When an NBA team enters a season with high expectations and fails to come close to the goal of contending for a spot in the championship, somebody typically takes the fall. The Philadelphia 76ers found themselves missing the playoffs during a season where they thought they could contend for a title. The head coach, Nick Nurse, will be back, along with President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey.
Like many across the NBA, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst was quite shocked to see no major changes coming out of Philadelphia at the end of the 2024-2025 season.
“I was mildly surprised,” Windhorst said on ‘The Stephen A. Smith Show.’
But after doing some digging into the situation, Windhorst realized that the team’s two major moves, which created plenty of criticism throughout the year, were ultimately backed by the team’s Managing Partners, Josh Harris and David Blitzer.
“They were on board with it,” Windhorst said of the Joel Embiid extension and the Paul George signing in free agency. “I think they are giving him the grace that this was a terrible year in terms of injury and misfortune.”
Morey struck the deals, taking gambles on the future of Embiid and George, two players with a combined 16 All-Star nods, but plenty of injury history to worry about. In year one of the new star pairing, injuries piled up for both of them. George played in just 41 games while Embiid failed to suit up for at least 20 matchups. With Embiid and George both over 30, Morey’s massive gamble is off to a rough start.
As for Nurse, he’s in a role that’s been losing job security league-wide at a rapid pace. Head coaches tend to take the fall faster than anybody, but the Sixers have to be understanding of the situation he was placed in. Not only did the Sixers barely get a chance to utilize the heavily featured stars, but the Sixers were rolling with different lineups so frequently due to injuries across the roster. You’d have a hard time finding any coach who could succeed in Nurse’s situation from this past season.
While the Sixers are going to keep the front office and coaching leaders the same, they could enter the 2025-2026 on the hot seat.
“What I would say to both Daryl and Nick is, you have no margin for error now,” Windhorst finished. “If next year isn’t an excellent year—I would say that the hottest seats in the NBA right now are probably Daryl Morey and Nick Nurse.”
