A few hours after the NBA negotiation deadline in 2021 closed, Daryl Morey went to Zoom to talk to reporters about the hectic (and somewhat anticlimactic) day in Philadelphia that culminated in his switch to George Hill. It is a move they believe solidifies a team that is already at the top of the East, and although Morey admitted that they may not be favorites at their own conference, the Sixers head into the playoffs confident they have a chance to make it. the end.
“I think Brooklyn is going into those playoffs as a favorite. But I think we are right there,” said Morey on Thursday. “I don’t think there is a clear favorite in the league. I think, you know, probably five, probably five or six teams that have an extremely good chance of winning, and we are one of them. And that’s where you would like to be.”
What else did Morey have to share? I’m glad you asked.
The Sixers believe that their path to a title is through defense
There is always a clear goal in mind when building around Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons: to put snipers on the ground. But this can be an oversimplification at times, as the Sixers learned the hard way during Simmons’ debut year. Place snipers who cannot defend themselves around them, and they will be eliminated against teams that can force switches (there are many of them).
At George Hill, Morey believes he has found someone who can help them continue to defend at a high level, without sacrificing the spacing they want for their two best players.
“Defensively it was extremely important. We feel that if we are going to win that title, we have to be the best defense in the league,” Morey said Thursday night. “And now, I think we are number two, I believe that we will finish the season first. We feel that George has solidified that. Teams usually attack their weakest defender on the ground, and we had some lineups where there was an option for the other team to attack. I would say that probably, in terms of our team, the defense was probably [selling point] 1.”
“But it is very important that if you put a defender on our field, especially with Joel and Ben, that player can kick, that player can be safe with the ball. George has always been an extremely secure guy with the ball that makes the right move. “
It has not gone unnoticed on the Philadelphia front line that they have acquired a guy who has gone through countless playoff battles over the years, and they are familiar with Hill through members of the organization who were already there. Morey-checked executive Peter Dinwiddie, who traded the Pacers for the Sixers in the off-season, was a guy who knew Hill at the time of the Pacers. Defensive coordinator Dan Burke, whom Morey listed as a critical component of his success this season, also saw his time overlap with Hill during his long run on the Pacers bench, with Hill playing a role in the Indiana team that challenged the “Heatles” “was a Miami team led by LeBron James.
There is some uncertainty about Hill’s status coming up, due to a thumb injury that he opted for surgery while with Thunder. Although the Philadelphia medical team has not yet examined Hill, Morey said his understanding is that the procedure Hill went through this year should ensure that he does not have to deal with it in the future.
“He’s obviously going to be on the rise in the playoffs,” said Morey. “I don’t say that because he won’t be back sooner, but our medical team hasn’t had a chance to evaluate him yet. But our understanding is that his time lapse is measured in … I don’t want to provide a schedule. But no it’s long. “
In the process of talking about his new man, Morey also made sure to show some love to his coach, who he claims has a full voice on whether Hill is a starter or reserve player for these Sixers. For the more defensive approach Morey is talking about, Hill taking Seth Curry’s place in the starting lineup would make them an insanely difficult group in defense, although it seems very unlikely that they will remove the best sniper on the team to make it happen.
“I challenge you to find a player on the team who is not playing the best of his career,” said Morey. “Doc did an incredible job, he’s going to decide these things. My job is just to add talent and players and let Doc decide what’s best. But I think he has options. I think he can take a lot of different paths and they must all be very strong and difficult to win in a series of seven games. “
“Optionality” dominates the day
Sam Hinkie must have rolled your grave Silicon Valley has heard Daryl Morey say “optionality” over and over again, without a crusty beat writer complaining that he invented the word. This guy’s courage!
Flexibility beyond that deadline, however, was a key to Morey as it was for the former Sixers executive (and protégé of Morey) when he ran a very different type of show. Morey couldn’t comment on Kyle Lowry directly without risking an NBA ticket, but he noted that keeping his options open in the future was important to them during this time frame.
“We are very excited about the option that we have ended,” said Morey. “We chose an option that we really think will improve our team this year on both sides and, at the same time, keep all of our options alive in the future if George Hill becomes an integral part of this team. We believe he will, we have the option to keep it and not let it go to the free agency. We also kept all of our important assets to update the team going forward. So, we feel good about this option, it allows us to really update the team for the wars of the upcoming playoffs, and at the same time, keep all of our markers if an option in the future becomes available. “
This was reflected in many conversations from the organization in the weeks leading up to the deadline. They came much closer to acquiring Lowry than they believed a few weeks earlier – Philadelphia initially had the impression that the Raptors would not be open for business – but they were preparing for a more relaxed term than most abroad. designing. “Seller’s market” was a term used liberally, noting that there were few high-level players available.
“We felt that there were really only two or three [options], with George being one of them. This looks less than normal, “Morey said on Thursday.” Yes, it seems that there were less things that we were focused on. But part of that is that it’s really hard to update a team that’s on the way to winning, you know, in a normal year, 55 to 65 games. Like, it’s usually not easy to find updates. “
Isaiah J. Downing / USA TODAY Sports
The Sixers acquired Oklahoma City Thunder guard George Hill on Thursday.
For whom can these bullets be saved in the future? The Sixers obviously won’t be going there yet, but Bradley Beal is likely to be the next big name on the market next year, and the Wizards have shown no interest in moving him ahead of this deadline. Same as Zach LaVine in Chicago, who seems even less likely to move now after switching to Nikola Vucevic on the last day. With no young stars out there, Philadelphia faced what turned out to be an easy choice – paying a huge price for Lowry or settling for a more modest upgrade.
They opted for the latter, preserving its depth and its collection of picks to fight now and fight later. Making the move that the Sixers made on Thursday does not mean that they did not move, or that they were not interested in a move that would alter the league, says Morey, but that they were unable to find the sweet spot between planning short and long term.
“I look a lot at the championship probability, and then it really comes down to ‘this change will increase our chances of winning the title this year, but, you know, we’re going to give up on things that will decrease the chances in the future’, and we try to balance that, “Morey said. “I think Doc, Elton and I, we hope to have a very long season here, and we have some incredible players at their peak. So, what I’m trying to do is to maximize our chance of winning the title in this window, with more weight this year. “
“So if there is a change that increases our chances a little more this year, but it really hurts our chances in the future, then it does not make sense … if it is a change that increases our chances a little more, but it does not affect our future chances, so this is a game that looks very interesting, and so I think that this game greatly increased our chances of championship, and also kept those of the future preserved at a very high level.
And if you missed the 50 times that Morey and the head coach said that this season, they really like this group.
“We feel like we have 12 guys that you can put on the floor in a series of playoffs, which is obviously more than we are going to play,” Morey said Thursday night. “So we have some protection against injuries, some options, different ways to play. So we feel very good about the situation we are in, ready for the playoffs and the rest of the season.”
The procurement market can be big … literally
The Sixers moved only one guy currently on the rotation on Thursday, with Tony Bradley going to Oklahoma City as part of the deal. This means, as Morey mentioned above, that stains on the floor are hard to find in Philadelphia. Could this hurt them in the procurement market?
It might be. Morey noted that it is a little early to make any statements about the takeover market, which will fester over time as players, teams and agents assess priorities for the final stretch of the season. The Philadelphia president noted that his preference is always to choose the best player available when you are looking to fill the final squad slot, but he was transparent about the best chance of attracting a useful player.
“I think the takeover market is often a conversation about opportunity and function, and we probably have more opportunities in that big place, so I would expect that an takeover would probably be bigger, if we did any, we would be bigger,” said Morey. “That said, we feel that we feel good about Joel, Dwight can obviously play with the five, more than a traditional five. Doctor, if he chooses he can put exclusive lineups on the ground with Ben, Tobias and Mike Scott. So, you know , we feel good about the position we’re in. But if you know, if a purchase happens, it’s more likely to be big. “
Stay tuned for this one.
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