PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers are experimenting with new things in the preseason as coach Nick Nurse looks to utilize the strengths of his roster. This roster is laced with speed and quickness, led by Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Jared McCain, and Quentin Grimes. It makes sense why Nurse and the Sixers want to play fast and whip the ball around.
With that being said, the Sixers will go as far as Joel Embiid takes them. He is still Philadelphia’s best player and if he can get himself anywhere near his normal dominant self, then the Sixers will have an excellent chance to win in the upcoming season.
However, Embiid is methodical. While the big fella is not slow, he is more of a face-up type of scorer. He catches it in the post, turns around, surveys the defense, and goes from there. Nurse will certainly have to strike a balance between playing that fast, up tempo style while making sure Embiid gets his touches.
“There’s probably a little bit more movement and cutting and all that kind of stuff, but he has, again, it’s a bit of a departure away from the way he plays,” Nurse said on Friday. “So, there’s been some kind of ups and there’s been some kind of back to that which is pretty good! That’s the hard part about it. It’s like you come down, you don’t run anything and you run a Joel-Tyrese screen-and-roll. There’s a lot of great stuff that happens out of that. I just think we’re trying to get a little more variety.”
This new offensive scheme the Sixers plan to implement will take time as there will be some clunky moments with everybody looking to learn their new roles. While the pick-and-roll between Embiid and Maxey has historically been successful–and how can it not?–Nurse wants Philadelphia to keep the ball moving which then allows players to move without the ball for easy looks.
That is a big adjustment for Embiid, but Nurse is confident he will figure this out.
“A little more ball movement, a little less of maybe zero or one pass offense, and then worry about the spacing because I know there’s gonna be enough of that probably in there,” Nurse continued. “I would say he’s doing really well with it right now. Again, there’s some ups and downs as there is even for Tyrese. It’s like he just wants to go right into that (the pick-and-roll) and I’m kinda saying, you know, hit, cut through, let it come back to you, and now you’re on the other side, the defense has moved, we’re slot cutting somebody, we’re moving taggers, and things like that, that are harder to defend. So, I think it’ll take a little time.”
Along with Embiid, the Sixers have to make sure guys like Paul George, Kelly Oubre Jr., and Quentin Grimes get their looks as well. Therefore, all of this will take some time.
“I think that one of the reasons we did it—I’ve explained a lot of them—I think just to get some passing,” Nurse added. “I do think there’s some variety where we can run stuff for Q or we can run something for Jared or we can run something for Tyrese or we run something for Kelly. There’s lots of kind of, I guess, options. Almost infinite options if you’re playing that way.”
This offense cannot be just dump the ball in the post to Embiid while guys stand in the corner. Guys have to move the ball, move without the ball, find the opportunity for slot cuts, and play smart basketball. This gets everybody involved, everybody feels like they are an option offense, and there are versatile choices within the scheme.
“So, that’s part of it, and I think, again, just getting these guys used to passing and touching the ball and not making guys run down to the corner and stand there for long periods of the game and I think the ball always energizes people, right?” Nurse finished. “And I think that gets us to play better defense, rebound better, and all that kind of stuff so that’s all part of it.”
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: 76ers talk balancing new offensive scheme with Joel Embiid’s strengths
