Daryl Morey Speaks on the Philadelphia 76ers’ Third Overall Draft Pick| Is Ace Bailey an Option?

Daryl Morey Speaks on the Philadelphia 76ers’ Third Overall Draft Pick| Is Ace Bailey an Option?

Our man John Cade had to dip out a little early today, but Amy Fidel with me for the remainder of the show. And joining us now on the Comcast Business Hotline, where every day in business is a big day. Let Comcast business help you move forward with what’s next. The president of basketball operations for your Philadelphia 76ers, Daryl my joins us. Daryl, good morning. How are we? Good morning. Hey, thanks for having me on. Appreciate it. Thank you for coming on. I’m sure yesterday was a celebratory day for you getting a the pick because we were all still worried about the doomsday scenario where you guys lost the pick to the Thunder, but you also climb up from six to three. With your pre-draft analysis, how big of a jump for you was that big? I think uh three, we feel very comfortable about the player who’ll be there. uh really excited and uh yeah, it was definitely a a celebration day and a high drama day that uh that all all Philly fans and everyone in the front office and coaching staff uh went through. Yeah. Our stomachs dropped out when Kevin Dandi misreported that they lost the pick and we were sitting there trying to run through the numbers. I was like, they couldn’t have they couldn’t have lost the pick. He’s wrong. And he corrected himself thankfully. But you said you feel confident about Kevin. Did you hear that Darl? Kevin added uh we did. Yeah, Kevin added to the drama. Um obviously we sort of knew well I I knew that uh that wasn’t correct. I knew our odds had dropped uh but that they were still alive. Um and uh it was actually a pretty funny moment cuz I turned out and I said, “No, we’re not out of it.” And then Nick uh said to Elton, “I don’t think Daryl heard that.” They said, “We’re out.” Yeah, they thought you were wrong. I mean, it was pretty Yeah. pretty logical though for Nick or anyone to, you know, assume they probably got it right cuz I know they actually did several dress rehearsals with the media as well. So, uh yeah, you know what? Hey, it these things happen and just uh it happened in the most dramatic way. You said you you’re pretty confident about who you like at three, the player that you’re going to be able to get. That would lend itself to believe that you are going to take a player at three. Is that the scenario that you guys are rolling with? Yeah, that’s the plan. I think to get uh to get a high uh uh high upside player that uh we also think can contribute right away is is a big deal. and we feel like uh three is uh a great spot to be when it comes to contributing right away. How difficult for you is it to draft a player for the here and now versus down the road because even though you do have players locked up like Joel Embiid, Paul George, and Tyresese Maxi age also plays a factor and injury plays a factor. So how much do you think about the 2025 season with your draft pick, but how much do you also think about down the road? Yeah, I mean I we’re as usual that my job is both. Uh so, you know, we are in that window where we’re ready to win, but I the nice thing about the uh this draft being a very good draft overall, especially at the top end, uh is that we don’t feel like we’re going to have to make a compromise there. It’s interesting the way it lines up. And one thing we were talking about earlier, the draft is on the 25th. Free agency starts uh on the evening of the 30th. So you have you kind of have it back toback which is helpful but also it puts you guys in a crunch. You have to decide who you’re going to draft knowing who you might have to try to rake make a run at at free agency. You have guys like Quinton Grimes a restricted free agent. You have Gershon Yaboselli uh who is obviously unrestricted and then players that are coming back in that have the player option. How much does your scenarios for free agency play into who you draft for? Yeah, our free agency won’t play into who we draft. Uh we’re going to go with the best player there. Um which is why we’re excited about how good the top of the draft is. Uh and then we’ll have to work around uh who we who we draft in free agency. But uh if you look at the history of the league, the mistakes are made when you uh when you don’t just take the best player there work around it. Now, we don’t know who the player is that you’re selecting at three, but I will ask you if it’s one of the guards that are available in this NBA draft. How much do you take into account maybe the abundance of guards that you already have or is that something that you ignore because you just want the best player available? Yeah, we won’t take that into account. Yeah, if the best player is a guard, we’ll take a guard there. I like it because there’s some there there is a lot of value. It’s one thing that, you know, everybody was talking about. This isn’t a a draft necessarily littered with generational talent, but there’s a lot of guys who can help teams right away. How important is it for that to play a role? These are guys that can come in at the third pick and they can contribute immediately, much the way that we saw Jared McCain contribute, though I think that was a bit of a surprise. But I think this guy, whomever it is, is going to be able to come in, play important minutes right away on this team. Yeah, they’ll be highly regarded uh right away. Um and uh so yeah, no we’re uh you know we’re very excited and they’ll also be you know uh you know very uh very talented as well. Um so you know we we picked a good draft to get fortunate and move up from uh from five to three. Daryl, you were on with the Mike Misselli show last week and you talked about the end of the season and some of the plans this off season and obviously we know that so much of it goes around the health of Joel Embiid and I know you cannot guarantee a healthy season out of Joel Embiid, but what makes you feel comfortable that he will be back and playing at the level that we used to see out of Joel Embiid following this season where it was disastrous with injuries? Yeah, I would say both the success of the surgery then uh the early returns from his work with Dr. Glacial uh have been positive. Uh obviously, you know, nothing can be guaranteed, but uh all the directional information we’re getting is is positive as at this point that uh he’ll be out there um he’ll be out there next season. I mean, the the one thing you heard from the guys, all the players in the in the exit kind of interviews was it was a tough season. There’s no doubt about it. They didn’t really immense words, but they all had kind of a positive approach like there’s only one way to go and that’s up. You know, it it has to be moving forward. How much has that been the mantra really, not just of the team, but of the front office as well, thinking like that we’re not going to get snake bit twice. We have to kind of put that behind us as hard as it was and really try to have a more, you know, a positive outlook. as hard as it is after the season that you had. Yeah. I don’t know how positively the only way we can go as up this. Yeah. That was Kyle Lowry. Maybe it’s a little too doomsdayish. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But uh No, I think we’re positive. I mean, we we I think it’s more a confidence that this group knows that the talent of of Paul and Tyrese and Joelle uh and you know, the develop you know, the Jared McCain and uh Quint and Grimes, Edwards, Bona, plus the third pick in the draft. I think obviously we didn’t know that at the time, but I think that’s where the conference come from is we know we have the talent and now we just got to get out there, be healthy, and execute. a lot of Sixers fans that have, let’s face it, been beaten down with second round eliminations, right? We know that it’s been 20 plus years since they got out of the second round, getting to the Eastern Conference Finals. They look around these NBA playoffs and they see these younger teams that are playing as well as they are. What makes you feel comfortable and confident that if healthy, your Philadelphia 76ers with the additions that you’re going to make either via the draft and free agency can put you back toward the top of the Eastern Conference? Yeah. Again, I mean, I think we know when Joel’s healthy, he’s been the top five player in the league. We know Paul George is an elite uh all-star level player when he’s playing with a full complement of guys like a Tyrese. Tyrese is going to be going into uh I think it’s his sixth season. Uh and he continues to progress, especially on the defensive end. And then you add that, you know, our rotation next year is going to be pretty much all 25, 26, 27 and younger. uh and uh we feel very good and and all of them going to be are going to be going into uh at least their second season except the third pick and I we feel uh and generally there’s a pretty big jump as as young players move into their second third season. So you know we’re uh you know we’re we’re looking forward to to where we’ll be next year. You mentioned a couple of the guys and and I think the one thing that the Sixers could take away and Sixers fans could take away is that you did win I like to call it winning on the margins. The guys where you know you kind of took flyers on like a Gershon Yabaselli, Justin Edwards, a Dembona with the second round pick. Those are really paid off and I think that there are are some positives to take away when you think about that going forward now with free agency with some of those guys. you know, are you confident that everybody is coming back and opting in? And how much does that play into the rest of your kind of offseason strategy with a Gershon Yabaselli? Obviously, Ubé has the player option, Andre Drummond has the player option, Eric Gordon has the player option. Yeah, obviously it’s their choice, but directionally, and I think they’ve even said it in some of their comments, I think Drummond and and Eric will opt in. Uh Yavi is an unrestricted free agent, so we will look to resign him. But those that historically in the league has tended to be a harder situation, but uh it would be awesome if we could get him back. And then Grimes, we we feel good about obviously he’s a free agent as well, but uh we have the ability uh to to match the deal. So, we’re hoping to work him out with uh Grimes as well. Daryl, listen, man. We appreciate the time. Uh congratulations to getting the third overall pick. I I don’t think anybody expected going into the season to be uh there for draft lottery night, but it is what it is. The season played out the way that it did and at least you got to keep the pick and moved up three spots as well. Yeah, I think when you have a rough year, it’s important you build on it by developing a McCain, Edwards, Bona, get a Grimes, uh and then also to get a top three pick. Uh it’s important that when you have a rough year, uh because they come every once in a while with injuries that you maximize it and we feel like we we were able to do that. Darl, we appreciate.

Daryl Morey speaks to Kincade and Salciunas on the Sixers’ third overall draft pick
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