Despite a tumultuous season, this Sixers team that Daryl Morey put together might be their best chance to win in a while. If they can get through he Play-In tournament, they have a chance to go deeper than they ever have, especially with a healthy Joel Embiid.
The man behind this roster, Daryl Morey, joined Mid-Days with bob Cooney earlier today.
Sixers In A Good Place Entering The Playoffs
Despite being the 7-seed, and having to tangle with the the play-in tournament, vibes around the team seem to be high. They enter the playoffs on an 8-game winning streak, thanks mostly to the return of Joel Embiid.
The reigning MVP was playing the best basketball of his career before injuring his meniscus in January. When he went out, the team fell apart. They went from comfortably in the 3-seed, to hanging for their lives. And there was concern Embiid would never return at all.
But with only a few weeks left, Embiid made his triumphant return. Suddenly we saw the team that had people so excited earlier in the season.
First Things First, They Have To Beat The Heat
All of that said, the Play-In Tournament is tricky. You don’t get a series against the Heat, you get 1 game. And Anything can happen in 1 game.
You get some wiggle room, in that if you lose you still get a chance at redemption vs whoever wins the 9-10 game. But even if you win that, it means you get the Celtics in the 1st round, instead of the Knicks. Not exactly ideal.
Daryl Morey Is High on His Team
Morey likes his team’s chances though. He joined Bob Cooney, and guest host Amy Fadool, on today’s Mid-Day show. What did he say? Does he have any concerns? How far does he think his team can go?
Here Are 6 Things Daryl Morey Had To Say When He Joined Us Today:
Tyrese Maxey Passed All Tests With Flying Colors
“One big question coming in was Tyrese Maxey. We knew he was an amazing player, but we thought we’d get a better sense of where he’s at with, some of the other roster changes. And we got an even better sense of how he can play as as one of the primary guys when Joel was out. He passed everything with flying colors.”
Boston Is The Best Team He Has Seen Since The Warriors
“Boston’s a juggernaut. I mean, they’re the best team I’ve seen since the Golden State teams we went against when I was in the West. I think the other teams all have question marks. We are one of those teams. We need we need health. We need we need a few things to go our way. The Celtics don’t need a lot to go their way.
We feel very good about matching up with everybody where, you know, in terms of the Celtics that we do match up with them. More than most teams we think we match up pretty well. But they’re playing at a at a really high level. We’ve got to play them eventually if we’re going to reach our goal of winning the championship. So yeah, it’ll be it’ll be a challenge whenever we face them.”
Sees His Team As One of The Favorites
“I think we’re in this weird position of having some significant challenges during the regular season. But we feel like we’re one of the favorites. I don’t see three or 4 or 5 teams better than us. When when we have everyone, which, unfortunately, we don’t have everyone. But we have the horses. We feel like we go in as one of the favorites, but we’ve got the added challenge. It’s pretty rare you have to win one more one-and-done, to maintain being the favorite right up front.”
His Team Is On An Upswing
“In the past few years there was some negative news right before the playoffs. Now we’re on an upswing.
We’ve got Maxey on his ascendency. We have Joel still at this peak. When he’s when he’s been out there this year he’s been better than even his MVP year. We’ve got a mix of veterans that have won tons and tons of playoff games, some of them against me like Batum and Lowry. We’ve got guys who are, showing the league what they can do like the Oubres of the world.
We’ve got an upward trend. We’ve given ourselves an extra battle with Miami. But I feel like going into the playoffs, we have everyone playing on a really nice upward trend.”
His Ideas For the NBA Playoffs Format
“I think they should add more things to make the regular season meaningful. I think the top two teams should get byes. I think there should be even more of a Play-In tournament from seed 5 on. Home court should only go to the top few teams.
Obviously, it hurt us this season. But I do think it’s the right direction for the league. We generally have the least interesting playoffs of any of the major professional teams in terms of the better teams beating the worst teams. So adding drama like this is a positive for the league, even if it’s not positive for the Sixers this year.”
It Was Torture For Him Score Board Watching on Sunday
“Generally just torture. I like the planning part of the job that’s, you know, let’s figure out how to best way to win the championship. Because during the game, especially when it’s, you know, waiting for results from other teams, there’s really a lack of control there. It’s really mostly torture.
Especially when a game going your way is like 8-to 10-point lead and then it flips on you. That’s the part of the job I probably would take out if I could. I wish it could be just the methodical planning without a bunch of randomness if we could avoid it.”
