Nick Nurse Excited For Lineup Options With Sixers

The Sixers have completely remade their team this season around the core trio of Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, and VJ Edgecombe.

Not only did they fill out their starting lineup with LeBron James and Jaylen Brown, but they also added considerable bench depth with deals for Dean Wade, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Anfernee Simons, and Ariel Hukporti. They even added productive two-way player Caleb Love on a two-way deal for further backcourt insurance.

Following the flurry of moves, first-year president Mike Gansey said that head coach Nick Nurse is “a kid in a candy store” when it comes to thinking about potential lineups that he can experiment with in the upcoming season, Gina Mizell writes for The Philly Inquirer.

“The vibes are high,” Gansey said. “Everyone’s excited. Once we get together, I’m excited to see what the journey’s going to look like.”

For a team that struggled at times to find productive depth last season, they now have tremendous optionality in the kinds of units they’re able to throw out there, Adam Aaronson writes for The Philly Voice.

“I think it’s exciting, just knowing that we have the versatility to play a bunch of different lineups and have guys that can play a bunch of different spots,” reserve big man Dominick Barlow said last week. “We might go really big depending on who we’re playing, or we might go really small. So I think just having variety is definitely a positive thing.”

Barlow could easily fit into a Maxey and Embiid-led lineup featuring Wade and Edgecombe, Aaronson says, laying out five potential lineups that could bring different attributes to the table. That group would have size and defensive versatility around the offensive firepower of the two stars.

A James, Maxey, Simons, Wade, Adem Bona unit would maximize the shooting around James’ playmaking while giving him and Maxey a lob threat to keep the defense honest at the rim. The team could go small-ish with a lineup of Maxey, Brown, Wade, James, and Barlow, and could also try out lineups that are designed to get Brown and/or Edgecombe more involved, letting them play with more off-ball targets in order to expand their own workload.

The team will have to be creative, as all of Maxey, James, Embiid, and Brown are used to having the ball in their hands, but all can also be effective off-ball players, so as long as there is buy-in throughout the group, they should be able to find combinations that bring out the best in everyone.