And so, on the day that he was expected back at practice in anticipation of a potential season debut on Thursday, James Harden is instead packing his bags for Los Angeles.
The Sixers will have an opportunity to test it out on Sunday in their first preseason game. They flew to Boston after Friday's practice. They'll have a heavy practice on Saturday, and take on the Celtics in TD Garden the next day.
When posed with the news that Harden is expected to join the team as soon as Wednesday, Nurse's first reaction, both in words and facial expression, was telling and perhaps indicative of how their player-coach interaction could play out.
Just as Beverley hasn't seen anything he hasn't already experienced before, he expects that his teammates know exactly what he's bringing to the table despite not all having played with him before.