Nick Nurse Speaks on James Harden's Return to Sixers' Practice
On Wednesday, James Harden returned to the Philadelphia 76ers training facilities, a day before the team is set to take on the Milwaukee Bucks in their season opening match.
The ten-time All-Star spent time away from the team due to personal reasons, keeping him out of any of the team's preseason games, apart from travelling for their preseason opener against the Boston Celtics.
Nick Nurse explained to reporters that the 34-year-old partook in some parts of the team's practice, while not being included in some of the prep for Thursday night's match.
"Well he was here, he was in a lot of the stuff early, obviously we're doing a lot of game prep stuff so he didn't take part in much of that..." said Nurse, "He was in the practice at the start and there at the end, but we had to get ready for our game tomorrow, with the guys that are going to be playing."
Given that Harden has been out of the team for more than a week, Nurse said that he'll stay in Philadelphia to get reacclimated to full court basketball, and that he's accepting of that.
"He'll stay here on court work with our staff and our players from the Blue Coats and our two way guys... trying to get him ramped up as soon as we can..." explained Nurse, "He's been gone for ten days so I think he understands it, having to get back to playing live full court basketball."
With Harden having to prepared, the Sixers' don't have an initial date for his return, with Nurse speculating that they're going to have to take it day by day or even slower, to ensure that he's at tip-top shape.
"I would say that we're going to have to evaluate this in these next couple sessions, you know, I would say it's back to day-by-day, maybe two-day-by-day, we just need to see what the information tells us in two days."
Even with the former-MVP's absence, the Sixers' head coach made it clear that the team isn't holding back with their preparations for the season, which have met his expectations.
"I really think our guys are not very affected by it, they're working hard, they're extremely focused, getting through the game plans at a really good rate, so I'm happy with where we are," said Nurse.
