Is 76ers Coach Nick Nurse on Hot Seat After Missing Playoffs?

With several head coaches of far more successful NBA squads having been let go this season, will the Philadelphia 76ers opt to move on from head coach Nick Nurse, who mishandled an oft-hurt roster many expected to contend for a deep playoff run in the Eastern Conference?

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Across his last two seasons at the helm, Nurse has led Philadelphia to a cumulative 70-91 record and one playoff appearance.

Last summer, 76ers management opted to re-sign All-Stars Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey to lucrative new contracts, let power forward Tobias Harris walk as a free agent while signing nine-time All-Star small forward Paul George, undersized combo forward Caleb Martin, power forward Guerschon Yabusele, guard Eric Gordon, backup center Andre Drummond,

Philadelphia also re-signed free agents Kelly Oubre Jr., Kyle Lowry and KJ Martin.

Instead of competing for its first championship since 1983, Philadelphia cratered almost instantly. George enjoyed his worst complete season (i.e. not counting an eight-game 2014-15 cameo) since 2011-12. Embiid played just 19 games while grappling with knee inflammation. Maxey regressed. Martin was traded midway through the season.

Chatter of troubling chemistry issues persisted throughout the year. After a miserable 2-11 season start, Philadelphia held a team meeting, where Embiid was accused of frequently being late to — or just absent from — team practices.

This certainly doesn’t seem like the ideal way to handle the best player on a club that thinks it can win it all.

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On March 29, Memphis Grizzlies team president Zach Kleiman fired head coach Taylor Jenkins after close to six years and two 50-plus win seasons, in the midst of a losing skid. Memphis has gone 2-3 under new head coach Tuomas Iisalo, as it grapples with the same injury issues that plagued Jenkins during much of the season’s second half.

That decision, ditching the head coach of a top West franchise in the thick of a playoff hunt while All-Star point guard Ja Morant was out hurt, was derided mightily at the time.

Pundits and fans alike chastised Memphis for essentially killing its own chemistry ahead of the postseason, with just a few weeks remaining.

Sporting a 46-32 record on the year so far, the Grizzlies are currently in a four-way tie with the L.A. Clippers, Golden State Warriors, and Minnesota Timberwolves. By benefit of losing its various tiebreakers, Memphis is currently the eighth seed in the Western Conference.

But that paled in comparison to Tuesday’s shocking announcement that the Denver Nuggets had canned 10-year head coach Michael Malone, less than two years after he had guided the franchise to its first-ever title.

Malone was let go despite being the winningest head coach in Nuggets history, with an impressive 471-327 regular season record and a 44-36 postseason record, including nine playoff series victories, two Western Conference Finals berths, and the aforementioned 2023 title.

Denver had dropped its last four games, all without the benefit of arguably the club’s second-best player, point guard Jamal Murray. The Nuggets are currently 47-32 on the season, good for the No. 4 seed in the West — but they’re just 0.5 games ahead of this foursome of Memphis, L.A. Golden State, and Minnesota, with three games remaining. Lead assistant David Adelman will replace Malone for those final contests.

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Both those coaches enjoyed far more accomplished 2024-25 season stints with their respective squads than Nurse has in Philadelphia. The dismissal of Malone is particularly startling.

Granted, Nurse guided the Toronto Raptors to the title in 2019 (during his first year as the club’s head coach), but he has won just one playoff series and missed the postseason entirely three times across the subsequent five seasons.

Cumulatively, he boasts a 297-254 coaching record across his seven seasons in the role, between his Toronto and Philadelphia tenures. The 76ers are looking especially rudderless right now, although they have shut down all their key pieces in a bid to retain a top six-protected first-round pick in this summer’s 2025 NBA Draft. If the selection falls outside of the top six in this year’s draft lottery, it will convey to the mighty Oklahoma City Thunder, who at 64-14 this season are looking like the team to beat in the Western Conference.

Should Philadelphia be able to draft a top pick and see its three All-Stars rebound next season, maybe Nurse will get a chance to redeem himself, after all.

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