Daryl Morey Claps Back at Skepticism Thrown at Sixers

John Hollinger of The Athletic wrote an article asking if the Philadelphia 76ers were pretenders or not. In response, Sixers’ President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey sent a strong message by using last year’s Boston Celtics as a comparison.

“One year ago, this article had a long section on how the Celtics are pretenders,” Morey said in response to Hollinger.

This is in reference to how the Celtics started the season at 18-21, only to turn their season around to make the NBA Finals. Hollinger responded to Morey, asking what article he was referencing exactly.

Though Hollinger did not definitively say whether the Sixers were contenders or pretenders, he explained what he believes are concerns.

“They looked out of their league in the opener against Boston, and 58 games later on Sunday couldn’t hang on to a double-digit lead against them even as Jayson Tatum labored through one of his worst games of the season,” Hollinger said.

Hollinger also explained the flaws with how the Sixers approach their offense.

“Philly walks the ball up the court and lazes into sets unless Maxey is running a fast break by himself; check out the last two plays of the Miami game, for instance. The Sixers have no reliable third scorer in the half court, unless you count “Tobias Harris every third night” as a separate player. They’ve invested heavily in a theoretical stretch 4 who takes two shots a game (okay, 2.9, but still), and are somehow a bad rebounding team despite starting a behemoth center.”

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Morey’s Thoughts on Sixers’ Backup Center Situation

Joel Embiid’s backup has been a constant topic ever since he first started playing in the NBA in 2016, especially this season. While talking with reporters, Morey gave his thoughts on the Sixers’ backup center situation.

“I think it’s important,” Morey said, per Justin Grasso of Sports Illustrated. “I mean, look, you ask the right question, which is like, on any given team, you know, there are 100 things that could be better. You could turn it over less, you could have better wing defense, you could be better at jump balls, your late clock offense could be better, and your ability to switch and generate turnovers. Like, you can come up with 100 things, right? But the key is prioritizing those that drive winning. And especially winning in the playoffs. You only have like a particular set of resources that you can array across everything. Long way of saying it’s important, but it’s less important than a lot of other things.”

With the Sixers’ seemingly set, they will roll into the playoffs with Paul Reed, Montrezl Harrell, and Dewayne Dedmon as Embiid’s backups.

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Morey’s Thoughts on Harden Leaving For Houston

In response to the rumors that Harden may leave the Sixers this summer to return to the Houston Rockets, Morey did not necessarily refute it but questioned why Harden would do such a thing.

“That one makes no sense,” Morey said, per Grasso. “There just seems…that seems to be invented by someone. Look, I have to be honest. I don’t understand it at all.”

Despite Houston having the worst record in the league at 13-48, there have been reports of Harden’s interest in returning to the Rockets, dating back to a report last Christmas by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

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