Nick Nurse talks NBA trends, Sixers playing fast with smaller guards
· Yahoo Sports
CAMDEN, N.J. -- As the Philadelphia 76ers prepare now for the rest of the offseason after the selection of Labaron Philon Jr. in the draft, the focus appears to be playing fast and pushing the pace with the guards leading the way. Philon joins Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe in an effort to get in transition and take advantage of the talent on the roster at the moment.
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It remains to be seen if the Sixers will commit to a lot of 3-guard lineups, but it's also obvious that those 3-guard lineups will be out there at some point. Lineups with the 6-foot-2 Maxey, 6-foot-2, Philon, and 6-foot-4 Edgecombe will present defensive and rebounding challenges for Philadelphia.
For coach Nick Nurse, the smaller lineups may not be what the league is trending towards when considering the size of wing players and such, but the New York Knicks did just win a title with 6-foot-2 Jalen Brunson leading the way. The Sixers can do the same with Maxey and Co.
"I'm excited about the talent, for sure," Nurse stated. "I do think there's some trends, but speed is one of them, right? The league is trending to super fast, and I'm going to take that as a positive."
The Sixers are certainly going to have to play super fast because there will be some issues for Philadelphia in a number of key areas. Especially, on the defensive end and on the glass. While Maxey, Edgecombe, and Philon (in college) have shown the ability to attack the glass and make a difference there, they don't have the size and length to be lockdown defenders.
"Will there be some length issues? Yeah," Nurse added. "Will there be some rebounding issues, things like that. But you know, we're gonna have to figure that out. My concerns a lot of times start with a couple basic things. Can we get our asses back and guard them? Can we keep up? And can we keep them off the glass?"
Before Nurse even figures out a scheme to slow down other teams, he has to make sure the Sixers understand what has to be done to success defensively when they do go small. As he mentioned, they will have to get back and stop the ball in transition, find ways to slow down dribble penetration, and then gang rebound. That was an issue in the 2025-26 season at times.
"We need to be able to do both of those things just to get started before a pass is thrown or a scheme is put in place, or traps are made, or rotations are made," Nurse finished. "Like, we got to get back at the start of a possession, and we got to be able to keep people off the boards at an end of a possession. All the stuff in between doesn't really matter much if you can't do those two things. So, the speed excites me a lot, and we're just going to have to figure out the other stuff."
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Nick Nurse talks NBA trends, Sixers playing fast with smaller guards