Daryl Morey, Sixers Exposing Their Own Roster Construction Flaws

Since the NBA Trade Deadline, Daryl Morey and the Philadelphia 76ers have made steps to convert Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker from two-way contracts to full-time NBA players. They also reportedly added veteran Cam Payne to the bench to presumably complete the roster they’ll carry into the NBA Playoffs.

While Nick Nurse has faced more than his share of disadvantages in player availability in three seasons with the Sixers, he entered 2025-26 with positive points of emphasis.

The front office and/or ownership, however, constructed the 2025-26 Sixers without proper consideration to Nurse’s intention to avoid the handcuffs he dealt with during a disastrous 2024-25 season.

Nurse demonstrably asked his team during training camp to acknowledge and accept the limited availability of Joel Embiid as a reality of the team’s makeup.

Embiid’s injury problems were the most significant factor in sinking the 2024-25 season. However, the limited availability of aging veterans like Paul George, Andre Drummond, and Eric Gordon also played a major factor in last season's struggles.

The front office’s construction of the bottom of the roster didn’t properly weigh Nurse’s new focus.

Daryl Morey kept Gordon and Kyle Lowry on the roster with essentially no expectations they’d play contributing minutes. He also left an open roster position, partly to help ownership avoid paying the luxury tax. The priority superseded the depth necessary to combat the reality of Embiid’s situation that Nurse mentioned.

The underwhelming depth moves ignored the reality that the Sixers would regularly face the issue of playing back-to-backs with limited bench options behind part-time players Embiid and George.

Nurse also focused entering the season on the addition of VJ Edgecombe as an infusion of youth to complete a young backcourt with Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain. He hoped the young guards would play with the speed and energy the Sixers lacked in 2024-25 during a season that wore on them physically and mentally.

Ownership later responded by trading McCain in another move focused on avoiding the luxury tax.

Meanwhile, their only reliable rock Tyrese Maxey leads the NBA in minutes per game and total minutes with limited backcourt options behind him. He openly admitted that wear and tear had affected his shooting slump in January.

When Paul George received a suspension on January 31, Nurse resorted back to the “next man up” cliche as his only logical remaining media message. The McCain deal and an injury to Quentin Grimes quickly exacerbated the weaknesses of a shorthanded bench.

Issues outside an organization’s control can sink a season, as the Joel Embiid knee injury did for the 2024-25 Sixers. However, an organization can prepare for foreseeably challenging circumstances and weigh priorities much differently than the Sixers have in 2025-26.

The Sixers reportedly will sign 10-year NBA veteran Cam Payne, who has played in Serbia this season after an uneventful preseason stint with the Indiana Pacers.

Payne averaged 19.4 minutes in his 31-game stint with the Sixers in 2023-24 and 15.1 minutes in 72 games with the New York Knicks last season. He’s played 72 career games in the NBA Playoffs.

Adding the 6-foot-2 guard could reasonably replace the short-term value that McCain provided. The depth could give Maxey and Edgecombe, who ranks ninth in the NBA in minutes per game, a better chance to stay fresh approaching the playoffs.

Payne has also shot 36.8% from three-point range during his career. It’s not out of the question that he steals a few minutes from the slumping sixth man Grimes, who has shot only 34.1% from beyond the arc this season.

A flier on a player from an overseas league, however, is the best hope Daryl Morey and the Sixers have to reverse serious roster construction flaws that have handcuffed Nick Nurse and the team on the court.