PHILADELPHIA — Daryl Morey’s job is to construct the best 76ers team for today and tomorrow, Ben Simmons be damned.
Morey’s doing a hell of a job. Ben Simmons? Be damned.
It’s Morey’s job to plan for the present and the future. It’s Morey’s crusade to finally draw a line in the sand, to protect the industry from the Anthony Davises and the Kawhi Leonards, the way other, lesser team presidents have refused to do.
Good on him.
Simmons demanded a trade in late June. Morey has since tried to accommodate him. But between Simmons’ offensive shortcomings, his choke job in the 2021 playoffs, and his petulant refusal to report for work, Morey hasn’t been able to ship him for anything close to equal value. Simmons continues to boycott the team, saying unspecified mental duress has rendered him incapable of earning his $33 million salary for wearing shorts and running around 82 times over six months.
You try trading that.
Simmons’ name will appear more often as the Feb. 10 trade deadline approaches. Most recently, Sacramento and the Sixers informally discussed a deal that would send Simmons, Tobias Harris, and Matisse Thybulle to the Kings for Buddy Hield, Tyrese Halliburton, Harrison Barnes, and two first-round picks — a trade that would rid the Sixers of their phantom cancer, but a trade that would make the team marginally worse, not better. Morey said, No thanks. Whew.
Morey knows he could trade Simmons right now for Fred Van Vleet and two fifths of Canadian Club. The NBA cognoscenti and Sixers fans alike would shrug, consider Simmons a sunk cost, and move on.
Trading Simmons either for short-term placeholders or long-term draft picks betrays Morey’s responsibility to the current team and its centerpiece, Joel Embiid, both now and later. Morey has correctly calculated that the Sixers, minus Simmons and plus nobody, roughly equals the Sixers, minus Simmons plus a recognizable name.
Really, that’s all Morey’s been offered. Buddy Hield? C.J. McCollum?
Yawn.
The long game
Morey has a responsibility for not only this year but for the five years to come. That’s the likely length of the window for Embiid’s career. As such, Morey’s patience should be appreciated and applauded.
Embiid is proving to be the league’s most valuable player for a second straight season. Even so, he needs a player who can win games when he can’t. He needs a player who can amplify his defense and rebounding — not a player who requires Embiid to be a more productive rebounder and defender.
He needs Ben Simmons, or someone like him. There aren’t many like him. So, Morey holds out.
This was the essence of the interview Morey granted Mike Missanelli on WPEN-FM (97.5) on Thursday. For 25 minutes Missanelli deftly plumbed all of the angles the Simmons saga has traveled these last seven months. In it, Morey asserted that Embiid’s “mind-bending” campaign increased the urgency to move Simmons, but also raised the stakes around any trade. Embiid can, without question, carry a team to a title — as long as he is properly fortified.
Embiid’s progress in his eighth year might have moved Morey’s target group from top-30 to top-40, but that comes with obvious caveats: No deal can include Tobias Harris, Matisse Thybulle, or Tyrese Maxey without replacing any of them with a reasonable, plug-and-play replacement. Otherwise, the Sixers aren’t moving forward. They’re moving sideways.
Morey likes the chemistry that exists. This is crucial, because Embiid is sensitive, too. He believes Embiid, Harris, Thybulle, and Maxey can play major, affordable roles for the next handful of seasons. This is what a good steward does:
“Add to the team so it really improves what’s happening around Joel and Tobias,” he said.
He doesn’t want to trade Simmons for a handful of mediocrity, and, besides, there are only so many minutes to be played.
“This deal has to be The One. Addresses our defense, which isn’t playoff-good enough. Addresses our rebounding, which isn’t playoff-good enough. Addresses our playmaking; it’s important we improve our transition,” Morey said. “If you trade one of these great players for multiple players, it does not move your championship odds enough to make a difference. ... You cannot do that across multiple players. They can’t all play.”
Mistakes, and a chance
The most remarkable comments Morey made Thursday lay in his admission that he sullied his relationship with Simmons when he arrived.
Morey shopped Simmons to the Rockets for a deal that would have brought James Harden to Philadelphia, and did so without regard to Simmons’ feelings. He made clear his belief that Embiid needed more than just Simmons to contend for a title. He didn’t consult Simmons or Simmons’ camp before talks were made public. Simmons didn’t like that. Oops.
“Everyone needs to look in the mirror,” Morey said. “I look in the mirror and say, ‘Could I have established a better relationship with Ben? I would say, yes.”
Simmons also was offended when, immediately after he gagged in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, coach Doc Rivers didn’t endorse him as a point guard with the ability to lead a team to a title. That night, Embiid also pointed to Simmons’ refusal to dunk as the play that turned the game in the Hawks’ favor.
Simmons hasn’t had meaningful dialogue with any of them since.
Imagine trying to trade that.
However, as Morey noted, even without Simmons, the Sixers remain relevant. They entered the weekend 2 1/2 games out of first place in the Eastern Conference, 10-2 in their last 12 games, with recent wins over second-place Miami and third-place Brooklyn. What’s the rush?
His state-of-the-franchise evaluation was fascinating, too.
“We are sitting on a solid chance to win the championship, with how well Joel is playing, how well Doc is coaching, how well the players around him are playing,” Morey said.
Only Simmons, or a viable replacement, makes that chance much more solid.
Reconciliation?
Morey acknowledged that his meeting last week with Rich Paul, Simmons’ agent, bore no fruit. Simmons today is no closer to returning to play for the Sixers than he was when he skipped training camp.
“That meeting was about getting the dialogue to a better place. There’s been more conversations with Ben.” Morey told Missanelli. “Those conversations have not progressed.”
A man can dream, can’t he?
“I 100 percent believe he could play for us again,” Morey said, wistfully, and threw these bouquets:
“Our defense goes from best in the league to average [without him]. Joel and Ben always put together elite defense. That is so important in playoff basketball. Our rebounding has gone from 10th to near the bottom of the league. And he’d be literally almost the perfect player ... to pair with Joel Embiid. People don’t understand how much he impacted.”
The Sixers roster “has a Ben Simmons hole in it.”
Don’t expect that hole to be filled by mid-February. Don’t fret if it isn’t.
Daryl Morey’s doing the right thing.
