A Philadelphia analyst questioned Nick Nurse's effectiveness in a recent podcast.
"I don't know what Nick Nurse has done well this year, on basically any level," Philadelphia 76ers analyst Kyle Neubeck said.
At first glance, it's not a completely unfair sentiment. Philadelphia has dealt with inconsistency throughout the season, struggling at times with rotations, late-game execution, and a repetitive offense.
The offense is a particularly bad issue. Philadelphia runs the third-most isolation sets in the NBA. When the team is fully healthy and at its best, this works great. As Joel Embiid is a fantastic 1V1 scorer, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe can use their pace and shooting to stress the defense, and Paul George can use his self-creation ability to get to any spot he wants.
When things aren't working, it leads to an offense that doesn't look organized in the slightest and is simply hoping a star player can bail out poor play-calling.
These sorts of issues tend to fall on the head coach, as they are the ones expected to right the ship when things get bad.
But evaluating Nick Nurse solely through that lens ignores the context of both his track record and this season's circumstances.
Nurse has consistently shown an ability to maximize star talent. During his time with the Toronto Raptors, he led the franchise to a championship in 2019 and followed it up with a strong season despite losing Kawhi Leonard in the offseason. On offense, the team was led by an isolation-heavy attack that highlighted Leonard's ability to create his own offense; on defense, Nurse employed a switch-heavy scheme that gave star players headaches throughout the regular season and playoffs.
This ability still applies in Philadelphia. Even in a season disrupted by injuries, the 76ers have remained competitive instead of completely collapsing. Nurse has gotten players such as Domonick Barlow, Adam Bona, Trendon Watford, and Justin Edwards to contribute meaningful minutes when key players have gone down; that fact can't be ignored. Keeping a team organized and functional under those conditions isn't something every coach in the league can do.
That doesn't mean the criticism should be dismissed. There have been moments this season where adjustments haven't happened, the iso-heavy offense looks uncreative and stagnant, and the team looks awful down the stretch. These issues are real and should cause concern, especially for a team that has playoff aspirations.
Still, the idea that Nurse "hasn't done anything well" oversimplifies things.
For Philadelphia, the real evaluation will come in the postseason. If Nurse can bring out the best in Philadelphia by maximizing star players and executing in late-game situations, then the narrative around him could shift very quickly.
Until then, the conversation remains open, with many fans and analysts being unsure of what to think about Nurse.
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Wes Dixon is a contributing writer to 76ersRoundtable. He can be reached at dixonwesley286@gmail.com.