Philadelphia 76ers Media Day | Coach Nurse and Daryl Morey | 09.26.25

Philadelphia 76ers Media Day | Coach Nurse and Daryl Morey | 09.26.25

Good afternoon everybody. Good to see you. Thanks for coming. Uh good to be back getting ready to go. First day of practice tomorrow, so we’re uh excited excited for that. Um you know, uh I just want to talk a little bit about as a coach, you kind of live your summers on what happened last season, right? And uh to be honest, there was a lot of piss piss offidness in my summer this year. And I think you guys all understand why it didn’t didn’t was not what we wanted to have happen, how we wanted it to go, what the expectations were, all that stuff. A very difficult season. And you carry that into the summer. Um, and you know, I always kind of told you guys this before. The first thing that I always know that a solution to a problem is is hard work and getting to work. Um, so the summer was spent with a lot of evaluation, a lot of hard work, obviously draft, summer league workouts, all those kind of things. But um the what we squeezed I think out of the summer from a work perspective and what we squeezed out of the players from getting on the floor and getting ready to go to getting to today. Um be, you know, really really happy with. I think I sense their pissed-offness too, right? And wanting to make sure that that doesn’t happen again. So, that’s where we are um leading into tomorrow. And um again, we look forward to to getting to work in in an official capacity tomorrow and and getting this season started. Yeah, I echo what uh coach coach said. Um you know, all of us are hungry to um show the city what we can do. Again, we know that last season wasn’t uh wasn’t one um that we can be proud of and we want the city to be proud of us again. Um I’m I walk around Center City every day. I see the excitement of the Eagles. I see the Phillies playoffs. Um this off seasonason was about working every day to get ourselves back uh to being in those conversations. Um, and we’re we’re excited about the guys we’ve added. We were excited about uh the key things um uh that we’ve done this summer from a roster perspective to give coach more tools, but um we know that, you know, we’re at the we’re at the point where we’ve got to go out there and show it. uh no one’s really interested about uh anything until we can turn the page and uh put a lot of wins up on the board and show the city that uh we’re the the 76ers everyone knows uh we can be. So questions. Hi. Uh, Darl, at exit interviews last year, you said that you guys needed to hit the ground running this year and that that started with you and setting a better tone and you didn’t set a good enough tone at the start of last year. So, I’m curious now that we’re here like what does that look like? How can you set a better tone for the group? Yeah, I think that’s the whole group and I think I’ll give a lot of credit to the players um and uh the coaching staff. Obviously, the off season is voluntary, but the leadership that uh our players have put in uh over the summer putting in the daily work um has been the best I’ve seen in my career. Um, and it’s really created a togetherness and um, to your point, it hit the ground running and obviously that’s a question for for coach, but uh, because the guys have been here voluntary and putting in the work um, our first day of practice, I don’t think it’s going to feel like a first day of practice. It’s going to feel like a continuation of all the time they put in to here. Uh, Coach Nurse, Daryl, hi guys. Uh it it’s pretty obvious from listening to all the players who’ve spoken that there’s a lot of enthusiasm going into this year. At the same time, uh Joel candidly expressed a very day-to-day approach. Paul’s recovering from his procedure and Jared unfortunately had his injury yesterday after being injured last year. The injuries have really been a big problem for you guys, not just last season, but the season before. So, what are you guys doing this year to avoid all of those injuries? Well, I think frankly some injuries are fluky, right? I mean, Jared’s uh couldn’t have been more more fluky. You’re going to have those and uh you know, we’re still working with doctors to see when he’ll be back. Um I think the you know, one of the reasons why um it was good to for you to hear from all the players, we thought it was best for you to hear from all the players. uh especially our key players. Um we’re in constant consultation with them uh and doctors. Um and they’re going to be they’re working their ass off to get back out there and there are still a few boxes to be checked as you heard from them. Uh but you know it won’t be for lack of trying. they’re going to be out there. And um you know, one of the things to specifically answer your question though is youth generally does help injuries. Obviously Jared’s yesterday, he’s he’s young, but youth generally have fewer injuries and, you know, we’re we’re right there. I think we’re tied for number of players under 25 in the league, you know, with 10 or 11, something like that. So, uh we did want to inject a lot of youth into this roster so we can manage through injuries better as well. If I may quickly follow up, what what are your expectations for when Joel and Paul will be ready to play in in games? Yeah, I think we’re and I think you heard it from them and this is, you know, straight from the doctors. We’re not getting into the expectations game. um you know the doctor’s advice you know how the you know what Joel said on listening to his body uh which is a big component and how that you know how doctors manage injuries uh that’s going to be what carries the day this year. Nick I guess I’ll I’ll follow up on that question just um what did you learn last year just because there’s still so much uncertainty about Joel and Paul and their you know health moving forward. What did you learn last year about how to navigate all of that daytoday and game by game and how will you sort of take that into both tomorrow but then you know moving forward as well? Yeah, I mean the the first thing I think um Gina we’ve talked about this stuff a lot right almost every time there’s there’s another another injury or some the game missed or whatever is is I think I think that Daryl mentions the youth that we have. I think we talked about being a little more athletic, a little faster, a little younger, a little quicker up and down the floor and maintaining uh a style of play whether who’s in or who’s out. Next guy’s got to plug in there, right? And be able to to to, you know, fit in with the system and create the system of, you know, like we want to do. I just think we need to get we need we need to run better, right? I know that sounds kind of basic, but we need to be able to run back better. so we can get our defensive defense set. We need to be able to use that same speed and quickness to push forward better, right? I think I think you’ll see a lot more of a you know, you know, that the defense we play is kind of pressure based and certainly turnoverbased, right? Even even with 40 different players last year, we still end up third or fourth in the league and creating turnovers. like it’s still part of what we want to do, but I think you’ll see a lot more flying around and that shouldn’t change, right? That shouldn’t change as much, right? And I think that’s that’s kind of part one. Part two would be I think I think mentally everybody’s got to understand like this is this is where we are. We know there’s going to be games missed. Like every team has guys players missing games and we and we need to just be able to like forge forward immediately, right? Like like if you want to take the punch in the gut for a second, that’s fine. That’s all you got is a second, you know, and this guy’s out, whatever. But let’s let’s forge forward. Let’s do it together, right? Let’s make sure that that the style of play and the the effort, the prep being prepared to go play the game, all that stuff stays at a really high level. Nick, um I know you talked you talked about, you know, you just want to get guys out there in a certain style of play, but Joel is a extremely intricral part of what you do and and PG is as well. Um, you know, you guys only had 15 games last season with the big three playing. How much does this set you guys back, especially going into training camp, not knowing, you know, when they’re going to come back? Maybe you guys do know when they’re coming back, but you don’t have these guys just like you didn’t have them last year, and you and you started out two and 12 and had a tough time recovering from that. Well, um, it didn’t set us back at all, right? and we’re not going to let us set let it set us back, right? Like we’ve again reiterate how much work we’ve done this summer. I think again we’ve we’ve added some some youth speed, quickness, athleticism that we feel really good about. There’s a lot of guys that we know I think that can be in a rotation on an NBA a good NBA team, right? Um so so we’re just going to get keep working tomorrow. I mean, I know it’s officially get to work tomorrow, but get to work tomorrow and and establish this style of play. Um, make sure that we’re giving tremendous effort each and every day and playing extremely hard each and every night. And and I guess Daryl, for you, how how confident are you that you could get something resolved with Quinton? Um, I think NBA rules don’t let me characterize. I will say I think we will get to a resolution and you know in the next uh few days hopefully. Um but uh we’re excited to bring him back. Quinton’s big part of what we’re trying to do um now and into the future if we can get things resolved. Do I mean it seemed like perhaps at times last year the team wasn’t equipped to play as well without Joe and and Paul even though given Joe’s injury history it seemed like that should be kind of a given he’s going to miss a lot of times. Do do you really feel like like what what kind of team can this can you guys be when you have to face the prospect this year likely of playing without Joel for a stretch and perhaps without Joe and Paul for if that happens for a stretch? Who do you want to answer that can either you want were you either one there? I’ll give like quick and then you can jump in. Um you know we like the pieces we we’ve added but we we are going like last year was a little unique. I mean, I think uh you look at any team where you lose, it’s not just one or two or three, but four or I mean, we I think at times last year, we were without five to seven of our players. We um went into the season thinking we’re going to be our key players last year. Um you know, we’re going to need a little better luck than that, let’s be frank. Um, but we also feel like we’ve buffered things better with youth. Uh, and some new pieces like one of them just walked in here, Watford. We think Watford can can give us a lot this season. So, um, so we feel like we’ve added pieces and, you know, we are going to, we are coming into the year, I know it maybe doesn’t feel that way with a better situation on the health side. Uh, and then you know we we’re better able to sustain it. Daryl stole my answer. Oh, I’m sorry. Hey guys. Hi Daryl. Hey Nick. Um, Daryl, it’s for you just kind of bigger picture. What’s for you the goal? Excuse me. The goal of the team right now, like last there was clearly a championship window that you tried to take advantage of last year. Um, is that still where you’re at? Have you pivot? I I know you love your championship odds. Are you still looking at those? Yeah, look, I think we’ve collectively, and this has been, you know, great messaging from coach to our veteran leaders on down, and we’re talking about just winning the day. Um, 1% better every day is a Tyrese phrase he uses. Um, we we realize like we’re in the prove it phase. like I don’t think it really matters what we’re saying up here on our expectations at this point. We just need to go out there and prove it, be better every day, and show the city and show the fans that, you know, we’re back in the conversation. I just reiterate, we got to we got to earn our way back into this thing, man. Right. We got to we got to we got to work and earn our way back into getting in the tournament. It’s where we are. Uh, Nick, I know you’ll learn a lot more about VJ and what his role might look like after camp and preseason and whatnot, but having had him with your staff over the summer, I guess initial read, how do you think you’re going to use him offensively from day one? And what are you looking to help him with the most early on? Yeah. Well, um, first of all, he’s got a lot of really good qualities. And one of the qualities he has is he’s got a really good engine or gas tank, whatever you want to, whatever you want to. And that and that means he’s able to put in the work, a lot of work in a day, and come back and do it again and do it again and do it again. there’s there’s there’s not much wavering if any at all on his day-to-day work ethic, right? So, that’s a great place to start when you’re a young player. You ask me, how do I think I’m going to use him? I think I’m going to use him on the ball and I think I’m going to use him off the ball. I think that will go for a number of our guys that there’ll be some on ball off the ball stuff. What does he need to improve on? He has a pretty good tempo and feel right now. really am impressed with that. Um, he athletically does things every single day that you’re just that pop off the page and you’re going to be like, “How did he get from here to here or from there to there or whatever.” Um, we really went to work on his shooting kind of from day two after we drafted him and he’s made some great strides there. Um, I think success for him this year is minutes. At the end of the year, how many minutes did he play? Because we need to let him ride through some of the rookie ups and downs, young rookie ups and downs. Let him play through some mistakes, but there’s a lot a lot of positives that we’ve seen so far. I guess uh I guess there’s a executive and coach kind of component to this. Um, you mentioned um, you know, the intentionality of your your messaging and and, uh, Tyrese was up here talking about culture and and kind of building a program and, um, that can be tough to do when you’re changing your roster kind of every year. And this year, you actually have kind of the pieces um, where you can look at guys and say there might be five, six, seven guys who are here four, five years from now. Um, was that a conscious effort organizationally on your part? Yeah, just to want to get younger. Um, obviously, you know, have guys that hopefully can grow and build. Um, you know, with our with our top veterans. Um, yeah, absolutely. Uh, was an intentional part of it both with the roster and outside of it. Uh we evaluated every department uh coach and I uh and have made you know a lot of the stuff from behind the scenes you know tweaks or way more than tweaks but you know from from A to Z how do we how do we turn the page and make sure um you know we’re we have a championship approach in in everything we’re doing. Um and that that did result in a lot of changes, a lot of you know painful changes um you know on the roster and outside but but we thought they were the right thing. What’s it like? I guess the the two timelines kind of notion is a little oversimplified but I mean as a coach what’s it like uh you do have two completely different teams with Joel and Paul out there and with kind of your young guys with Tyrese kind of being the veteran of that that young group of guys. How do you handle that as a coach? Is that um Yeah. How do you balance that? Did you get some new glasses? I really I like them. Thanks, man. Thanks. No, I They’re not new, but No, they look they look good. Well, thanks. First time I’ve seen you. Appreciate it. Listen, I think Daryl kind of touched on this before is that we’re hoping it’s not so drastically different, right? And I think that if it’s just one guy and then we can we can keep kind of 80% of the starting lineup there and and maybe 80% or 100% of the rotation there that that that again I think yeah offense shifts, shots shift, responsibility shift, rim protection shift. There’s some shifts, but they’re a little easier to manage. So I think that’s probably the goal, right? And that’s what we’ll shoot for. we’ll get to work on tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah. I also have a question for coach nurse. So, we have asked Tyrese about this, but I’m also curious about your perspective on this take as the head coach because if you look at the roster this year, we noticed the like the nature of a guart heavy roster. So, like we have like Kyle, we have Tyrese, we have uh VJ who can all bring the uh ball, handle the ball, make plays. I know it’s like a good thing to have all those talents, but I’m also curious about from your perspective, what does it mean to have, you know, so many guards, how you’re going to coach them, and what does that mean for the game, you know, in terms of how you’re going to shape this game uh this year offensively and defensively? Yeah. Um, good question. I think that it’s um what I what I would reiterate again is it should give us an ability to play a little faster for a couple reasons, right? The guards, the guards can um they can move, they can get back, they can run, they can run backward, they can run forward, they can go side to side, but also it should be able ation at times. You know, it’s it’s happening in this league now, right? There’s a lot of teams playing four guards at once. So, I think we need to be versatile enough to match up against those teams. I think we have uh the possibility of pushing guys both directions. Um so, that would be that would be the answer. Yeah. Hey, Daryl. Uh Daryl, you mentioned listening to the doctors when it comes to Joel. Um what have the doctors told you and how confident are you that the issues that were plaguing him throughout last season have been resolved going into this one? When I say doctors and I mentioned we’ve um you know look to add and make changes where we need anywhere and adding Dr. Glash show into the into the you know the team that’s working with Joel has been a real positive. We had a good team before and I think Dr. Glassio has really added. Um I think look you know again we’re in sort of the prove it phase and um in that I don’t I don’t want to I don’t want to like set up that um that we have Except for the boxes we’re going to check and the doctor’s advice we’re going to follow. That’s really all we know. But we I would say Joel in his own words had some positive things and he’s the most important uh person in this and what he’s saying in terms of like I think he directly said I feel good. Um and you know that’s really important and what we’re sort of building on as he gets to those final phases of five on five and things like that. Nick, what what would be different about how you manage him this year as opposed to last season? I hope a lot. Meaning meaning that he’s, you know, playing a lot more. I think that’s what we all want, right? I don’t I mean I think there was there was not a whole lot of management. He didn’t play a lot and wasn’t allowed to play a lot and his body wasn’t wasn’t wasn’t allowing him to be out there. Um, I hope I hope there’s some management issues where we’re trying to figure out when he’s playing, when he’s not playing, and it’s going on for a long time. That’s what we’re all hoping for. So, um, do have a little experience with that from the past of of of, you know, kind of trying to see what it looks like as the season goes on. Um, so we’ll we call some of those experience, but I hope I hope there is some a lot more management this year for sure. I think there will be. Yeah. Sorry, Nick over here. Good to see you again. Um, you just talked about the team’s guard mix. I’m curious about the power forward spot. Uh, Paul told us earlier that he’d be open to playing there more than he would have been 10 years ago. He said, um, you played him there quite a bit. I’m curious, first of all, do you plan to play him there regularly? And how do you see the rest of that group, whether that’s Trendan or Jabari or anyone else, sort of fitting in? Is there is that still a position in the NBA? He sort of had a similar comment. Um, I mean, listen, I think again as the game continues to evolve really quickly, um, you know, two, three, four is is so interchangeable, so much four out, five out. I think it’s I think it’s I just want to make sure we get the best players on the floor again that the that we got the and if it means playing four or two however it lands that day or whoever we’re playing we do it right. I really believe in trying to get the best players on the floor and positions don’t matter nearly as much I think and centers I think still do exist. How do you how do you view the the depth chart behind Joel? uh like how much did you see from a Dem last year? Does it lead you to believe he can handle a regular rotation role for a competitive team? And then guys like Andre and Broom and even if I don’t know if you see Barlo as an option at the five. Great uh time of year to ask that leading into training camp. I expect it to be a great competition for that spot. I just really want to see it all play out and just watch them kind of fight it out in the next month or so. Uh, coach, hi. Yeah. Hey, what’s up, Tony? How you doing? Um I uh speaking of power forwards and um you know what’s the uniqueness of having a guy like Trendan who can handle the ball who can initiate offense especially you know kind of um playing kind being outside makes you a little outside in in terms of being being able to bring Tyrese off of screens or VJ off of screens while he’s initiating uh up top and and is that the sort of kind of versatility that you wanted to kind of add to this season. He’s a point forward. I’m just kidding. Just kidding. He is versatile, right? Like we like we like it. He’s a He’s a guy that can run the floor and sprint to the corner and finish a layup or he can bring bring grab the rebound, bring it himself, get you into the offense. Um great vision, right? Sees the floor, draws draws defenders, finds the right plays. Um, and then he can score a bucket, too, when you need him to. So, we like it. I’ve been on Well, I’m glad he’s here. I’m glad he’s here. Nick’s been Yeah, I’ve liked him for a while, so they cut my mic. Glad he’s here. Yeah, that’s good. I was going to say the end. I’ve been on you. I’ve been on you for No, Nick’s been on us for a while and uh Yeah, that’s uh he’s he’s seen him as a good fit for a while and we did try to trade for him. Never quite worked, but we were able to sign him, so we’re happy. Hey, Nick over here. How you doing? Hey, doing all right. Um, rebounding, especially defensive rebounding, has been a, you know, real weakness. Um, if you’re going to be a guard heavy team that continues to care about forcing turnovers, what’s the approach to improving, uh, that area? Yeah, I think um, again, it’s going to be uh, everybody’s going to have to be involved. It’s going to be a collective effort, right? It’s going to be something we really need to not only uh plan well like what’s what’s the what’s the plan and then it’s going to be something we need to drill well right as well. It’s going to be something we definitely need to need to focus in on. Yeah. Nick, you talked about your own level of piss offness uh that you had over the summer and I think it’s something going back, you know, we saw that through Tyrese, we saw that through Eric. basically everybody. Uh, you know, how do you kind of communicate to these guys and and we’ve heard about these physical practices, you know, how do you uh transform that piss offness and and mold it into productivity and and into determination? Well, re really good word you ended with there is is it should make us more determined. I think I think I see that like and it and it goes in a lot of things like you been around if if you had been around here at all lately, you’re hearing me talk about conditioning and getting in great shape and how hard the the they’re getting pushed in the weight room and, you know, lots of those things that kind of enable you to play with some toughness, physicality, uh push through when you think you’re tired that you’re not right. And that’s the kind of thing that I think we we take care of some of that stuff. I just I just want to like listen, I want I want you to walk away from the game and saying these they played their asses off tonight. That’s it. Yeah. And then just the last point for you both, I know it just happened and not everything’s known about McCain’s status. Has anything been ruled out in terms of worst case scenario for recovery time or anything there? No, he’s still consulting with specialists. Um, you know, um, with the hand, there’s doctors who, well, there’s doctors specialized in everything, but it always seems like hand injuries are very specialized. So, still gathering that feedback, but, uh, we know Jared’s going to attack this just like he did the last one and and, uh, be back, uh, even better. So, thank you,

Coach Nurse and Daryl Morey speak to the media during the Sixers Media Day.