How hot are seats of Sixers' Nick Nurse, Daryl Morey amid tough season?
How hot are seats of Sixers' Nick Nurse, Daryl Morey amid tough season?
The Philadelphia 76ers struggled through a miserable 24-58 season in 2024-25. This was not supposed to happen after all of the moves they made in the 2024 offseason as they loaded up the roster to contend for a championship.
The Sixers snagged 9-time All-Star Paul George in free agency on a 4-year $212 million deal, they extended Joel Embiid for another three years, kept Tyrese Maxey in tow long term, and filled the roster with proven veteran role players. Unfortunately, Embiid played only 19 games, George played 41, and the star trio only played 18 games together--finishing 15 of those games.
Due to the bad luck, coach Nick Nurse and President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey still have their jobs. It is very hard to justify moving on from either after a perfect storm of everything that could go wrong did. One can't control injuries and the Sixers understand that which is why both men still have their jobs.
With that being said, one has to wonder how hot the seats are heading into 2025-26. ESPN's Brian Windhorst hopped on "The Stephen A. Smith Show" and stated:
I think they (team governors Josh Harris and David Blitzer) are giving him the grace that this was a terrible year in terms of injury and misfortune.
What I would say to both Daryl and Nick is, you have no margin for error now. 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.
The Sixers are very confident that if they get all three players back healthy in 2025-26, then they are serious contenders in the East. It makes a lot of sense to think that way as those three stars are three of the best in the league with Embiid being a top 3 player when he's healthy while Maxey is only getting better.
The issue is that George will turn 35 on May 2 while Embiid will be battling from yet another knee surgery. While Embiid is superhuman--he has battled through a ton of injuries in his career--one has to wonder how long he can really keep playing at such an elite level after what is his second knee surgery in 14 months.
Nurse and Morey don't deserve to be fired after what transpired in 2024-25. They will get another chance with this group, but like Windhorst said, their seats will certainly be hot heading into the new season.
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