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With “the main guys in place,” Philadelphia 76ers general manager Daryl Morey said he was turning his attention to finding the “right minimum guys” after getting knocked out of the Eastern Conference semifinal May 12 by the Miami Heat.
Morey spoke to reporters on May 13 about bolstering the Sixers’ depth after he pushed all in this season, acquiring James Harden at the trade deadline to give Philadelphia a legitimate second option to pair alongside MVP runner-up Joel Embiid as he enters his prime.
“I think we’ve had very good success about finding guys,” Morey told reporters during his exit interview. “We’ll have the max resources under the CBA available to us, but a lot of it’s gonna be finding the right minimum guys, which I think we’ve had good success and I find that to be one of the best parts of the job is how do you, once you’ve got your main guys in place, which we do, finding the guys who can fit in and we need to do a better job, but that is the job. That’s part of why I love being in basketball.”
Sixers Sacrificed Depth for Star Talent
To get something great, you have to give up something good in return. Adding James Harden was certainly the right move for the Sixers, but did have its drawbacks.
Along with Ben Simmons, Morey sent Seth Curry and Andre Drummond to Brooklyn to sweeten the deal. Given that the former no. 1 pick hadn’t stepped foot on the court at the time, more needed to be added if the Sixers were going to land the All-Star point guard.
Since arriving in Philly, Curry had made a fine addition to the lineup. The same goes for Andre Drummond as he manned down the backup center position. Being two key pieces of the rotation, the Sixers were left slightly undermanned. Doc Rivers touched on this during his press conference with Morey following exit interviews.
“Once you’ve made that trade, they add the talent, but then three go out, and it does hurt your bench a little bit,” the coach explained. “We understood that when we did it, but we thought it was the right thing to do in the long term.” According to USA Today.
Joel Embiid Has Faith in Daryl Morey
For contending teams, winning in the margins is everything. Making the most with limited can make-or-break a franchise’s window of competing for a championship. Since arriving in Philadelphia, Morey has done a fine job working in the margins.
Whether it was trading for Seth Curry, drafting Tyrese Maxey at pick 21, or signing players like Georges Niang and Andre Drummond, Morey has made a plethora of small moves that have paid huge dividends for the Sixers.
One person who is fully confident of Morey’s abilities is Joel Embiid. He spoke a little on the job Morey has done since joining the front office after the Sixers were eliminated by the Miami Heat.
“Since Daryl got here, I think he’s done a fantastic job. Last year, coming in, obviously bringing Seth (Curry). Seth was a huge part of what we did. This year, bringing in Andre (Drummond) which he helped us a lot. I think since Daryl has gotten here, he’s done a good job as far as team building. Obviously, that looks like it’s still not good enough.” According to USA Today.
Given his track record, it’s hard to not have confidence in Morey after what he’s done to completely re-shape the Sixers’ roster over the past two years.
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