As the newly-appointed president of basketball ops, Daryl Morey’s core beliefs could have the Philadelphia 76ers look drastically different moving forward.
After signing on to be president of basketball operations for the Philadelphia 76ers, Daryl Morey arrives on a team that diametrically opposes the one he just left.
The Houston Rockets launched the most 3-pointers per game last season. The Sixers were 22nd. The only Rockets to step foot in the restricted area were the ones who initiated such looks for themselves. Philly’s big man ranked No. 1 in post-ups per game alongside a point guard in terror of letting anything fly outside the paint.
The Sixers are at a crucial point in their pursuit of championship glory, having locked themselves into a core they now see falls short of expectations. Murky waters lie ahead, which is why they tapped one of the savviest executives to try and lead them out of it.
For some, Morey’s command of the ship is believed to be the first in a long line of drastic changes for a Sixers team that’s zagged while most others zig. His track record suggests as much. A change in circumstance indicates how little that is likely to matter.
By the time Morey stepped down from the job he held for 13 years, the Rockets had been built in his pristine analytically-driven image. Layups, triples and free-throws were the only acceptable currency. Seven-footers were done away with.
People viewed Morey as a madman, the type who views the game through spreadsheets and equations. Micro-ball was a decision that raised Houston’s ceiling but caved their floor. It had Morey’s name written all over, though that might have been out of necessity than personal preference.
“He innovated because he worked for owners (Les Alexander and Tilman Fertitta) who gave him no other choice,” wrote The Ringer’s Jonathan Tjarks following Morey’s departure from Houston. “…That’s why Morey had to reinvent the wheel when it came to designing an offense to hunt for the most efficient shots. He was running a shell game, using smoke and mirrors to overcome a lack of elite personnel.”
Morey is a proponent of efficient offensive principles. He also understands the value of star power when trying to win a title and how limited the supply of such talent is. That’s why he tried acquiring Jimmy Butler, a career 33.3 percent outside shooter in free agency. When you have two All-NBA caliber players, moving backward isn’t an option.
Daryl Morey tryna figure out how to run small ball in Philly like 😅 pic.twitter.com/vz3G06ruQT
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) October 28, 2020
Joel Embiid won’t be traded. Ben Simmons won’t be strong-armed into jacking five threes a game — though admittedly maybe he should. Though not a symbiotic pairing, the duo has shown what they can do when set up for success.
They boasted the fifth-highest net rating among two-man combos — minimum of 1,000 minutes — in their first season together (2017-18). After acquiring snipers Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova, Philly ranked fifth in threes made per game after the All-Star break and sixth in percentage.
Since entering the league in 2017, no player has assisted on more 3-pointers than Simmons. Both he and Embiid finish at a near 70-percent clip in the restricted area, the former of whom created such looks the eighth-most times per game last season.
Those are analytically-friendly tendencies Morey can work with despite all the baggage that may come along with. The first step in maximizing them will be surrounding the duo with the floor spacers Elton Brand strangely stripped them of and pawn off the exorbitant salaries he handed out.
If any front office executive can find ways to dump Al Horford or/and Tobias Harris, it’s Daryl Morey. The former Executive of the Year made 77 deals in more than a decade on the job and was linked to plenty more hypotheticals. He is relentless in trying to maneuver around financial restraints in pursuit of that which traditional salary cap logic says he can’t acquire.
If Morey’s tenure in Houston taught anything, it is his ability to maximize the personnel at his disposal. For the penny-pinching Rockets boasting a generational scorer creating for several spot-up shooters, the only route was doubling down on the shots they were already hunting. Philadelphia will require something entirely different.
Expect him to make improvements in ways any logical person would: By looking to replace the sub-par shooters with snipers and add another ball handler. Creative suggestions might also include fewer jumpers for Embiid and maybe even spot minutes at center for Simmons.
No matter the changes that lie ahead, the Sixers just hope they’ll be enough to redirect them down a path they’ve skidded off beginning last summer.