If you want to look on the bright side, the terrible season that was the 2024-25 campaign for the Philadelphia 76ers is now over. A sigh of relief is acceptable if you’re 76ers head coach Nick Nurse or Daryl Morey. Philly’s president of basketball operations sat beside his coach following the 76ers final game of the regular season to discuss what went wrong and what they’re going to do to fix things. Morey took accountability for the Sixers’ season, speaking to the fans of Philadelphia in a spirit of empathy. Now that this injury-plagued season is finally over, Morey will look to the offseason and next year, as both he and Nurse will return to their roles for the 2025-26 season.
76ers Leadership to ‘Assess Everything’ for Next Season
Philadelphia 76ers’ Nick Nurse and Daryl Morey will return next season
This season can hardly be placed on Nurse’s shoulders in its entirety. What head coach would find success when Joel Embiid is in and out of the lineup—more so out than in—and his other veteran star, Paul George, is also missing time battling injuries? On top of that, Tyrese Maxey dealt with his bumps and bruises, as did rookie Jared McCain. McCain was on track to win Rookie of the Year but tragically tore his meniscus in November and subsequently missed the rest of the season. Nurse had to deal with injuries on his roster from day one all the way up until Sunday when the Sixers lost their final game to the play-in-bound Chicago Bulls.
Following the loss, Nurse and Morey met with reporters to discuss the season, what went wrong, the upcoming draft, and what to expect next season, among other topics. According to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, Morey remains optimistic regarding the future health of players like Embiid, who recently had surgery on his knee. As Bontemps reports, Morey will assess everything for next season to avoid a repeat disaster.
“Obviously a tough season … not where we expected to be,” Morey said alongside Nurse. “We expect more. We really feel for the fans who put their heart and soul into this team, and we know we’ve let you down. Ownership gave us the resources to make aggressive moves this offseason to put a championship roster around Joel [Embiid] and Tyrese [Maxey] and sometimes, those aggressive moves don’t initially work out, but we feel good about [them].”
Focus remains centered on Joel Embiid
With Embiid’s knee issues being a focus of the Sixers’ attention this offseason, Morey believes that building around Embiid remains the franchise’s trajectory. Despite Embiid and George’s injury histories, Morey is optimistic that health will prevail.
“In my opinion, when you have an MVP-level talent, you need to make aggressive moves to upgrade around that talent in that window. That’s what we did last offseason, and we feel good about it going forward. I think it’s such a unique thing to have a player of that caliber.
Trusting in Embiid’s health might be one of the riskiest plans in all of the NBA entering the 2025-26 season. However, Morey seems intent on making it work, and after admitting this season was the toughest of his career, he’s also intent on figuring it out.
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