Daryl Morey AS Philly GM

Hmm. He's actually not very verbose.

 

Morey LOVES Harden. I wonder if Morey tries to make Philly Harden's team over Embiid. I can see the tension growing if that happens. Morey too smart for that though.. or maybe...

 

He’s not apparently. I’ve regressed…

 

Haha

 

Yeah, but the Sixers are 100% Embiid’s team. Both Harden and Morey know that. I don’t think either of them will cross that line. Embiid’s not one to keep quiet if he gets frozen out of the offense either.

 

No. Harden is a quitter and professional stat padder. Acquiring a guy who's PROVEN he will quit mid game will only get Daryl Morey ran outta Philly. Just watch

 

At what?

 

Oh you of all people are telling folks to just watch. That’s Very promising for Philly folks

 

https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nba/james-harden-ben-simmons-deal-the-whole-story-behind-the-trade

[…]

The story of Morey and the Sixers (which is detailed here and based on interviews over the past two years with dozens of sources connected to the Sixers and the NBA) begins in the summer of 2018. The Sixers, upon the firing of Bryan Colangelo in the wake of his bizarre Twitter scandal, were in need of a new top basketball executive. Morey was one of the first candidates they pursued.

The job intrigued him. He met with managing partner Josh Harris, co-managing partner David Blitzer and minority owner Michael Rubin. He liked what he heard, but in the end, Morey turned down the offer, partially because he wanted to let his son finish high school in Houston. He soon negotiated an extension with the Rockets, this one for five years.

With Morey off the board, the Sixers handed the GM job to Elton Brand, the former NBA All-Star who had joined their front office in the summer of 2017. Brand was popular among his colleagues and respected by peers, but two seasons later, the Sixers had fallen a few rungs down the Eastern Conference standings. It was toward the end of that 2019-20 season, during the NBA’s bubble, that Harris, according to a league source, approached Brand with a question.

There was talk among NBA circles that some high-profile executives could be on the market that upcoming offseason. Morey was one of them. Harris wanted to know what Brand thought. Was Morey someone Brand believed could boost the Sixers? Also, would Brand be open to working for him?

Brand told Harris he didn’t think the Sixers needed to bring in someone else, that he was confident in himself and his group. But, he added, after more than 20 championship-less NBA seasons, both as a player and as an executive, what he wanted most was to win a title, and also, he’d actually gotten to know Morey in the bubble — they had lunch one day and sat next to each other during a Sixers-Rockets game — and Brand believed Morey could help both him and the organization.

"If you can get that type of guy," Brand told Harris, "you gotta do it."

Morey, however, was still in Houston. And anyway, first, the Sixers needed a new coach.

They had fired Brett Brown in August 2020 after being swept out of the playoffs. Soon after, they narrowed their search to two candidates: Ty Lue, then an assistant with the Clippers, and Mike D’Antoni, who had recently told Morey and the Rockets that he wouldn’t be returning as head coach.

Both men spoke with Brand and ownership. Brand, according to multiple league sources, told D’Antoni that Joel Embiid was in his corner; Embiid and D’Antoni had clicked during D’Antoni’s stint as a Sixers assistant in 2016. D’Antoni and Brand discussed contract terms. D’Antoni believed ownership was on his side and even told some former Rockets staffers to begin house hunting in Philadelphia.

At the same time, Lue, according to a source with knowledge of his thinking, got the impression that he was Brand’s top choice. The problem, according to that source, was Lue didn’t believe the decision was Brand’s to make.

Lue wasn’t the first person to feel this way about a Sixers GM in recent years. Among Sixers ownership, Harris and Blitzer were both hands-on. There was also Rubin, who, despite owning around 8% of the team at the time, "has a huge say in things there," according to one person familiar with the team’s inner workings. And there was also CEO Scott O’Neil, who earlier in his career had aspirations of working in basketball operations. Overall, the Sixers had four individuals above their GM who had a say in basketball decisions.

In this case, it wasn’t until a third coaching option presented itself — when the Clippers fired Doc Rivers — that the Sixers were able to agree on a path forward.

The news of Rivers’ firing broke on the last Monday of September. Brand immediately reached out to Rivers, who also happened to be speaking with Morey, who was searching for a replacement for D’Antoni in Houston. Morey, according to a source, had done some background work on Rivers, speaking to then-Celtics president Danny Ainge and Clippers president Lawrence Frank, and both had passed along positive reports.

Morey and Rivers had also been colleagues in Boston for about 18 months, and Rivers’ son, Austin, had spent two seasons playing for Morey’s Rockets, an arrangement that came together after Doc sold Morey on Austin’s ability.

Morey wanted Rivers to be the Rockets’ next coach and believed Rivers was interested in the job. Rivers was scheduled to meet with the Sixers on Friday in Philadelphia and then travel to Houston on Sunday to talk with the Rockets.

Instead, Rivers decided to take the Sixers’ job on the spot.

Morey’s name was never brought up in Rivers’ discussions with the team. After securing his coach, Brand began recruiting executives around the league to come work with him in Philadelphia. Then, in October, Morey and the Rockets announced that he’d be stepping away from the team at the end of the month.

"My youngest son just graduated from high school, and it was just the right time to see what's next with family and other potential things in the future," Morey told ESPN at the time. He had the Sixers and Mavericks pegged as possible future landing spots, according to a source, but with the 2020 draft less than a week away, he couldn’t imagine either of them — or any other team — bringing him in for that upcoming season.

The Sixers didn’t care. Rubin, who had become friends with Rockets star James Harden, with whom Morey was close, pushed for the Sixers to go after Morey. Brand, when asked by Harris, reiterated that he was on board but also believed the group needed to hear Rivers’ thoughts.

Rivers, according to multiple sources, was both surprised and skeptical.

He’d taken the job because he believed in the talent of Simmons and Embiid — and because he’d clicked with Brand. He respected Morey, but that didn’t necessarily mean he was jumping to work for him. Rivers’ longtime chief of staff, Annemarie Loflin, would later tell people that Rivers never had any intention of taking the Rockets’ coaching job, despite his speaking to Morey about the vacancy, and that Rivers had to sign off on the Morey hiring.

Rivers was also concerned that Brand was being layered against his will.

"How do you feel about it?" he asked Brand.

"The more firepower the better," Brand replied.

With Rivers on board, the Sixers shifted into recruiting mode. Rubin led the charge. He flew Morey to Philadelphia on his private chopper for an interview. Harris invited Morey to his Hamptons home. By the end of October, the two sides had agreed to a deal, with Rivers telling Morey that he was thrilled to be working alongside him.

Two months after being swept in the playoffs’ first round, the Sixers had completely revamped their franchise. It didn’t matter that the order had been chaotic and backward. Ownership was giddy.

"Everyone else is cutting costs because of the pandemic," a person familiar with the group’s thinking told me at the time. "Josh [Harris] and the group saw this as an opportunity to get more talent in the building, and they’ve done just that."

But not every member of the Sixers felt the same way.

 

[…]

Watching all of this, Ben Simmons could read the tea leaves. He knew Harden would soon be asking out of Houston, and how close Rubin was with Harden, and with Embiid, too, and the role Rubin played in pushing for Morey, and how close Embiid was growing with Morey, who, by the way, had never asked Simmons to lunch. It was like a new circle of power had been formed, and no one had extended him an invite.

"To us, it seemed like the whole reason for bringing in Morey was because they felt like that could get them Harden," a source close to Simmons said.

Despite publicly stating otherwise, in January 2021, Morey tried to do exactly that. He didn’t care that there were all sorts of forces working against him. That the Rockets — and their new GM, Rafael Stone — didn’t consider Simmons a foundational star. That Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta was furious with how and when Morey had left Houston and was not particularly interested in helping him improve his new team. That dangling Simmons in a deal that might not go through but in which negotiations were sure to become public would likely fracture the relationship between Simmons and the team.

Morey was aware of this all, and yet, in his view, a Harden trade was still worth pursuing. First off, if Stone — a longtime colleague and friend of Morey’s — believed Morey’s offer was the best on the table, then the Houston GM would probably be able to convince Fertita to approve the deal. Also, if a trade didn’t happen and Simmons’ feelings were hurt, well, it wasn’t like Morey had tried trading him for nothing. This was James Harden, one of the five best players in the league. If anything, Simmons should be flattered.

More than that, though, Harden was a player worth the risk. The Sixers with Simmons and Embiid were one of the league’s best teams. The Sixers with Harden and Embiid would be, based on Morey’s models, the best — or, rather, the team with the best championship odds.

Morey offered a package centered around Simmons. The Rockets listened. Then, on Jan. 14, they sent Harden to the Nets. Different sources connected to different people have different recollections of how the negotiations played out.

Sources connected to the Sixers’ side say that, in fact, the Rockets never came to the Sixers seeking a final offer. They insist that once Brooklyn had put everything it could on the table — all its core young players and every pick it was legally allowed to trade — the Sixers were no longer needed. In other words, Stone had used them as leverage to bid the Nets up, a true teardown is what the Rockets wanted, and Fertita had no intention of ever trading Harden to Morey.

"There was no way that was ever going to happen," a person familiar with Fertitta’s thinking said.

Sources familiar with Stone’s thinking insist that, despite Fertitta’s anger with Morey, Stone was given the latitude to make the deal he thought was best, and a couple of hours before agreeing to the Nets’ deal, he called the Sixers to see if they wanted to match, and the two sides spoke multiples times that day before the deal, and Morey even called Stone after the deal to congratulate him and acknowledge that the package the Rockets received from the Nets was one Morey could never have matched.

Either way, Simmons believed he was headed to the Rockets — he had started looking for homes in the Houston area — and, according to a person close to him, "it took a couple of games for him get back in the swing of things.

"But," the person told me last June, "he got over it fast. He understands this is a business."

Sure, Simmons knew Morey had tried trading him, which meant Embiid had signed off, and there was a chance he’d be dangled and perhaps dealt in the offseason. But he also though the Sixers — and especially Rivers, who’d been his most vocal supporter all season — appreciated the skills he brought to the table, even if the public never did.

"Doc’s been great, and Ben loves working with [assistant coach] Sam Cassell," the Simmons source told me before last season’s playoffs. "This year has been the best of Ben’s career."

Simmons, for the moment, was content.

[…]

 

drama is coming.

 

Is tate really who we want to run the pick and roll with?

 

I dunno if it "worked out". Sure Morey got Harden and Embiid together which is a massive improvement over Simmons who wasnt playing, but he also gave up a lot of assets including Seth Curry who was their no 1 reliable 3 pt shooter and spacer. Harden is good but he is getting up there in age, he is like Cp3 when we first got him. Its also a huge risk as Harden can walk away next next year and join another team or something if things dont work out. Either that ir he stays and expects a 4-5 yr max contract, again similar to Cp3 situation.

How do you go from demanding 4 picks and 3 swaps to giving up 2 frps and Seth Curry in addition to Ben Simmons for 1.5 seasons of James Harden?

Personally I'd rather have Malcom Brogdon and the lotto pick that turned into Chris Duarte.

 

The Sixers already botched a potential title run last year, mostly thanks to Simmons. Harden is no older than CP3 when he came to Houston, I think he still has a few great years left in him. Plus, with Embiid's injury history, you really can't bank on him being a top player by the time he hits 32+.

Desperate? Of Course. Consequential? Most Certainly. The best move Morey could have done? Absolutely.

 

This trade could not have happened without Harden forcing the Nets' hand. I don't know what Morey did to convince Harden to force his way out of his team AGAIN. But it certainly is not just some great GM job.

 

Its going to get interesting. Harden will choke in the playoffs and demand 250mill for 4 years that offseason.

 

I don't agree that Harden chokes in the playoffs. Lots of people said that CP3 was a playoffs choker too, until last season.

Harden's problem is that he would suddenly disappear in a game for no apparent reason. Unfortunately for him, some of those games were crucial playoffs games. My theory is that when things aren't going well, he has the tendency to check out. That's not something you want for your best player. When the going gets tough, you want you best player the rally your team and keep them together. This had been my main beef with Harden throughout his Rockets tenure. I think how he has conducted himself in the past year or so kind of confirms my theory.

 

Getting hosed in trade and salary negotiations. He's about to give Harden a poison pill contract too.

It's comical because he wanted to play hard ball with the Rox and wasn't willing to give up 1sts AND Simmons when Harden wanted out of Houston but now with half a season left on his contract and in a situation where Harden likely forces his way onto the 76ers in this off-season literally only months away...he gives up one of the best shooters in the league, a really good depth C, AND two first rounders...

I'm amazed how many people still think Morey is great on this board.