It was an hour after Monday night’s game ended before Nick Nurse came out of the 76ers locker room to discuss perhaps the 76ers’ ugliest losses of a young season with many of them — Philly blew a 19-point first-half lead and lost to Miami . 106-89. This drops the 76ers to 2-11 on the season, tied with the tanking Washington Wizards for dead last in the entire NBA.
When Nurse spoke to the media, the conversation wasn’t about the most recent ugly game, it was more about the team meeting that took place. Nurse downplayed it, calling it a “little meeting” driven by players and coaches. Joel Embiid also downplayed it by 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 ESPN’s Shams Charania 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 for being late “for everything” and how it affects the locker room, from other players to the coaching staff, sources briefed on the meeting said. ESPN…
Players told 76ers coach Nick Nurse they wanted to be coached harder, and coaches in turn said they wanted players to practice with purpose and attention to detail.
Embiid accepted the messages sent in the meeting, sources said, but he stated that he is confused about what the 76ers are trying to implement at times on the court.
Embiid as a team leader can be a challenge as everyone tries to balance injury concerns with pushing him physically during the regular season. That said, physical concerns are one thing, but showing up late to team meetings and events is another, it sets a bad tone. Embiid and Maxey are tight, so this probably won’t lead to any real friction between the two stars, and that made Maxey the person who could say it.
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 implement 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 definitely part of the issue. Still, watch the 76ers play (especially in person) and one can’t help but wonder, “Do they have enough around their three stars to win?” Jared McCain had moments but Kelly Oubre Jr., Caleb Martin, Kyle Lowry, Eric Gordon and others didn’t live up to what the team expected from their role players. The descent from the stars to the role players was extremely steep, and the stars can’t even get everyone together on the court.
At 2-11, is Philadelphia’s hole too big? Maybe not by 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 playoffs altogether – but the path through that postseason will be. be much more difficult now.
Philadelphia did not look close to a team for that challenge. A team meeting won’t change that, but it’s a start, as Nurse said postgame (via Pompey at The Inquirer).
“We won’t be able to find out until we play another game, right?” he said. “We can only ever find out [when] we can practice and see what the level of focus and energy is, and then when we come to our next game.”
