Firing Daryl Morey or Nick Nurse Won't Solve Sixers' Biggest Problem

The Sixers' first-round playoff victory over the Boston Celtics was a euphoric celebration 40-plus years in the making.

The Sixers' second-round playoff sweep at the hands of the New York Knicks dragged them right back to reality.

With both Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey operating at nowhere near 100%, the Sixers couldn't hang tough with the Knicks for all 48 minutes. They had their chances to win both Games 2 and 3, but their starters came up short late, and their bench came up short for the entire series.

The Sixers have now been eliminated by Knicks in two of the past three postseasons. Their win over the Celtics was their first playoff series victory since 2022-23. They still have yet to be past the Eastern Conference Semifinals with Joel Embiid on their roster.

That could force a tough reevaluation of the organization from top to bottom this offseason.

According to Tony Jones of The Athletic, the Sixers are expected to evaluate the futures of head coach Nick Nurse and team president Daryl Morey. "As of Sunday’s elimination, team sources said ownership has not made final decisions on either and is likely to take a few days to assess before making any major calls," Jones added.

While Nurse and Morey aren't blameless for how the Knicks series unfolded, they aren't the only ones who deserve scrutiny. When the same issues continue to afflict an organization throughout multiple coaches, front office executives and roster overhauls, that suggests it starts at the top.

Are Sixers' tensions flaring?

For the past two seasons, the Sixers' main mission at the trade deadline was to get out of luxury-tax territory.

In 2024-25, they spent two second-round picks to offload KJ Martin's contract even though his salary for the following season was fully non-guaranteed. Keep in mind, two or three second-round picks has become the typical asking price to acquire a veteran non-star on an expiring contract. It was and remains an inexcusable tax dump.

This past season, they at least acquired something of value in their annual tax dump. Granted, that tax dump was Jared McCain, who's been lighting it up for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Semifinals against LeBron James, Austin Reaves and the Los Angeles Lakers.

According to Jones, Embiid and "others in the locker room" were not thrilled with the McCain trade, "particularly without bringing in a player to replace McCain." Jones noted that "Embiid noticeably had to hold himself back from verbally criticizing the front office" shortly after the trade deadline.

In his end-of-season press conference, he might have taken a subtle shot at the Sixers' ownership group.

"Gotta get better from top to bottom," he said. "Ownership, front office, players, coaches, everybody's just gotta get better."

How many players publicly question their team's ownership group like that? Particularly after said group just gave you a three-year contract that's projected to be worth more than $185 million? A contract so toxic that NBA insiders believe the Sixers have little choice but to hang onto Embiid and hope for better health next season?

In Embiid's exit interview after Game 4, he said that he came into this season thinking he was effectively done. Coming out of the season, he feels confident that he and the Sixers have figured out how to manage his oft-injured knee.

He's now striving to be more available next year, as he believes that would result in a higher seed in the playoffs. The Sixers wouldn't have to battle for their playoff lives in the play-in tournament.

The Sixers can only hope that he makes good on that. They otherwise don't have many options to pivot that would make sense for them.

What is the Sixers' real goal?

Before the Sixers embark upon their annual roster overhaul this offseason, they first need to decide what their realistic most likely scenario is.

Even if the Sixers had beaten the Knicks and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals, how would they match up with the Detroit Pistons or Cleveland Cavaliers? Would they even stand a prayer of a shot against the Oklahoma City Thunder or San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals?

If the Sixers are honest with themselves, their only chance of contending for a championship with this core is getting a highly unlikely run of good health during the playoffs, along with a bolstered bench. At best, they might have a 1% chance of that happening. But is that 1% still higher than what other team-building models would produce?

Every team says it's chasing a championship, but not every team puts its money where its mouth is. The Sixers clearly fall into that camp. The owners might secretly be happy with 45-win seasons and one playoff series victory, no matter how many opposing fans take over their own arena while completing a clean sweep in the conference semifinals.

The only certainty is that the Sixers won't be embarking on another Process-style rebuild anytime soon. Regardless of what happens with Embiid and/or George moving forward, Maxey and VJ Edgecombe are good enough to prevent the Sixers from falling to the bottom of the league. Besides, the league's soon-to-be-enacted anti-tanking lottery reform will significantly reduce teams' incentive to tank.

Beyond that, the Sixers need to make a decision: Do they believe the Embiid-Maxey-George-Edgecombe core can win a championship together? Or do they think Embiid and George's age and injury histories suggest their window is closed? That should inform the rest of their offseason.

If the Sixers are all-in on winning next year, they might consider trading the No. 22 overall pick in this year's draft (their main return in the McCain trade) or some of the second-rounders that they acquired. If they're already looking ahead to the Maxey-Edgecombe era, they should stay in the first round of this year's draft and ideally find a way to get more picks.

Either way, they just need to pick a direction and stick with it. And if they keep making the team weaker so they can duck the luxury tax every year, they can't act surprised when the teams that use the trade deadline to pursue upgrades have a clear advantage over them.

Even if the Sixers fire Morey, his replacement isn't likely to have markedly more success until the owners change their approach. No one can successfully run a team with three players on max contracts if the owners don't let them occasionally exceed the tax.

Nurse plays his starters too many minutes, which is a problem that dates back to his Toronto days. Then again, when you look at the Sixers' starters compared to the bench, can you blame him? They aren't exactly loaded with Thunder-esque depth.

Morey and Nurse haven't been perfect throughout their respective Sixers tenures, although the constraints they're working under haven't helped, either. Until George and Embiid move closer to the expiration of their contracts, the Sixers might be stuck with both of them. Do they really want to force them to learn an entirely new system this offseason?

If the Sixers truly believe they can find an upgrade at either job, it's worth a shot. But the ownership group needs to get on the same page about what they're realistically trying to accomplish next season first.

Sign up for our free newsletter and follow us on X and Bluesky for the latest news.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.

Follow Bryan on Bluesky.

Add us as a preferred source on Google