Aside from Joel Embiid dealing with knee soreness that could cost him at least one game, everyone on the Sixers is available for the first time since their roster shake-up. Right after Philly’s second James Harden trade, Nicolas Batum left the team to tend to his wife, who was dealing with a medical issue. Just as he got back, as he and the newcomers were still getting acclimated to a new team, Kelly Oubre Jr. was hit by a car, resulting in a rib fracture that took weeks to recover from. Batum and others missed time here and there while Ourbe recovered.

Now, the Sixers are seeing their team at full strength. When asked for preliminary ideas for how his rotation will look with everyone available before last Friday’s game, Nurse revealed the eight players who have firm spots in the lineup.

“Well, I think you could pretty much safely say the five starters are gonna be in the rotation,” Nurse said. The Sixers coach said that “you could pretty much safely say” that Patrick Beverley is the backup point guard, Paul Reed is the backup center and Kelly Oubre Jr. will be in the mix “considering what he brings on both sides of the ball.”

Each of those players ranks in the top nine on the Sixers in minutes per game along with Robert Covington. Nurse explained that choosing between guys like him, Marcus Morris Sr., Jaden Springer, Danuel House Jr., Furkan Korkmaz, and Mo Bamba is not a straightforward choice.

“There’s a lot to like about all the other guys. That’s where we gotta figure out, are playing 10? Yeah, we are for now, for sure, ’cause we’re trying to figure out who fits,” the Sixers coach continued. “What’s Marcus bring? What’s Cov bring? They all can bring something. All of ’em all the way to 15. We’ve seen Jaden bring his things. We’ve seen House bring his things. We’ve seen Furk bring some things. We’ve seen even Mo, who’s hardly got a chance, had a pretty good game under his belt the other night.”

Bamba’s path to playing time is the steepest as the third-string center, even if Nurse starts using two-center lineups more often. The Sixers opted to get Springer some run in the G League, which does give him a chance to ramp up after a string of recent absences but is also not the type of move a team would make for someone regularly in the big-league rotation.

“It’s not like there’s five [open spots] there and I’m trying to find three or four out of the other 10. There’s only a couple of spots that get that much chances,” Nurse said. “So we just can only go on what we evaluate and we try to evaluate as much we can at practice, too, ’cause like you guys see, we do play a lot at practice.”

Sometimes after the main portions of their practice that already feature live action, the Sixers will hold scrimmages including players and player-development coaches.

When asked about the starting lineup and whether Oubre will be elevated back to the starting lineup, Nurse said that he “wouldn’t put it as concrete and I wouldn’t put it as fluid either. Somewhere in between those two.” He clarified that there “still could be some movement there” and said before the Sixers’ recent game against the Washington Wizards that he doesn’t like to “get all that wrapped up into starting lineups and stuff.”

Regardless of how much Nurse wants to mix and match lineups in games, the Sixers have to find the right ways to utilize the roster they have. Their rotation should consist of guys who can impact the game on both ends (even if the tendency is skewed way more toward one side) and keep the game flowing around Embiid and Tyrese Maxey.

One highly alarming trend the Sixers have to fix is lineups with Morris, which get outscored by over 20 points per 100 possessions. That’s in the 1st percentile among forwards on Cleaning the Glass, far and away the worst of any qualified Sixers player. Even when he’s in lineups with Embiid or Maxey, the production is very poor. When he’s on with both of them, those lineups only get moderately outscored.

Whatever good things Morris does on the court is a bonus to his other value for the Sixers, which is his expiring contract that can be used in a variety of trades. Nurse has spoken highly of his size and toughness and he has shot a staggering 48.0 percent from deep so far with the Sixers. Shooting from deep has always been a strong suit of his for most of his career. But with Philly being so exposed when he’s on the court — due in large part to his defensive limitations and tendency to hold the ball for seconds at a time without creating an advantage — his minutes should not be guaranteed game-to-game.

Conversely, leaving Covington and Springer out of the 10-man rotation leaves the Sixers without two of their best defenders. Both players seem to be on the outs right now, with Nurse even going so far as playing a nine-man rotation last game rather than finding time for them.

Covington has the highest steal percentage among forwards on Cleaning the Glass and is in the 94th percentile in block percentage. He’s also a good shooter from deep — 39.5 percent from three so far this season with the Sixers, 36.2 percent for his career — and has started showing with Nurse that he can serve as a solid cutter.