.

Look no further than the (for now) defending champion Denver Nuggets who perfectly built around their core of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Michael Porter Jr.

While some role players have slightly changed over the years, the Nuggets have kept their trio intact since selecting Porter in the 2018 draft, which proved pivotal as Denver cruised past the Miami Heat in five games in the 2023 finals. 

When you look at these 76ers teams over the years, it’s easy to observe that they’ve been the polar opposite of Denver. Philadelphia has cycled through star players like Jimmy Butler, Al Horford, Ben Simmons, and James Harden, while failing to develop draft picks (Markelle Fultz, Zhaire Smith) and continuing to let role players walk after short-stints with the team.

This isn’t a think piece on whether those moves were right or not, but one of the biggest consequences of shifting the team so drastically since 2019, is that the 76ers have never developed a sense of identity or continuity. 

Joel Embiid seems to be following a similar thinking path as myself. The Sixers’ franchise cornerstone continues to voice his concerns about the lack of continuity with the 76ers roster and mentioned it again following the playoff series loss to the Knicks.

“Like I said, all of them lasted one year,” Embiid said after the Round 1 loss to the New York Knicks. “That’s the problem. Who won last year? Denver. Jamal [Murray], Nikola [Jokic], they’ve been together for eight years or something like that. Seven? You look at some of the teams that have won — Golden State Warriors — they’ve been together for a long time. I don’t remember you just put a team together and hoped that it worked out for one year.” [SixersWire]

With Nick Nurse’s comments and Joel Embiid’s concerns, it appears that the 76ers are focused on building a team that can establish true chemistry, right? The Inky’s Keith Pompey and Kyle Nuebeck of PHLY Sports have both reported that Philadelphia would like to retain Kelly Oubre Jr, Nicolas Batum, and Kyle Lowry – which is definitely a step in the right direction.

Oubre Jr. was such a pleasant surprise for the 76ers this season as he took his playmaking and defense to new heights under Nurse. For most of his career, Oubre has been viewed as a guy who can put up numbers for bad teams, but he proved that he can adjust his game and contribute to winning. 

Oubre signed with the 76ers on a minimum salary this season and with the production he had, I doubt that Philadelphia could retain him for that bargain of a price. However, if the 76ers are set on bringing him back, they have around $55.5 million in cap space to do so.

Batum and Lowry were two quality veteran role players for Philadelphia throughout the year. Batum was thrown in by the Los Angeles Clippers as a part of the James Harden trade. His spot-up shooting proved to be a perfect fit next to Joel Embiid and it was that shooting that saved the 76ers in their Play-In Tournament game against the Miami Heat.

Lowry was originally playing for the Heat this season, but was traded to the Charlotte Hornets for Terry Rozier and Charlotte ended up buying him out allowing Philadelphia to acquire him for a minimum contract in the buy-out market. Lowry’s facilitating and ball-handling served the 76ers well and took some playmaking pressure off of Tyrese Maxey.

If Philadelphia can get one more season out of Batum, who has flirted with the idea of retirement as well as retain Lowry for a reasonable price, they’d be great additions who’d be key to the 76ers finally developing continuity.

Mandatory Credit: Copyright 2024 NBAE(Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)

Freshman journalism major at Temple University, NBA/76ers contributor for The Liberty Line, and owner of Sixercountry on Instagram, which has over 40,000 followers. I am aspiring to be a credentialed 76ers reporter and top NBA personality.

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