Daryl Morey On The Future Of The 76ers And What Could Be Next | The Mike Missanelli Show

Daryl Morey On The Future Of The 76ers And What Could Be Next | The Mike Missanelli Show

Hello, Daryl. Hey, Mike. You guys are hot. Every line’s busy. You can’t get Yeah, I know. Well, we, you know, we’ve had some phone issues here, so this is a whole new phone system, but we’re glad you you sound loud and clear. So, uh, we ready to go here? Absolutely. All right, Darl. I I got to start with this. You know, by all measures, and I don’t have to tell you, this was a disaster season, one of the worst in franchise histories. Uh so so um the the not so delicate question is in this league it’s what have you done for me lately? A lot of people get zipped if their team is not successful. So what do you say to the folks that said after a season like this you shouldn’t have kept your job? Why do you think you you should be able to keep your job after a season like this? Yeah, it was a disaster season. There’s really no uh no way to say anything but that. Uh, look, I would say the roster next year is going to be much stronger. We’ve got one thing when you have a disaster season is how do you take advantage of it? You want to give yourself a chance at a high pick in the draft, which uh which we have. We’ve got an early second next year roster more athletic and younger uh with with Grimes, with Edwards, with Bona, with Jared McCain, with potentially a top draft pick. Um and uh and we’re going to have a healthier team. So, uh I would say uh look, hang in. We we feel your pain, uh fans, and uh you know, let’s uh let’s play this out next year. We feel very strongly about next year. Why are you so sure that you’re going to have a healthier team? Your two biggest stars have have reached a plateau where maybe they can never be healthy again. Sure. I would say look obviously um you injuries are hard to project hard to uh hard to know how many you’ll have uh but I would mention you know for example if folks were to ask when uh when say a Kawhi Leonard pulls out of USAB last year how many people would say that he would be playing 45 minutes plus in multiple multiple very significant playoff games. I would say if you go back to, you know, guys like say a Brook Lopez who played 30 games when he was 33 years old and asked and prior to that had played less games than uh Joel Embiid had played uh per season and then comes out with a 78 game season, a 79 game season, and 80ame season over the last three. So um look, they’re they’re hard to predict. What you want to have in this league is a chance to win the title. You want to have elite players when they’re healthy. You want to have a good supporting cast and we’ll have that next year. Well, hopefully. I mean, you kind of rounded it off that you have elite players and we’ll get to Joelle in a minute, but when you look back, what mistakes did you make and what things would you have done differently approaching coming into to last season? Yeah, I think last season was pretty clear. Uh, and I put this on me. Um, obviously we came in with the third best odds to win the title last year in uh in Vegas. And you know, my thinking was there as well was how do I get this group healthy and into the playoffs? How do I have playoff level players? And generally those are players with playoff experience. Uh ones that sort of round out can shoot, things like that. What it did not do well was uh make sure we have the youth and athleticism to get through the regular season uh and put us in that position and that’s something we we will do uh next year. Well, see this is the thing that people mistrust now because for two straight years you went with older bench parts and in both cases they they did not work out. Now, uh the the the the astute NBA observer would say, “Well, the general manager is supposed to know that beforehand instead of having it happen and there will be mistakes made that these guys are too old.” You see what the league is now? It’s it’s a young athletic league with guys that can come off the bench and make a difference defensively. So, my question is, what was the thinking thinking that these older players could fortify and last you through a season? Yeah, I say the first thing is next year our rotation uh is going to be guys 25 and younger. Uh like the majority of our rotation will be there. So obviously that that is a mistake that we’re correcting in terms of knowing it before 100% in that if we were younger and hadn’t had this time to develop which obviously a bad season. One thing you get out of it is we’re going to have developed players. Uh we had the odds on rookie year uh when he went out uh with sort of a fluke injury. Jared Edwards has come along. Bone has come along. We possibly have a high pick. Um, and if but if we had gone extremely young last year with the a team third best in title odds and then got to the playoffs and didn’t have experienced role players and we’re playing a bunch of rookies and lost in the first round, second round, whatever, third round hopefully, hopefully finals. Uh, people would have said, “Oh, the mistake was we had too many young players.” But now we’re going to have most of these guys in their second, third, fourth season, 25 and younger. So that will that will help us go into Yeah. I don’t know if people would have said that, Daryl. I got to be honest with you because the guys that the older I promise you I I promise you uh if we lose in any round, people are going to say you didn’t have X. Yeah, but look at what you went through all year with these older players. I mean, they were in and out of the lineup. They couldn’t play most of the time. They were just too old to be efficient. I’m pointing out if we had made the playoffs this year, if we had general health and then were playing multiple rookies in our rotation and then lost because they were too inexperienced, that would have been what was called out. I’m not saying all right. Well, maybe maybe not. I I think this this fan base would have appreciated this something would have been identified as the problem and let’s talk about the inexperienced rookies. Yeah. Okay. I I I get you now. Let’s talk about Joelle. First of all, what surgery did he have and what was corrected? Because I don’t think that the the fan base knows. He We know he had surgery. We’ve been told it’s been successful. What exactly was it that’s going to make him a a player that’s not going to be injured? I believe that was announced. He had a scope. Um, look, it looks optimistic. He’s with the doctor that did Kawaii. Um, he’s he was up in New York working with him this week. Uh he’s working every day at the facility. I was with him yesterday working with his folks. So he’s working hard doing whatever he can to get back out on the floor. Um this is, you know, I mentioned this before. This his issues are not, you know, I break my arm, it heals and you come back. This is more of a complex case that these things can either can trend in a good direction over time and we believe they will. I know. I know you had a scope. That’s what I’m saying. When what did the scope reveal? I don’t think people know about that. Did they fix something in there? Did they just go in with a scope and say, “Well, it’s degenerative.” Like, what what happened? I don’t think I don’t think doctors go in uh to scope without without fixing something. So, I believe Do you know what they fixed? Do you have any idea what they fixed? I I I I have intimate knowledge of what what what’s going on. Yeah. Okay. You can’t share that. I believe we announced what we can share. Okay. Um, let’s go back. What control did you have over his Olympic participation? Because a lot of people are pointing to that as this is a reason why he wasn’t ready to start the season and then things went bad after that. What control do you have over that? Yeah, we don’t. Uh, that’s been a change. Um, so, you know, teams don’t have control over that, but that doesn’t matter. We we were very positive about his Olympic uh experience. Uh, doctors were very comfortable and actually thought it would be positive for him. uh to participate in it. So, we had no issues with that and it was, you know, a proud moment for him uh and the United States to to win that gold. You said this that’s going to change. No, I didn’t say that. Sorry. You didn’t say that. So, you’re not going to be able to have control over whether player wants to do. No. No. The Olympics is not something the team can control. All right. Now, listen. We’ve heard all kinds of things about Joel. I don’t know what’s true, what’s not, but there are a lot of people that say he slacks in certain areas. He was called out by his teammates. Do you believe the organization because of he’s Joel Embiid lets him get away with things that they shouldn’t let him get away with as far as working hard? I do not. No. Joel’s doing everything he can to win games for this team. That’s all he cares about. Um it kills him that he can’t be out there to to help the team win last year. Uh I do not. Uh would you enter is first of all is it fair to say that we’ve seen the best of Joel Embiid? No, I don’t you have to you have to use him in a different capacity now. No, I don’t I don’t think that’s written. I don’t think we know that. I think I think MVP Joel Embiid is still potentially there. Uh we won’t know obviously till we go through the season, but um he’s in a he’s in an age where lots of players still play to their prime. He’s in an age where lots of players, even with issues, have come back and played at a high level. So, no, I do not think that. If a team called you with what you thought was a really good deal that could rebuild this franchise, would you entertain trading him? I look, we’re committed to Joel, Paul, and Tyrese. All right, let’s talk about Paul then. What was your assessment of the way he played last year? because to the average eye, it didn’t look like he was that invested in playing for the Philadelphia 76ers. And we’ve seen that before at certain stops that he’s had. Yeah, that was uh obviously wasn’t his best year. He would come out and say that himself. I think he maybe did that. Um we believe he’ll bounce back. He had um he was still he was an elite defender. Uh offensively, he was brought in to be part of a unit with uh elite play on the wing. defensively space the floor on offense with Joel and Tyrese and we believe that can still work. Uh obviously we haven’t really had much of a look at that. Um even when they were healthy guys certain guys would leave the game or Joel was not 100% where he needed to be. So we have not seen that at this point. I talking to Daryl my president of basketball operations Philadelphia 76ers. Daryl, what was your communication with the owner during the season and what was it after the season? I mean, he sits right there in the courtside seats. He saw the same thing that that we are. He’s the guy who owns the team and I know he was kind of diverted with the Washington Commanders and all that stuff, but did you sense dissatisfaction from your owner? Well, first thing, he’s not diverted. Obviously, he uh is sort of a mogul and uh owns many businesses both in sports and without, but he is so committed to turning this franchise around. Uh obviously, a lot of that could start with uh with Monday. We could get some some positive news there that’ll help the franchise. You know, the conversations during the year are probably the same ones you guys have in the radio, which is this isn’t going well. How do we make it better for next season? Uh it’s we we sort of knew that the final sort of uh nail in the season was post deadline when we traded for Grimes who came in and did great work. We thought we could make a run uh do do like a Miami and play our way in and play our way into the finals. Uh obviously that didn’t work. Um and Joelle Joel wasn’t healthy. Uh and then multiple players got hurt. So last year was sort of like I think it was one of the most injured seasons in the history of the NBA. It’s got to be in the top few if it wasn’t. Uh so the the conversations during the year with Josh are like how do we take advantage? How do develop players? How does Nick um you know try out new things that he can build on next season? Uh how do we make a trade for a Grimes who can be a building a key rotation player in the future? Uh how do we Yeah. How do we set ourselves up even in a bad season to be even stronger next season? Our roster going into next season will be better than we went into last season where again we were the third best odds to to win the title. I a compulsive owner with all due respect might have said uh I’m cleaning house. I I’m curious just to know the conversation on what you had to say to him to convince him that uh you you need to keep seeing this through. Well, I think it would be a little bit uh hasty. Obviously, he’s very careful in decision making just like I am. Be a little hasty to say if you have them all some of that’s the coach’s fault or the front office’s fault. Uh let’s see it play out before we make any rash decisions. I think most successful executives that’s a big part of their decision- making. All right. Um, tell tell the people why they can trust you’re capable of fixing this. I mean, this first losing season I’ve ever had. More deep playoff runs than pretty much any executive in league history. Um, I’ve never been to the lottery. That’s, you know, probably because we only win. So, I’m pretty good at the winning thing. Okay. But now, how do you keep up with the burgeoning East? you basically we’re crossing our fingers that your two star players who are older and probably aren’t going to get any healthier has to now keep up with the Indiana and the Knicks that also include the Celtics and the Cavaliers. Yeah, I mean the Celtics aren’t going to be able to keep that team together. Uh obviously um you know a lot of these teams that uh are doing well are going to have challenges keeping their team together. um whereas we’re going to have a younger, more dynamic group around three top players. So, uh obviously we’ll see how it plays out and we’re going to need uh injuries to go our way. Uh but otherwise, we feel very good about the team next year. Daryl, I appreciate your optimism. I am not sure that the majority of 76er fans share it. But listen, I appreciate you coming on and and facing the music. I I really do appreciate it. And then best of luck to you with the draft. I hope you get the number one pick. And it’s Cooper Flag. That’s good. I’m I’m literally standing at Cooper Street in Camden right now. Well, there you go. That That’s an omen. So, we’ll uh we’ll see uh we’ll appreciate and uh let’s hope the ping pong balls go our way on Monday. And thanks for having me on. All right, Daryl. Thank you. There he is. Daryl my president of basketball operations.

President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey speaks about the future of the Philadelphia 76ers, and gives an update on Joel Embiid.

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