There has been a lot of speculation since the Philadelphia 76ers signed Daryl Morey as their new President of Basketball Operations, as he’s been well-known for blowing up rosters in the blink of an eye and for his three-point friendly style.
A lot of people believe that the Sixers are going to make a lot of moves in the offseason to put together a roster that resembles more to Morey’s Houston Rockets than what they have right now, and that’s why he was quick to shut down that narrative right away, claiming that he’s going to make the most of his talent rather than try and adapt the players to his style:
“I think the best way to win in the NBA is to take your talent and figure out how to utilize them the best. It’s not to take your talent and hammer it into a particular system. It’s to try to get the most out of who you have. We were trying to build the best team around our talents in Houston. But here, [new coach Doc Rivers] is gonna take the talent we have and use them to the best of their ability,” Morey said, as quoted by Forbes.
Morey continued to clarify that he doesn’t intend the Philadelphia 76ers to turn into a three-pointer friendly team like the Houston Rockets, which is one of the fans’ biggest concerns given the fact that Ben Simmons is anything but a reliable shooter:
“The goal is to not shoot three-pointers, the goal is to win. You can score on offense in a whole bunch of different ways. Joel happens to be one of the most efficient post-up players in the league,” Morey added.
Needless to say, Morey also shut down all speculation about a potential Joel Embiid trade, claiming that the team must find a way to feed him and make the most of his potential, rather than settling for taking three-pointers:
“I used to get the question in Houston, ‘What would you do if you had Shaq?’ And my answer was: ‘I would give Shaq the ball about 100 times a game.’ Joel is a talent on both ends. We played the way we played in Houston because that was the best way to utilize the talents we had in Houston,” he concluded.
It’s also worth noting that coach Doc Rivers will be the one who’ll eventually the way the team plays. Daryl Morey is an asset, a guy who pulls moves behind the table to give the team the personnel they need to succeed. At the end of the day, it will be the coach the one who calls the shots.
