The arrival of Nick Nurse has probably been Daryl Morey's best move during an off-season that seemed to be very static. The head coach has completely changed the team's style of play, both on offense and defense. A style of play that has increased the pace, motion, and use of different types of situational defenses from Doc Rivers' immovable decisions.
No doubt most fans, at least for the time being, are very pleased. The 76ers sit comfortably in third place in the Eastern Conference, showing unprecedented consistency and depth. And to prove it, here's a compilation of some of the most interesting stats so far this season.
OFFENSE: The Sixers currently have the best offensive rating in NBA history (122.1).
Simple as that. The league is in its 78th year, and there hasn't been a single team capable of scoring more points per 100 possessions than the Sixers this season. But while that sounds crazy, it's also not that strange. The 5 best seasons in history in offensive rating correspond to 5 teams of the current season: Philadelphia, Boston, Indiana, Milwaukee and Atlanta. The modern defense is far from countering the modern offense, but in this mess that is producing the highest NBA scores in decades, the 76ers are among the elite.
Nick Nurse has established a winning system that, coupled with Embiid's brilliant season and Tyrese Maxey's stratospheric explosion, is nearly impossible for most teams in the league to contain. Not even the Minnesota Timberwolves, considered the best defensive team in the NBA, were able to stop the duo.