New-look Sixers roster should allow Nick Nurse to get into his ‘bag’ on defense
The team’s basketball IQ, size, and athleticism should allow for flexibility on defense
For the first two days of 76ers training camp, coach Nick Nurse was installing defensive concepts. This was especially exciting for Nurse, whose eyes lit up when talking about what this roster allows him to do on that end of the floor.
“I don’t feel like I’ve been able to get into my bag of defensive stuff nearly as much as I would like to,” Nurse said of his previous years as Sixers coach. “And I think now we’ve got a little bit more depth, size, athleticism. It may take us a minute, but I think I’m most excited about that.”
A young, inexperienced team might not have the bandwidth to execute multiple coverages like switching one through five, drop coverage, or a high wall without some miscommunication and needing an extra beat to remember which is the current coverage.
A team lacking size and athleticism limits the kinds of coverages that could be deployed for the sake of ending up in unfavorable mismatches. What the Sixers seem to have is a good mix of that experience, athleticism, and basketball IQ to make it all work.
That they don’t have to just play one way throughout the course of a game, and Nurse can do different things with different lineups and match up better against specific opponents.
“We have so many defenders and athletes and good players that can do so many different things; we can really go deep inside the playbook and rotations and do things that other teams really don’t have the ability to do,” forward Dean Wade said. “That’s what’s going to separate us on the defensive end, too. We have so many great defenders, great help side defenders and great on-ball defenders.”
The Sixers were 17th in defensive efficiency a season ago, which speaks, perhaps, to the limited upside of what Nurse could do, especially with Joel Embiid only playing 38 regular-season games. But even when Embiid does take off games to maintain his health, the Sixers have a deeper roster that should still give them flexibility on defense. Wade figures to play a significant part in the team’s defensive success off the bench, while VJ Edgecombe said he will continue to burnish his reputation as a point-of-attack defender after getting “faster and stronger” from where he started a season ago.
“I’m just trying to make sure I’m in top-tier shape so I can do that,” Edgecombe said. “Obviously, that’s important. The league is full of great guards. And, like you said, that’s important to be that point-of-attack defense because that’s what kind of starts it with most of the possessions. And I want to be able to set that tone for us defensively, and we go from there.”
Then there’s LeBron James, who still can dial up the intensity defensively when needed. James relayed Monday that Tyrese Maxey previously said Jaylen Brown also was taking on primary defensive responsibilities and trying to set a defensive tone.
“What’s stood out to me so far is his communication and he’s willing to pick up the ball defensively, kind of just do whatever coach needs him to do right now,” Maxey said.
Brown mentioned Thursday that he was getting used to the terminology the Sixers use. One thing that might mean a certain coverage when he was in Boston might mean something different with the Sixers.
» READ MORE: Jaylen Brown shares details of his onboarding process — on and off the court — with the Sixers
“It’s just getting him through it and getting him comfortable,” Nurse said. “I think we’ve covered a lot and probably calmed down on putting more stuff in and really started repping this out, so everybody gets comfortable with what the plays are called.”
The more Nurse can take out of his “bag,” the more versatility the Sixers can have defensively.
Up and down the roster, the Sixers have talked about the importance of that side of the ball. Nurse mentioned on Day 1 that James was “extremely loud” on defense, trying to set an example for the rest of the roster, while Brown said, “We’re focused on defense for a couple days, and I like that because that’s where the game is going to be won or lost.”
