It was an hour after Monday night’s game ended before Nick Nurse walked out of the 76ers locker room to discuss maybe the ugliest 76ers losses of a young season with a lot of them — Philly blew a 19-point first-half lead and lost to Miami 106-89. That drops the 76ers to 2-11 on the season, tied with the tanking Washington Wizards for dead last in the entire NBA.
By the time Nurse spoke to the media, the conversation was not about the most recent ugly game, it was more about the team meeting that happened. Nurse played it down, calling it “a little meeting” driven by players and coaches. Joel Embiid also played it down saying, “Oh, we had a meeting?” (Via Keith Pomey of the Philadelphia Inquirer).
Details of the meeting were bound to leak out, and by Tuesday afternoon Shams Charania of ESPN had them — including Tyrese Maxey challenging Embiid.
In the meeting, Maxey challenged Embiid to be on time to team activities, calling out the former league MVP about being late “for everything” and how it impacts the locker room, from other players to the coaching staff, sources briefed on the meeting told ESPN...
Players told 76ers coach Nick Nurse that they want to be coached harder, and coaches in turn said they want players to practice with purpose and attention to detail.
Embiid accepted the messages sent in the meeting, sources said, but he stated he is confused about what the 76ers are attempting to execute sometimes on the court.
Embiid as a team leader can be a challenge because everyone is trying to balance injury concerns with pushing him physically during the regular season. That said, in an NBA where you hear coaches say of LeBron James or Stephen Curry and other elite team leaders that they are the first in the gym, that “When your best player is your hardest worker it sets the culture,” that is not what people in the league say about Embiid privately. Physical concerns are one thing but showing up late to team meetings and events is another, it sets a poor tone. Embiid and Maxey are tight, so this is unlikely to lead to any real friction between the two stars, and that made Maxey the person who could say it and have it resonate.
Team meetings are overrated by fans in terms of impact, but in this case, the 76ers needed one. Philadelphia has the worst offense in the NBA this season, and Embiid’s confusion about what the team is trying to execute sounds like a symptom of that.
Embiid, Maxey and Paul George have yet to play one game together this season (Maxey is currently sidelined with a strained hamstring) and for a top-heavy team that is undoubtedly part of the issue. However, watch the 76ers play (especially in person) and one can’t help but ask, “Do they have enough around their three stars to win?” Jared McCain has had moments but Kelly Oubre Jr., Caleb Martin, Kyle Lowry, Eric Gordon and others have not lived up to what the team expected from its role players. The drop-off from the stars to the role players has been exceedingly steep, and the stars can’t even get all on the court together.
At 2-11, is Philadelphia’s hole too big? Maybe not from making the postseason — in a shallow Eastern Conference, the 76ers are three games out of the final play-in spot and four out of the No. 6 seed and avoiding the play-in altogether — but the path through that postseason will be much more difficult now.
Philadelphia has not looked close to a team up for that challenge. A team meeting will not change that, but it’s a start, as Nurse said postgame (via Pompey at The Inquirer).
“We can only ever find out until we play another game, right?” he said. “We can only ever find out [when] we get to practice and see what the level of focus and energy is like, and then when we get to our next game.”
