CAMDEN, N.J. — Nick Nurse made his reputation in the NBA on the defensive side of the basketball.
Much as the brilliance of Kyle Lowry and Kawhi Leonard brought a championship to Toronto, those Raptors teams were built on a bedrock of defense, Nurse turning a passel of originally anonymous, lanky and willing defenders into NBA regulars and some into unlikely stars.
The team Nurse inherited last summer in Philadelphia was, to say the least, not that. And while the 76ers made some halting attempts at stopgap defensive additions, it wasn’t until the contract cliff at the end of 2023-24 that Nurse would get his first real chance to build a roster for his scheme.
That time has come, and Kelly Oubre Jr. already has the nickname picked out.
“Call it the water stoppers,” Oubre offered Monday at 76ers media day. “Call us the plumbers.”
Might need a little wrenching, but the exuberant Oubre is on to something.
While these 76ers, thanks to the electric scoring of Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid, may not craft quite so fearsome a defensive legacy as Nurse’s Raptors, they at least aspire to improve from the middle of the pack defensively last year.
Defense was a priority, not an afterthought, in the offseason.
It’s part of the reason why they 76ers zeroed in on Paul George to be the star complement to Embiid and Maxey, bringing nine All-Star nods and four All-NBA Defensive Team selections. It’s why the Sixers brought in Caleb Martin, an undersized but versatile defender who can play zone. It’s why Andre Drummond and his rebounding ability were prized as the backup to Embiid.
“In this day and age, you’ve got to have two-way players,” Nurse said, referring to George and Martin in particular. “And those guys are both capable at both ends of doing high-level things. I think there’s some good versatility in length with those two and with Oubre, some good size back protecting the rim with Joel and Andre. We’ve got some feisty speed up in front of them in the guards. I think we’ve got a chance to be really good defensively and also really versatile, which I like.”
That world, “versatile,” got a lot of use Monday. So did its more sophisticated, college-educated cousin, “positionless.” But with some justification.
The 76ers were too often found wanting last year on the defensive end.
Injuries hampered supposed specialist stoppers like Danuel House and De’Anthony Melton, while others like Marcus Morris and Pat Beverley were shuffled out via trade. The starting duo of Maxey and Tobias Harris was not particularly adept defensively. Trades and general upheaval meant an unsustainably chaotic mishmash of 28 players, disrupting any chance for continuity.
All of it felt like Whac-a-Mole, which the 76ers season descended into once James Harden decided he wanted out.
Now, in Year 2 for Nurse, there’s a chance to build on principles implemented last year and to be proactive instead of reactive. The defensive end might be where that is most felt.
Oubre seems fitting to lead the charge. He called last year “a dark summer,” slowed by lingering shoulder injuries. Barely able to lift a basketball, he signed in late September as almost an afterthought.
He’d go on to average 15.4 points per game and persevere in the starting lineup, earning a two-year deal to stay in Philadelphia, where he insisted on getting media to clap their hands and stomp their feet before he’d take questions.
With that stability is a chance to forge a daunting defensive front with George.
“Infinite amount of opportunities for us on the defensive end,” he said. “We’re definitely very versatile, agile, athletic. But the difference is, we all want that challenge. It’s going to be fighting with them to see who guards and who stops this guy.”
Martin is in the same boat. He didn’t get to the NBA until age 24. That is one year older than Maxey is now. He stuck in Charlotte because of his defensive tenacity, then earned a deal in Miami with it.
He’s done it with the chip on his shoulder of being a 6-5 power forward who nonetheless is capable of defending just about anyone on the floor, and he’ll get an early crack at that position, where the 76ers have toggled through different philosophies in recent years.
“I think it’s positionless basketball more often than not in today’s game,” Martin said. “So I don’t really look at it as the four. I just look at it as just being versatile. But if I’ve got to play the four and guard the four, I’ve been able to hold my own for as long as I’ve been in the league, and I’m going to continue to learn and find ways to do it.”
With their big three, the Sixers possess star power. But it will fall to players like Oubre and Martin to bring energy. Oubre’s media day performance fits him to that role.
“I’m not satisfied, of course,” he said. “I’m very hungry, starving, to get more and to continue to just get back to where I know I was at before last summer happened. I’ve got to go out and show. The words can’t really do it justice.”
