Generally, when a season ends in a sweep, there are going to be questions about the futures of the front office and coaching staff.
After the Sixers were crushed by the New York Knicks in Game 4 Sunday, the focus shifts to the culpability of Daryl Morey and Nick Nurse for the team’s quick exit in the second round.
According to Tony Jones of The Athletic, neither is guaranteed back next season — at least as of now:
“The jobs of Morey and head coach Nick Nurse are expected to be evaluated entering the
offseason, multiple league sources told The Athletic. As of Sunday’s elimination, team sources said ownership has not made final decisions on either and is likely to take a few days to assess before making any major calls.“
It would be a reasonable decision if Josh Harris and company decide to move on from Morey and Nurse.
As Jones notes in the article, the actions (and inactions) at the trade deadline did not sit well with Joel Embiid and others in the locker room. The trade of second-year guard Jared McCain wasn’t viewed positively, especially considering Morey and the front office chose not to make any corresponding moves to improve the team now.
While nobody was expecting the Sixers to mortgage their future by trading for a mid-season upgrade, moves were made by other teams around the league to improve. The Sixers have a bounty of second-round picks, something several teams used to add depth at the deadline — including the Knicks, who acquired guard Jose Alvarado for a pair of seconds. Surely Morey could’ve spared a couple second-round picks to help the team now while holding on to its premium assets (the future LA Clippers’ first-round pick and pick swap, for example) for the future.
Even with maneuvering below the luxury tax, something this franchise has regularly achieved, there were ways to improve the roster. The organization will push back on their emphasis for dipping below the tax and point to successful teams doing the same. It’s true, several teams did dip below the tax at the deadline, but several also at least attempted to add and make their rosters better.
On top of that, it’s difficult to watch players like Isaiah Joe, Paul Reed, Justin Champagnie and McCain thrive in the postseason, while a player like Quentin Grimes, who was the only bench player firmly in Nurse’s rotation, struggled mightily. The inability to fortify the backup center position, knowing Embiid’s shaky health, is also glaring. Andre Drummond gave the Sixers all he could. Adem Bona showed flashes, but also exhibited his rawness as a second-year big. Johni Broome, a high second-round pick in 2025, never appeared to be a legitimate option.
The lack of bench options does make Nurse’s evaluation trickier.
Nurse essentially played 6.5 players during the postseason — and he didn’t have much of a choice. Maybe he could’ve used Justin Edwards or Dominick Barlow more, but it’s hard to see how either guy would’ve made an immense impact in either series. The roster was flawed. Trendon Watford and Jabari Walker were solid regular-season contributors at times, but it’s hard to see how either could’ve had success against the Celtics or Knicks.
At the same time, Nurse was far from perfect. As Jones points out, Nurse does coach his teams hard. That type of coaching can grate on players over time. He also ran Maxey and Edgecombe into the ground during the regular season, something Nurse was known for with his best players while coaching the Toronto Raptors. Aside from his lingering pinky issue, Maxey simply looked exhausted in the Knicks series.
There were also weird lapses during the season, including the playoffs, where the team looked ill-prepared and unfocused during games. The multiple blowouts in the Boston series were jarring. The effort in the Knicks series you can chalk up more to fatigue and New York simply being the better team.
Lastly, there’s Embiid, whose future is very likely to be in Philadelphia. His three-year max extension begins in 2026-27 and it’s hard to imagine a trade scenario that makes sense. The Sixers are unlikely to get positive value given Embiid’s injury history and contract, but the former MVP is also too good to give away (or even possibly attach assets to).
Embiid is obviously far from blameless when it comes to the current state of the Sixers. The incident that occurred on April 1 — when Embiid missed shootaround in D.C and posted his displeasure on being ruled out that night on social media — was a cause of consternation, per Jones.
“On April 1, the same day as Embiid’s social media post, a handful of players met with members of Philadelphia’s coaching staff before shootaround in Washington to express concern over certain players’ participation in team activities and frustration over the direction of the 76ers’ season, multiple league sources told The Athletic. Among other things, the players expressed they felt there wasn’t enough control of the locker room, according to those sources. The meeting was tense enough to briefly imperil the team’s shootaround; however, the conversation resolved enough that the activity was able to proceed as planned, those sources said.”
Jones does not explicitly say the players who raised concerns were talking directly about Embiid, but it’s not a difficult conclusion to draw. You’ll recall last season, there was a point where Maxey even called out Embiid for chronic latenesses during a heated team meeting in Miami.
When talking to the media yesterday, Embiid did make a comment about his situation, taking blame for frequent absences and how that affected the team. He believes with the health of his knee in a good place, he should be more available in general.
“That’s where I put it on me,” he said, “where I felt like I wasn’t around for much of the season, for a lot of things, and moving forward, understanding what it takes when it comes to my body, and what we have to do as a group to make sure that I get to play every game. I feel like we found that solution, so it’ll be better next year.”
It’s also worth noting that Embiid’s teammates did all seem to truly rally around their embattled star after his emergency appendectomy.
All of this adds up to another messy offseason in Philadelphia.
Should Morey be allowed to oversee the draft, an area where his front office has done its best work? Is Nurse’s voice still the right one for this group? How do you handle roster building around a supremely talented but undependable Embiid? How do you fix the glaring depth issues while paying three max contracts and essentially operating on two timelines?
There hasn’t been a dull moment during the Joel Embiid era. This summer should be anything but boring.
