Ex-Raptors coach Nick Nurse looks to bury past in Philly

There have been great expectations placed on Nick Nurse as he takes over as head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, greater even than the ones five years ago when he succeeded Dwane Casey with the Raptors.

He has a great player (NBA MVP Joel Embiid) and a very good team that’s had no real measure of success for more than two decades (no second-round playoff series victories since 2001). Winning big and fast will be all that matters, and the past — at least Sixers past — is not his concern.

“I don’t really vibrate on the frequency of the past” was Nurse’s most memorable line from his introductory news conference as Philadelphia’s head coach Thursday afternoon. “To me, when we get a chance to start and dig into this thing a little bit, it’s going to be what we can do.”

But the truth is, the franchise’s past will haunt him until it’s somehow eradicated, even if his personal past may actually help. Sixers ownership obviously feels the 2020 NBA coach of the year — dismissed by Toronto in April with a year left on his contract — can somehow fix it all.

He won’t be able to ease into his new job — a voracious and vocal fan base won’t let him, and the Philadelphia media will cut him no slack — and Nurse intends to use some personal Raptors history to help him along.

“You guys have mentioned the second round to me twice already, and we’re gonna hit that head on,” Nurse said. “Like, we know we’re gonna be judged on how we play in the playoffs.

“It was the same in Toronto. We hadn’t played that well, and certain players hadn’t played that well and all those kinds of things. So … I would imagine from day one we’re going to talk about that, and that we’re going to try to attack that, you know. We’re gonna have to face it, and we’re gonna have to rise above it.”

Nurse’s introduction went as those things always go.

He offered platitudes to his former employers: “Ten great years in Toronto. Masai Ujiri, Larry Tanenbaum, Bobby Webster and everybody, they treated me really well there. It was fascinating city, fascinating country, lots of good players, etc. So, very grateful for those 10 years.”

And he offered new-coach boiler plate: He’ll maximize the talent at his disposal, take what was good from deposed coach Doc Rivers and expand, toss away or change what didn’t work well. It was a lot of same old, same old in that regard.

Except now, Nurse is coaching Embiid instead of clashing with him as they seemed to so often the last five years. Memes of the two interacting won’t go away. The video clips and sound bytes are sure to be brought up repeatedly.

Fans in Philly who are hankering for playoff success will have to wait until next spring to get really worked up about that. But the Nurse-Embiid relationship is already under scrutiny, and it will only grow when next season starts.

Wise as he is, Nurse extended an olive branch.

“I didn’t even really remember (the Embiid incidents), but I accidentally had my TV on yesterday and I saw a couple of ’em — they were pretty good,” he said the coach-rival clips that have almost run on a loop since Nurse’s hiring was announced Sunday.

“Then it kind of grew, for me at least, to such a respect level … As far as building the relationship, I think he really competes and he really wants to be great and it’ll be a collaborative effort.”