Tobias Harris, Sixers describe what a Nick Nurse practice entails

CAMDEN, N.J.–The Philadelphia 76ers got back at it at practice on Thursday to continue to grow as a group under new coach Nick Nurse and continue to build for the future.

The Sixers are coming off an impressive win over the Minnesota Timberwolves and they now will play host to the Toronto Raptors on Friday before heading out on the road for a 4-game road trip to close out the 2023 calendar year.

Coach Nick Nurse has been having the Sixers continue to practice to continue to learn his vast playbook and his schemes. Therefore, a Nurse practice is much more detailed than practices in the past.

“Every day we get in this gym and really get to work on different things that we can get better at,” said Tobias Harris. “With a day like today, we ran a bunch of games in a duration of time. We’re not going live against each other, but we’re going out there, we’re running through our offensive sets, we’re game planning for tomorrow, and how we’re gonna play a couple of schemes defensively there, and there’s music. It’s a good atmosphere, you know?”

Nurse’s practices have been all about work. He has to get Harris on the same page with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. He has to make sure guys like Kelly Oubre Jr. and others are not forgotten. He also needs to make sure everybody understands where they need to be in terms of his defensive scheme.

“We’re probably into 60% of our defensive stuff in now,” said Nurse. “We’re getting there. Looking back historically, when did I think we were ready in Toronto? My first year there was probably not till late February, March when I thought we got to who we were. Kew who we were and what we were gonna be moving forward. What we were able to accomplish and stuff like that.”

Due to the point Nurse just made, the Sixers need all the practice time they can get in order to be on the same page and know his schemes like the back of their hands. This is what the early part of the season is for.

“Very detailed,” Oubre Jr. said of a Nurse practice. “We don’t come in here to waste time. We don’t come in here and just laugh and play the whole practice, but he still incorporates some of that stuff in practice, right? We can still have fun, but we know we’re here for a reason and we get in, get our work in, and be efficient, and get out. It’s very dope to see and as a player who’s instructed to come to practice every day, I’m happy to practice because we’re not gonna waste our time.”

Nurse is continuing to build in different schemes in the middle of games. In the win over the Timberwolves, the Sixers ran plenty of different coverages that they never had before.

“I think that I don’t really have a timeline on it,” Nurse said of a possible finished Sixers product. “I think it’s probably a you never quite get to the end, right? I think you’re kinda always adding and subtracting, but we played like seven different defensive schemes last night in that game. We hadn’t played all of those before, but again, we’re trying to build up some of that stuff. The same applies to offense.”

Story originally appeared on Sixers Wire