Sam Amick and Josh Robbins at The Athletic (now with ads) put together their annual, anonymous NBA player poll.

In March and April, writers spoke with 158 NBA players representing all 30 teams.

Some of the Sixers-related findings:

  • Joel Embiid finished 9th in “most overrated,” earning 3.3% of the vote.
  • The Sixers were ranked 5th-worst organization, getting 5.3% of the response. Charlotte, Washington, New Orleans, and Sacramento were the top four.
  • Doc Rivers and Nick Nurse both ranked top-five in league’s worst coach, Doc finishing third and Nurse finishing fifth. Doc got 12.3% and Nurse 6.8%.

There was a caveat regarding Nurse, with this written in the accompanying blurb:

But context matters here. Washington started a full rebuild before the 2023-24 season, and this season, team officials prioritized being in the running for the best possible draft lottery odds. Brian Keefe played rookies Bub Carrington, Kyshawn George and Alex Sarr and second-year wing Bilal Coulibaly significant minutes, and because of their inexperience, they made a lot of mistakes, especially early. It would be tough for any coach to have won games with that roster and when given the directive to play the team’s youngest players extensively. Washington staged a small turnaround after the trade deadline, going 6-4 over a 10-game stretch, thanks in part to the arrivals of veterans Khris Middleton and Marcus Smart and the growth of the rookies.

As one player said: “Coaches can be held handicap by health and the front office. Nick Nurse is a good coach, but he doesn’t have the players right now.”

There are some larger-level questions with interesting responses. A majority of players think that the league is too slanted towards offense and believe that legal sports betting is bad. 38% said analytics is bad for the game, while 27% said “good” and the remaining 33% think the data surge is “somewhere in the middle.”