Nick Nurse’s audition as LeBron James’ newest coach begins. Bet on Nurse to thrive. He always does.
Whether James has an eighth coach in 14 seasons will depend on how Nurse manages the most pedigreed Sixers roster since 1983. This season might be the coach's most challenging yet.
After he left the Miami Heat in 2014, LeBron James had six coaches in 12 seasons. Now, with Nick Nurse in Philadelphia, he has his seventh coach in 13.
Whether James has an eighth coach in 14 seasons will depend on how Nurse manages both the talents and the personalities of the most pedigreed Sixers roster since 1983. Billy Cunningham had to manage stars like Moses Malone and Julius Erving, but he didn’t have to handle social media stars, like Joel Embiid and his 2.2 million X followers; or their Twitch and YouTube stars, where Jaylen Brown might just say anything; or podcast stars, like LeBron’s “Mind the Game”; or, in LeBron’s case, aerial stars: James uses a helicopter to commute from New York City.
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Anyway, as training camp progresses: How’s it going, Nick? How has it been managing these megastars?
“Nothing to manage, yet,” Nurse told me Monday.
Ah, the promise of new love. The relationships are fresh; the future, limitless. Everybody’s happy.
Actually, this honeymoon should last quite a while.
Its principles are focused.
That’s a lot of focuses
James, at the age of 41, came to Philadelphia to burnish his legacy by leading the Sixers to their first title in 44 years. Brown, 29, is focused on both redemption after the Celtics dumped him, and on earning a three-year, $223.2 million extension next summer. Embiid, 32, is focused on salvaging a career blighted by injury and unprofessionalism.
All of those focuses require winning, and winning big, and, preferably, winning big this season, since LeBron can leave at its conclusion.
This is excellent news for Nurse.
“Listen, I think the main thing is the guys are working extremely hard and showing a lot of leadership — the personalities that you’re talking about,” Nurse told me.
» READ MORE: Even in Year 24, there’s new (and old) things to learn for LeBron James
Repaired knees, arthritic feet, and bad backs are endured, at least for the time being. No excuses, to date.
“Everybody’s out there, every day, for everything,” Nurse said. “For me, right now, I’m very serious about getting better. That’s all I’m really worried about.”
Ideally, that’s all he’ll have to worry about. Because how Nurse handles the Big Three will be the most fascinating aspect of James’ first season in Philly. That is, if Nurse has to “handle” them at all.
Could that really be the case?
That’s a lot of nicknames
When James announced that Philly would be his post-Lakers home after spending most of the summer ruminating, he instantly dethroned Embiid as the face of the team. Don’t forget, such was Embiid’s innate narcissism that, in 2016, he dubbed himself “The Process,” hijacking the nickname of the Sixers’ rebuilding plan ... before he’d even played an NBA game. Embiid also initially had issues with the outsized personality of Jimmy Butler when Butler arrived in 2018; how will The Process handle the presence of The Chosen One?
James’ decision also immediately diminished the arrival of Brown, who only 18 days earlier had bizarrely landed in Philly after a breakout season in Boston, and arrived as the franchise’s savior. Brown, 29, is the most talented player on the roster, finally freed from the shadow of Jayson Tatum, only to be overshadowed by King James.
James also relegated All-NBA point guard Tyrese Maxey, who’d carried the club the past two seasons, to bystander status.
This is what Nurse must manage. How well he does it will determine whether he makes it to a fifth season, or if he even lasts through his fourth.
That’s a lot of coaches
From all indications, Nurse should thrive.
He’s smart, he is egoless, and he is especially adroit at figuring out how to combine players with disparate skill sets and incompatible psyches. This is why, in 2023, I was so optimistic when the Sixers won the coaching lottery and convinced Nurse to choose the Sixers.
» READ MORE: Sixers win the coaching lottery with Nick Nurse
Nurse has done nothing to change my mind.
Can he convince LeBron that he’s the right man for this job?
Fairly or not, James has been labeled a coach killer. For me, he is mis-labled.
James does not suffer fools lightly, and, for the past decade, he has carried enough weight to occasionally deviate from his bosses’ strategies. His basketball IQ is unmatched by his peers. He occasionally — often? — will ignore plays called both during timeouts and on the fly.
Old school hoop heads consider this insubordination. New school observers consider it innovation. Sometimes LeBron’s way works. Sometimes it does not. Since James escaped Heat tyrant Pat Riley and his puppet coach, Erik Spoelstra, it has been irrelevant whether LeBron’s coach or general manager or president or even his owner considers his behavior acceptable.
Why?
Because he’s LeBron James, one of the three or four best players in NBA history. He’s on your team because he wants to be there. No player in any American sport has wielded this sort of power for so long. James can choose to be anywhere else he wants, and it will be to your disadvantage to deny him whatever measure of autonomy he demands, especially if he’s sacrificing nearly $50 million by playing for the veteran minimum.
Nurse can handle it.
Nurse can handle anything.
That’s a lot of winning
In 2019, as a rookie head coach in Toronto, Nurse coaxed a title out of Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Lowry, and Pascal Siakam in Leonard’s only season as a Raptor. It was a load-managed season — Leonard played just 60 games — just as this season will be for both James and Embiid.
That title run is best remembered in Philadelphia for Leonard’s quadruple-doink corner jumper in Game 7 that ended the Sixers’ season, but the Raptors also had to beat the Bucks and MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo as well as Steph Curry and the Warriors, who had won three of the previous four titles.
» READ MORE: ‘Sixers Extra’ season preview: What to expect from LeBron James and his new team this year
It was as masterful a coaching job as the NBA has ever seen.
So was last year’s first-round upset of Brown and the Celtics by Nurse’s ragtag Sixers squad, a series in which Embiid missed the first three games.
That said, this season might be the most challenging yet for Nurse.
It begins Tuesday in New York, where James declined to reunite with Mike Brown, who coached him for Seasons Three through Seven ...
Right after James went through two coaches in his first two seasons.
After an exciting Sixers offseason highlighted by the additions of LeBron James and Jaylen Brown, join Inquirer beat writers Gina Mizell and Chris Hine for a preview of the season. Watch here.
Watch the full interview below and subscribe to the Sixers Extra podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
