Daryl Morey has hit the media circuit to talk about his nervousness for the huge Play-In game vs. the Heat, the path to the Finals he prefers, Maxey’s development, and more on The Ricky.
The Sixers host the Miami Heat Wednesday night in a clash of titans. It’s a game with monumental stakes — Jimmy Butler returns to face his former teammate, Joel Embiid. The winner gets to book a date to the Big Apple to take on Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby and the No. 2 seed New York Knicks.
The loser will get one more crack at the NBA Playoffs by later hosting the winner of the Bulls-Hawks Play-In game. The loser of Wednesday night’s epic Sixers (47-35)-Heat (46-36) battle in Philly should still be favored over either Chicago or Atlanta, but with a win there, that team’s “reward” is a trip to visit the 64-18 (league-best) No. 1 seed Boston Celtics.
Would you rather the Sixers have to play Boston in round one or the Knicks? And if Philly did get the Knicks and somehow win, there’s a solid chance that they’d get the Indiana Pacers in round two because the Milwaukee Bucks are all kinds of hurting right now.
With so much of that on Sixers fans’ minds, the team’s President of Basketball Operations, Daryl Morey, joined Spike Eskin and Mike Levin on the “Rights to Ricky Sanchez” pod.
Morey was asked right off the bat if he’s nervous about Miami.
Morey: “Yes. (long pause, as they all laugh).”
Eskin: “Why are you nervous?”
Morey: “I mean it’s so important….you do all this work for these moments, you guys get to have a few more podcasts, and we may not have that many more games this year. So yeah, it’s the finality of it, it’s really a bummer we win eight in a row and we don’t avoid the Play-In…. I think it’s good for the league but I hate that we’re in it this year.”
Morey was clearly honest here and didn’t pretend to be fearless like some NBA coaches might try to convey when speaking to media.
The truth is, yeah, it does stink that the Sixers got stuck in the No. 7 seed before the postseason. There were so many ways, so many close games they lost, so many blown calls that disadvantaged them, so many odd division quirks and tiebreakers, where any one of those things going the other way might have left them at least in a No. 6 seed.
Really do hate the Process pic.twitter.com/TU2xjTJdTJ
— DaveEarly (@DavidEarly) April 16, 2024
Morey was asked to talk about the three-way tiebreaker (that bumped them down to No. 7 despite finishing with the same record as Orlando and Indiana) rule which rewards teams that win their division.
The Magic play in a division with three teams planning for lottery picks (two of which have bottom four overall records) while the Sixers play more games vs. the likes of Boston and New York, literally the Conference’s top two seeds. Yeesh.
Levin asked Morey if he finds this tiebreaker stuff “unpleasant?”
Morey: “Once you’re in all these tiebreakers, they have to break ‘em somehow, they could use coin-flips … I was in the meeting where [the NBA] talked about keeping the divisions. I believe the league wanted the divisions gone — this is my memory — and several teams argued for it heavily ‘cause they wanted — the unbalanced schedule — to be able to say that those games meant more and they’re rivalry games… so I understood how we got here.”
It almost sounds like it could be the teams in Morey’s own division who might have argued to keep them? Would Boston want credit for beating some really good teams? Or perhaps a team or two in the Western Pacific division which includes the Lakers, Clippers, Warriors, Suns and Kings. But who knows…
Morey talked about where he thinks the team might have wound up had they had Joel Embiid for his typical 60-65 games, rather than missing more than two months.
“I think comfortably in the No. 2 seed. I mean, pace guide would say we were on pace for 56 [wins] or something. We were actually on pace for more than that with our point differential even adjusting for schedule strength and things like that. Look, to judge myself, I really hoped we would play better in those times when Joel was out. We’re really not built for that but you do hope you have a few more players step up. I do think [Tyrese] Maxey hit the high end of what we hoped this year. Like I really think it’s really exciting big-picture wise for the franchise that we have I think the best player and the second-best player on a team that can win the championship. There’s not a lot of teams that can say that. But you know, it’s more on me, like once you’re past that, I really thought we’d win more than a little over a third of our games [16-27] and we just needed a few more guys to step up and y’know guys I coulda brought in [via trade, free agency, buyout] y’know whatever it might be.”
It really is an Eastern Conference tilting injury that Embiid suffered.
The worst part, in my humble opinion, is that fans were extremely concerned with Embiid’s knee injury several games before the fateful play, a collision with Jonathan Kuminga, in San Francisco.
Embiid was also stumbling around for three-and-a-half quarters in that game as fans wondered why he was still out there looking so hobbled and clumsy.
And then it happened.
But I agree with Morey, the Sixers, who finished with 47 wins, three less than the No. 2 Knicks, would have verrry comfortably topped New York for the No. 2 seed if Embiid never needed surgery. Heck, he could have given them four-five more games to get it done! Dude only appeared in 39 total and the Sixers went 31-8 in those! An absolutely silly win-rate.
It’s intriguing Morey mentions guys that did not step up.
We certainly wouldn’t guess he means Tyrese Maxey, Kelly Oubre, Jr., Nico Batum or Kyle Lowry.
I’m not sure he meant Paul Reed, and I damn sure well know he didn’t mean Ricky Council IV, who crushed expectations.
So that probably leaves the dudes you were already thinking of in Tobias Harris and Buddy Hield.
Morey was asked a version of what was good or bad about the time without Embiid this season. Did players benefit or were they hurt because of it?
Morey: “Time without Joel was good for [Tyrese] Maxey, but not so much everyone else. Guys got a lot of reps like Oubre, Hield it was very good too, if [Miami] plays zone I’m hopeful Buddy can step in.”
The 76ers went just 16-27 without Embiid. Morey volunteered how disappointed he was with that, and how he shoulders much of the responsibility. But this part was quite intriguing about missing James Harden’s playmaking and passing in those games when Jo missed in the prior two season.
Morey: James [Harden]… for sure carried us in a lot of those [games Embiid missed] last year and is used to being the guy and we just weren’t generating clean looks for guys when Joel was out [this year]. Tyrese is getting better and better at that [creation for others]. But he’s not like tops of the league in that yet. And look, to win games in this league you have to have one elite guy and Maxey is there, but he’s not there in like his ability to create easy looks for others yet. I think he’ll get there and I think he’s advanced a lot.”
Fans may not love hearing Morey admit the team missed Harden in any way, shape or form, but he’s right. They may hate the idea Maxey is less good at anything, especially since the team’s ball movement was more fun to watch this season.
But they could have used someone as skilled of a passer as Harden is at times. For what it’s worth, Kyle Lowry went 4-4 at the crib this season without Joel. Had they had him longer, they certainly could have avoided much of their MVP-less spiral and all this Beard talk.
Morey was next asked a version of the question how vital is this game vs. Miami? Are they all in, or do they perhaps not totally mind their ultimate seed? He didn’t sugarcoat.
Morey: “I think you throw everything at the wall. The winning this game is the much better path. Look, it is true that we likely have to play Boston to win the title… the thesis of that would be ‘it doesn’t matter when you play them,’ but one of our better options for beating Boston is we get some variance on the injury side. That it goes our way for once, right? That’s generally more likely to happen later in the playoffs. So I’d much rather play them later. I do think we can beat them, but we’d rather play them later, yep.”
Once again, this reads very honest to me. And like the Harden answer, I can see why some fans may not like the implication here: one of their best ways to beat Boston is that Boston sustains some injuries and the Sixers get healthier, or improve (Joel’s) conditioning.
But I agree with Morey completely.
If his Sixers had to face a fully healthy Boston group with Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis and Derrick White, fresh off a full Play-In week’s rest?
Holy smokes, Philly might get smoked, as might everyone else in the East.
Embiid recently missed the last game of the year (with the chance to move up to No. 6 on the line, something Morey explained above how much they prioritized) because of “precaution” due to the knee-tweak he sustained vs. Orlando.
Someone make that injury variance jawn swing in a hurry, please? Can we get a healthy Jo, add back De’Anthony Melton and Robert Covington as some other team has to face what Philly has dealt with all year? You never ever want to root for injuries, but they are a part of the game, and the luck has not gone Philly’s way.
The Sixers road to the Finals becomes a lot easier if they can beat Miami and then the Knicks, and then the winner of the Pacers-Bucks series. Daryl knows it. You know it.
But they have to beat Miami first. Game on. Go give the pod a listen.