PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Daryl Morey era is officially underway.
The Sixers introduced their new president of basketball operations on Monday in a video press conference, which included managing partner Josh Harris, new head coach Doc Rivers, and general manager Elton Brand, who signed a multi-year extension despite no longer being the No. 1 guy in the basketball ops department.
“This is a roster that has championship aspirations and can win the championship,” Morey said while sitting in front of two Sixers title banners, as well as one from the Syracuse Nationals — the former home of the franchise prior to relocating in 1963.
“You can’t ask for anything more. It’s been a dream come true to be here today,” he said.
Those are bold words for a very well-established front office executive who managed successful teams over 13 seasons as general manager of the Houston Rockets. Despite never reaching the finals out of the competitive Western Conference, Morey’s Rockets had an excellent winning percentage during his time as GM. They made the playoffs 10 out of 13 years, which included six trips to the second round and two to the Western Conference Finals.
The Sixers haven’t been to the Eastern Conference Finals since 2001, and have had only four second-round appearances since then. If Chris Paul didn’t suffer an injury in 2018, you could make the argument the Rockets were on their way to beating the eventual NBA Champion Golden State Warriors in that seven-game series.
After Morey stepped down, he said his family was expecting him to take a break.
“Elton and Doc and Josh were relentless as soon as I stepped away,” Morey added.
“When talent like Doc and Daryl become available, you move quickly,” Harris explained — a comment Phillies fans would probably like to show Phillies managing John Middleton.
Morey recently put together a Rockets roster that was smaller, which is the exact opposite of how Brand constructed the Sixers. That being said, Morey spoke very highly about the two young All-Stars he’s inhering: Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.
“Joel is a dominant, dominant big man,” Morey said. “I’m excited to get back to that. I worked with (Hall of Famer) Yao Ming. We got very close. We got very close in Houston with Yao Ming, and I think we can go all the way with Joel.”
Yao was part of Morey’s early days as the Rockets GM. After Yao retired, Morey ushered in a new era of Houston basketball by pulling off a big trade for future Most Valuable Player James Harden in 2012, which eventually led to the style of basketball the Rockets play today: a lot of three-pointers.
That doesn’t mean the Sixers are going to start shooting a lot of three’s.
“The goal is not to shoot three-pointers,” said Morey, who mentioned that Rivers will ultimately decide what style this team plays. “The goal is to win. You can score on offense in a whole bunch of different ways.”
“I mean scoring is scoring,” Rivers said. “If we score 140 in a game, do we matter where it came from?”
While some critics believe Embiid and Simmons can’t succeed together, Morey and Rivers disagree.
“I think they absolutely can work together, but Doc’s been here a little longer than me,” Morey said. “I’ll turn to him.”
“I think we have to change the narrative they haven’t won yet, not that they can’t win,” Rivers insisted. “The ‘can’t’ should be taken out.”
In fact, Morey — who arrived in Philadelphia about a month after Rivers — acknowledged that his attempt to lure Rivers to Houston failed because of who the Sixers have on their team.
“To have star-plus players in 24 and 26 years old, that is why I couldn’t get Doc Rivers to interview in Houston because he saw this roster.”
However, it would be naive to think Morey, who made tons of trades as the Rockets GM, is going to leave this roster — which many outsiders believe has construction issues — as it’s currently put together.
While he believes this team is underrated, “Our championship team probably isn’t gonna have the same exact players that we have right now. Do I think that the players we have right now are very good and we can build around and continue to grow from there? I do believe that. Absolutely.”
Morey said organizations make mistakes when they attempt “to make sure the roster is perfect on Game 1.”
And if you’re wondering how Brand factors into everything with Morey now running the basketball operations department, Harris revealed Brand — who in late August said the collaboration formula of the previous front office configuration didn’t work for this franchise — was “urging” him to bring Morey to the Sixers. Morey sounded excited to work with Brand, while the newly extended Sixers general manager said he’ll follow Morey’s lead and continue to have a significant role, vision and strategy for this organization.
“I’m gonna be selfless,” Brand said. “My goal is to win a championship and enjoy the journey along with that, so whatever my role needs to be, I accept that role.”