Nick Nurse acknowledges drain of this Sixers season: ‘There’s no denying the disappointment’

TORONTO — Nick Nurse can still feel himself “wanting to be way more upset” whenever this iteration of the 76ers makes “a really silly play.”

But now, the coach takes a breath or two and lets the urge pass through him.

“There’s just no sense in making it miserable for everybody,” he said Wednesday.

More miserable, at least. Many outside-the-organization Sixers supporters are now cheering such blunders, which lead to losses such as Wednesday’s at the Raptors that pushed the Sixers into the NBA’s fifth-worst record and better draft lottery odds. Yet this all still wears on the people who have already slogged through 43 defeats, with a month of the regular season still to go.

» READ MORE: Sixers lose to the Toronto Raptors, 118-105, but increase their draft lottery odds

That includes Nurse, who was back in the building where he first became an NBA head coach — and a champion — but is now facing questions about how he has navigated a season that began with massive expectations and descended into an objective disaster.

“There’s no denying the disappointment that you have,” Nurse said Monday in Atlanta, before the trip to Toronto. “You kind of have to face a lot, anytime you look at the standings or anytime something scrolls across the TV. I see these seasons as super, super precious. I know there’s just not a thousand of them laying around and we can just go on forever. There’s such a finite limit to them.

“It’s like when you’re in college, man. You knew you had four years, and as they were ticking by, they all became more meaningful. You process that, and you’ve heard me say this 100 times too, it’s difficult. The losing’s hard. Trying to keep it all together is the main thing.”

When the Sixers hired Nurse in 2023, after his 10-year tenure as an assistant and head coach with the Raptors had run its course, outside evaluators widely praised the choice. Less than two years later, multiple Toronto-based people — unprompted — wondered aloud to The Inquirer on Wednesday whether Nurse was in danger of losing his job.

Such is the fodder surrounding severely underachieving teams at this point of the season, given the blame-somebody nature of this results-based business. To be fair, the same could be pondered about president of basketball operations Daryl Morey, who assembled this roster.

Nurse was asked by a Toronto media member before Wednesday’s game about Morey’s comment from the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference that “anger is all that drives Sixers fans.” Nurse countered with an appreciation that “the Philadelphia people are deeply, deeply passionate about sports.”

“I go push my garbage out in the yard,” Nurse added, “and my neighbors are talking to me about all the teams, all the time.”

» READ MORE: Former Sixer Georges Niang not bitter after being traded from East’s top team: ‘Honestly, it’s been awesome’

Injuries, of course, are a primary culprit of the Sixers’ collective derailment this season. Former MVP Joel Embiid, the epicenter of the team’s entire operation, was limited to 19 games because of an ongoing knee issue that formally shut him down on Feb. 28. Yet Nurse said he always felt as if six additional players were sidelined, creating a deeper challenge to generate any semblance of continuity and identity.

Tyrese Maxey, Paul George, and Guerschon Yabusele were all out Wednesday in the 118-105 defeat. For Monday’s loss to the Hawks, the Sixers started one undrafted rookie (Justin Edwards), two trade-deadline acquisitions (Quentin Grimes and Jared Butler), and two players who were on European rosters within the past year (Yabusele and Lonnie Walker IV).

To illustrate the seemingly constant deflation — even during positive stretches such as a 10-3 December and four-game winning streak in late January — Nurse recalled one unspecified postgame meeting with the medical team, helmed by vice president of athlete care Simon Rice, that immediately killed the joy of a victory.

“He came in,” Nurse said, “and I said, ‘Please, just let me get to the next game. We just played really good.’ … And he said, ‘Uhhh.’”

While leading the Raptors, Nurse earned a reputation for aggressive defenses, schematic creativity even with sometimes-funky personnel options, and player development. Though individual success stories exist during this Sixers season — from the continued ascension of Maxey to the revitalization of Yabusele’s NBA career to the undrafted-to-starter arc of Edwards to the instant impact of Grimes (who scored 29 points Wednesday) — Nurse never established a puzzle that could be assembled and sustained even with ever-changing pieces.

“That gets difficult, when you’re juggling that many things,” Nurse said, “and it just never was great flow, or it was too many games of not feeling super organized with what we were doing.”

These days, Nurse said he is attempting to “overemphasize” positivity and kindness with players and staff. That occurs while watching those in-game mistakes that, under different circumstances, would have caused an outburst rather than a deep inhale. Or during more subtle, behind-the-scenes moments, such as when Nurse happened to pass Butler in the hallway on his way back from the coach’s pregame news conference.

» READ MORE: Five years after the NBA — and the world — stopped, Sixers reflect on COVID shutdown: ‘It was a crazy time’

“You good, man?” Nurse said in Atlanta, slapping Butler’s hand.

“Always good,” Butler replied.

Nurse also recently began giving more responsibility to younger coaches, allowing them to spearhead scouting reports and present game plans — first to Nurse in the morning, then to the team before tipoff.

Nurse, though, said he has not wavered in his personal preparation system that has remained intact throughout his career. If he does not watch enough games on his opponent, for instance, Nurse does not feel ready to see that team on the court. That “super-consistent” approach is an element Grimes said he has appreciated in his quick acclimation to his new team.

“I just continue that same rhythm,” Nurse said, “and just believe in that methodology and stay with it.”

Because these final 17 regular-season games are meaningful to players such as Grimes, who will be a restricted free agent this summer and looking for a lucrative contract offer sheet that the Sixers can match. Or rookies such as Edwards and Adem Bona, who are primed to develop in heavy rotation minutes. Or those aiming to prove (or reprove) that they are NBA players such as Butler, Walker, or Jeff Dowtin Jr., a former Raptor who on Wednesday scored a career-high 20 points.

“In coaching, my first and foremost job is to make everybody individually successful,” Nurse said. “… It’s really important to these guys, where they are in their career. So we want to prepare and help them do really well.”

That stretch-run quest stopped at Nurse’s former home arena Wednesday, where a warm pregame reception prompted a wave to the crowd. When asked following the game if returning to Toronto now feels more normal, he agreed.

“I’m a competitive guy, though,” Nurse said. “I’d like our team to play a little bit better, and you kind of always want to get people you know a little bit.”

Perhaps, with the help of one or two breaths.