76ers have hour-long postgame huddle – where Maxey calls out Embiid – after loss drops them to 2-11

It was an hour after Monday night’s game ended before Nick Nurse walked out of the 76ers locker room to discuss perhaps the ugliest 76ers loss of a young season with many of them — Philly blew a 19-point first-half lead and lost to Miami 106 -89. That drops the 76ers to 2-11 on the season, tied with the thought Washington Wizards for dead last in the entire NBA.

When Nurse spoke to the media, the conversation wasn’t about the latest ugly play, it was more about the team meeting that happened. Nurse played it down, calling it “a little meeting” run by players and coaches. Joel Embiid played it down as well, saying, “Oh, we had a meeting?” (Via Keith Pomey of the Philadelphia Inquirer).

The details of the meeting were bound to leak out, and on Tuesday afternoon Shams Charania of ESPN had them — including Tyrese Maxey challenging Embiid.

In the meeting, Maxey challenged Embiid to be on time for team activities, calling out the former league MVP for being late “to everything” and how that affects the locker room, from other players to the coaching staff, sources briefed on the meeting said . ESPN…

Players told 76ers coach Nick Nurse they want to be coached harder, and coaches in turn said they want players to practice with goals and attention to detail.

Embiid accepted the messages sent in the meeting, sources said, but he said he is confused by what the 76ers are trying to accomplish sometimes on the court.

Embiid as a team leader can be a challenge as everyone tries to balance injury issues with pushing him physically during the regular season. That said, in an NBA where you hear coaches say about LeBron James or Stephen Curry and other elite team leaders that they’re the first in the gym, that “When your best player is your hardest worker, that sets the culture,” that’s not what people around the league say about Embiid privately. Physical concerns are one thing, but showing up late to team meetings and events is another, it sets a bad tone. Embiid and Maxey are close, so it’s unlikely to lead to any real friction between the two stars, and that made Maxey the person to say it and have it resonate.

Team meetings are overrated by fans in terms of impact, but in this case, the 76ers needed one. Philadelphia has the worst offense in the NBA this season, and Embiid’s confusion about what the team is trying to accomplish sounds like a symptom of that.

Embiid, Maxey and Paul George have yet to play a game together this season (Maxey is currently sidelined with a strained hamstring) and for a top-heavy team that is undoubtedly part of the problem. But watch the 76ers play (especially in person) and you can’t help but wonder, “Do they have enough around their three stars to win?” Jared McCain has had moments, but Kelly Oubre Jr., Caleb Martin, Kyle Lowry, Eric Gordon and others have not lived up to what the team expected from its role players. The drop off from the stars to the role players has been exceedingly steep, and the stars can’t even all get on the field together.

At 2-11, is Philadelphia’s gap too big? Maybe not from making the postseason — in a shallow Eastern Conference, the 76ers are three games out of the final play-in spot and four out of No. 6 seed and avoid play-in altogether – but the road through that postseason will be much more difficult now.

Philadelphia hasn’t looked close to a team up to that challenge. A team meeting won’t change that, but it’s a start, Nurse said postgame (via Pompey at The Inquirer).

“We can only find out before we play another game, right?” he said. “We can only ever find out (when) we get to practice and see what the level of focus and energy is like and then when we get to our next game.”