How Nick Nurse Decides to Stagger His Lineups

There is no great remedy here, but the least damaging is to stagger the Sixers' two established stars.

Jan 22, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (21) and guard Tyrese Maxey (0) celebrate after an overtime win against the Houston Rockets at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

They say old habits die hard. For the Sixers, an old habit is a welcomed one because it means one of their best players is rounding into his best impact.

The Sixers are +98 with Joel Embiid on the court this season, according to NBA.com. They are -46 with him off the court.

Philadelphia is +104 with Tyrese Maxey on the court and -52 with him sitting.

The Sixers are a strong +7.5 per 100 possessions in 1,288 possessions with Embiid and Maxey sharing the floor, per Cleaning The Glass. They are losing by five points per 100 possessions in the 668 possessions with Embiid and Maxey resting at the same time.

That number is considerably negative when Embiid is on the court without Maxey. The Sixers are exactly at water level when Maxey plays without Embiid.

There is no great remedy here, but the least damaging is to stagger the Sixers' two established stars.

In an ideal world, Nick Nurse would like to split them up to keep the team's enginge going. But there is no ideal world.

"I think you go into these games kind of with an idea of what you want the rotations to look like. And they never turn out that way. Like ever. So there's always game situations, matchup, foul trouble, whatever," Nurse told reporters ahead of Saturday's loss to the New York Knicks.

The flow of the game dictates what happens. Embiid and Maxey aren't the only combination Nurse would like to split up some.

"Some of the other combos we've talked about before, too. We've gone to some VJ [Edgecombe], Paul [George] lineups where they kind of get into some sets with those two guys. That was three weeks ago, and it hasn't surfaced much since," Nurse said.

"So there's still lots of different things. I think it really depends on who you're playing and how the game's going a lot."

Nurse doesn't have to say it, but one of the clear storylines putting a wrench in the Sixers' plans is the underwhelming guard rotation.

Maxey and VJ Edgecombe have been outstanding in their own rights. Jared McCain rightfully fell out of the rotation and Quentin Grimes is playing so poorly that McCain returning to the rotation should be on Nurse's table.

The Sixers, at 24-20 and boasting a point differential of just 1.1, should be open to trying anything. It just might widen their margin for error.