You Can’t Blame Daryl Morey For Every Sixers Problem
Sixers fans are out of their minds due to the Knicks trading six 1st round picks & a 2nd round pick for Mikal Bridges. Wisely Daryl Morey did not trade all the Sixers’ assets to match the haul that the Nets got in return.
That doesn’t mean that the Knicks didn’t improve, but it does mean that the Sixers shouldn’t have made that same move. Fans are frustrated, but what issues are Morey’s fault and which issues are from the people who were here before him?
Most Of The Problems Existed Before Daryl Morey
Taking the Bridges trade for example. That happened after Bryan Colangelo & his wife decided to go rogue with burner accounts. Brett Brown had final say over the Sixers front office with Elton Brand beneath him.
The Sixers were in win-now mode and drafted Bridges. They then moved Bridges for Zaire Smith and an unprotected 1st round pick. They used that unprotected pick to trade for Tobias Harris after missing out on Kawhi Leonard. The Sixers lost to the Raptors that season in 7-games.
After that season Brown traded Jimmy Butler, paid Tobias, and brought in Al Horford. A lot of those moves were mistakes, and none of them were made by Daryl Morey. (Bridges averaged 8.3 points & shot 33.5% from 3 as a rookie. Bad trade because Smith was a complete bust, not because they needed Bridges in 2018-2019)
The Colangelo era led to Ben Simmons and the trade with the Celtics to move up in the draft to get Markelle Fultz. We know that Ben Simmons didn’t enjoy the game of basketball. Fultz has become a somewhat useful guard, but he lost his game completely here.
The Sixers never had a chance to get Jayson Tatum because if the Sixers wanted Tatum, the Celtics wouldn’t have made the trade. The issue is that they traded an asset for the wrong player. Then he went rogue as mentioned previously. Again, I understand being upset about the moves, but Morey didn’t do them.
Sam Hinkie also was horrible at his job. The fact that he drafted Jahlil Okafor when he already had Joel Embiid and Nerlens Noel on the roster speaks to his incompetence. The fact that people worship him is obscene in my opinion. It is not hard to just lose and then make a bunch of bad picks. Even Joel Embiid was an accident. He wanted Andrew Wiggins that year. Morey didn’t do that either.
The Good Things Daryl Morey Has Done
Daryl Morey drafted Tyrese Maxey at 21 overall. Maxey is now an all-star player. He doesn’t get credit for it from the fans, but he gets blamed for moves he didn’t even make.
He got James Harden back for a Ben Simmons who had quit the sport in 2021. Since the trade, Simmons has played a total of 57 games. Harden didn’t live up to expectations, but he averaged 21 points and over 10 assists while he was here. The reason the Sixers can create over $65 million in cap space is because of the trade Morey made when Harden imploded.
I am as frustrated as every other Sixers fan. I just think we should be able to put the frustration where it belongs.
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A Cup of Coffee: 10 Philadelphia Sixers Players Better Known With Other Teams
Nikola Vucevic
Vucevic has had a nice career between the Magic and Bulls. But he started out as a rookie that Doug Collins refused to give too many minutes to. The next offseason after being drafted, he was part of the now infamous deal for Andrew Bynum. He went on to make two All-Star games. Bynum never played a minute for the Sixers.
Kwame Brown
One of the most famous NBA busts had a cup of coffee with the Sixers. The Warriors sent him to the Bucks as part of the Andrew Bogut trade. The Bucks cut him soon after though. He signed a 2-year deal with the Sixers, but played in only 22 games and was cut before the second season of his contract. He nearly had as many personal fouls (37) as he did points (41) while with the Sixers. It was the last chance in the NBA he ever got.
Glenn Robinson
The Sixers tried so hard to find the second scoring option behind Allen Iverson. One of the guys they tried, was Glenn Robinson. He was very good with the Bucks, usually averaging over 20 points per game. He was not bad with the Sixers, but he was not that same guy. He played just 42 games here and averaged 16 points per game. He was injured for his entire 2nd season here and then got traded.
JaVale McGee
McGee is perhaps best known for his frequent appearances on Shaqtin a Fool. Its gave him a bit of an unfair repuation. Did he make some bone headed plays in his career? Yes. But he was also a 3-time champion, an Olympic Gold Medalist, and a physical presence on defense.
His time with the Sixers was know memorable at all though. The Nuggets shipped him here, along with a first round pick, and the rights to Chukwudiebere Maduabum, as a pure salary dump. He played just 6 games here.
Toni Kucoc
Kucoc won 3 NBA Finals with the Bulls, was 6th Man of The Year in the 1995-1995 season, and won pretty much every award you can as a Basketball player when over in Europe. He was a significant piece of the Bulls second run of 3 straight championships. But he did not get much time with the Sixers.
He was decent in the 1999 -2000 season, averaging 12 points per game. But the next season he was part of the trade that landed the Sixers Dikembe Motumbo. In the end, he played in only 80 total games here, averaging a little over 8 points per game.
Dwight Howard
Obviously we don’t forget he played here. It is too recent. But he will be one of those guys where we look back one day and go “Oh yea, he did play here.”. Howard was probably one of the best backups for Embiid. He only lasted one year here. And like so many backup bigs before him, he disappeared in the playoff.
Chris Webber
Not sure if anyone forgets his time here, so maybe it doesn’t quite fit the brief. But Webber is a superstar, who had a disappointing cup of coffee in Philly. Webber was supposed to come here and finally be the guy to be AI’s Co-Star. It never quite worked out. He was injured for parts of his first season, had a decent first full season here, but then was benched in year 3.
