Is Daryl Morey the Man to Trust For the Future?

In October of 2020, the Philadelphia 76ers hired their new president of basketball operations, Daryl Morey. Things were looking up for Philly, they got their guy, and he was ready to go to work. Over the course of two seasons, Daryl Morey grew a great fanbase in Philadelphia. His most recent success-story is the James Harden trade.

Daryl Morey is actually a god for keeping both of these two https://t.co/yp2HgcWu43

— Finn Lukens (@FinnLukens) February 10, 2022

Morey was able to dump off a severely hated player in Ben Simmons, for a former NBA MVP and a 10x All-Star in James Harden. For what seemed like a very long month, Morey was considered a god in the streets of Philadelphia. 

With all of this praise and success, what would provoke the question of if he should be the guy for our future? The answer is quite complicated. While Morey hasn’t done anything that would harm the Sixers as a team, this offseason will be very telling as to if he should be trusted. The Sixers obviously need upgrades, but the question is where? There are a couple of routes that the front office could choose to take. The route that Morey is “supposedly” choosing to take. 

In a recent report, it came out the Daryl Morey will almost definitely be going after a third “star” for the Sixers team.

Philadelphia 76ers president Daryl Morey wants to add a third star next to Joel Embiid and James Harden. https://t.co/hUPvQ1tZrV

— Sixers Wire (@SixersWire) May 16, 2022

This report caused a lot of mixed responses amongst Sixers fans. There is a side of Sixers fans that would love to get it done on a right deal. A lineup consisting of Tyrese Maxey, James Harden, Bradley Beal, Georges Niang (?), and Joel Embiid would be a scary site for defenses across the NBA. It is very easy to see the upside to going with this route. It takes pressure off of Embiid, and will give Maxey not one, but two veteran stars to mentor him. That is all aside from the obvious that the Sixers would have four players in their starting five capable of averaging 20+ PPG. While there is a lot of upside, there is a very obvious downside that outweighs the good for a lot of Sixers fans. That downside being the Sixers bench. 

Currently, the 76ers bench rotation consists of Georges Niang, Shake Milton, Paul Reed, DeAndre Jordan Matisse Thybulle/Danny Green, and Furkan Korkmaz. It’s very safe to say that their bench rotation is awful. That statement was made very clear in the playoffs, particularly in the series against the Heat. Naturally, with very little success in that area, Sixers fans would love to improve their bench. This offseason the Sixers would be able to pick up players like Patrick Beverly, Donte DiVencienzo, Colin Sexton, or even Seth Curry or Andre Drummond. Any of these players would improve the Sixers bench. Signing three or four of these solid roleplayers would give the Sixers depth that they need. If the Sixers were to acquire a star like Bradley Beal via sign and trade, the Sixers bench would get even worse.

Let’s look at some pieces that could be moved if they trade for a star:

Tobias Harris, Matisse Thybulle, Shake Milton, Furkan Korkmaz, Georges Niang, Isaiah Joe, the list could go on. 

The problem with this is, we could really only be getting that star player. We’d lose a solid starting power forward, and half of the best players in our bench. We’d be left with a starting lineup that doesn’t fit well, and an atrocious bench. Personally, I wouldn’t see this team going further than round 2. 

It’ll be interesting to see what Daryl Morey manages to do over the offseason, but his choices could hurt his legacy. He has already confirmed Doc Rivers to be the head coach next year. This definitely raised some eyebrows and was not Morey’s most-liked decision. If he chooses to go one route this offseason, and the Sixers still don’t make it past the second round, it’ll be time to really start questioning if he is valuable to our organization, or if he’s hurting us.