Shorthanded, the Philadelphia 76ers logged another loss in their record on Wednesday night, falling short at home against the visiting Toronto Raptors to the tune of a 121-112 beatdown. Once again, some decisions of the coaching staff continued to puzzle many, and one of them has stood out as their most jarring yet.
Without prejudice to the rebuke they deserve for losing in the third quarter by a lot (and by a lot, we mean an 18-point deficit in that period alone), the spotlight must also be casted on Nick Nurse and his brow-raising choice of not giving Jared McCain more run and even more importantly, an ideal role. The sophomore guard continues to be an off-ball operator with VJ Edgecombe playing as the nominal point guard, and the results have been flat-out bad.
Edgecombe’s counting stats are good, but his efficiency remains underwhelming. While this is part of his natural learning curve as a rookie, he should likewise be put in better positions to get out of his ongoing funk, and trotting him out in a taxing role as a point guard is simply bad optimization of talent on the part of the coaching staff.
Nick Nurse’s questionable backcourt choice badly backfires on the 76ers
Again, the best way to speed up the process for McCain to regain his rhythm after a near calendar year-long layoff from NBA basketball is to actually give him the reps to reacclimatize himself to the role which he had early last season before he went down with an injury. That means putting him in the ball more along with giving him the liberty to operate without it, as he is talented enough to do those things anyway.
Instead, Nurse seems content with this 76ers offense that has been largely dependent on individual shot creation, and not much on a participatory design. Their scoring attack is basically Tyrese Maxey or bust, and the money he takes a rest, it almost morphs into a luck-based machine.
Edgecombe and McCain are so similar, but likewise so different from each other. Both are also in different, albeit non-ideal situations, so it is incumbent upon Nick Nurse and his coaching staff to deploy them under better conditions, lest their ongoing slumps continue.
Hopefully, this loss will be the impetus the 76ers need to finally start making some real, hard adjustments in the backcourt. After all, their embarrassment of riches at the guard positions will be wasted if nothing good comes out of the coaching staff.