Nick Nurse's Advice To Paul Reed For Filling In For Joel Embiid

As of late, the Philadelphia 76ers have been without their reigning MVP Joel Embiid, who has been sidelined due to multiple injuries, which most recently includes swelling in his knee that has kept him out of the Sixers' previous three games.

As a result of Embiid's absence, Nick Nurse has had to turn to his bench to fill the Cameroonian's shoes, with Paul Reed being one of his main options.

Looking at it on paper, Reed has a lot of ground to make up when filling in for the 28-year-old superstar, especially when it comes to scoring.

So far this season, Embiid is averaging a league-high 34 points per game, while Reed is only putting up a fraction of that at six points per game.

Following Philadelphia's win over the Sacramento Kings on Friday night, Nurse acknowledged the difficulty of the hill that Reed has to climb in replacing Embiid.

"Yeah, well, that's part of the conundrum here, a little bit," opened Nurse, "He can't replace that, right?"

This isn't to say that Nurse doesn't believe in the 24-year-old, as he has taken the time to sit down with him recently, trying to help him find his identity on the court.

"What I talked to him about in the last couple of days was really playing to his strengths, and what his strengths are," said Nurse, "he's a hustle guy, he plays really hard, he gets extra possessions, he'll get some dump offs at the rim, you know that he needs to finish all those kind of things."

This hustle has been on full display over the past few games, with Reed securing a minimum of six rebounds in each of the games that he's started since Embiid has been sidelined.

While the former DePaul big man has managed to score above his season average, there is something to be said for his work on the defensive end, aside from his rebounding.

Against the Kings, the 24-year-old managed to become a pivotal part of the Sixers' defensive structure, successfully registering three blocks, which was only an improvement to his two-block performance against the Hawks in his previous match.

When breaking down Reed's performance against Sacramento on Friday night, Nurse praised his performance, explaining that he played to the strengths that they had previously talked about.

"I thought, he just kind of tried to do what he could do very well and he did," explained Nurse, "rather than go on so far out, thinking he's got to be a scorer, make all these moves, and take all these shots and all this stuff like -- you know, let stuff come to you a little bit more, and yet continue to play as hard as you can because that's your skill, you play really hard..."

With Embiid's return to the court not yet known, Reed could continue to soak in the experience over the coming matches.