DETROIT — Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey did the opposite of declaring the Sixers’ season lost Friday.
Speaking to reporters at the team’s training complex in Camden, New Jersey, Morey continued to envision a title-contending path. The Sixers will enter their first post-trade deadline game against the Pistons at 20-30.
Morey highlighted that the Sixers are 6-1 when Joel Embiid, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey both start and finish a game together.
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“We’re excited for this stretch run where we might finally see this group together of our three stars, Paul, Joel and Tyrese,” he said. “We feel like that team has a real shot. We’ve made our path to win harder, obviously. We’re probably going to have to fight to get into the playoffs and then we’re going to have to fight to beat a very good team in the first round, but we feel like we would’ve had to play that team at some point to win the title anyway. And we’re just focused on the championship. I know you have to squint a little, but we feel like this group can still do that.”
Later, Morey acknowledged “we're only going to win the championship if all three of our Big 3 are healthy.” That’s been nowhere close to the Sixers’ situation through 50 games.
Embiid has appeared in 14 games and been badly hindered by recurring left knee swelling.
“There have been those times where sincerely — Joel himself, the medical staff — he looks very much on the way toward playing,” Morey said. “And then primarily, his injury is one where you’re managing his symptoms, swelling and pain. With those things, it’s best for him to sit out.
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“I know that Joel is doing everything he can and fighting to be out there as much as possible. … We’re optimistic long term, talking to the doctors. That’s our understanding from talking with multiple experts. I think we’re at seven, eight, nine, 10 of the top people in the world at this point who all see this as (an injury) that over time will improve. But it’s happened slower than anyone’s anticipated. But we love how Joel’s fighting.”
While Morey spoke highly of Quentin Grimes, he essentially framed the Sixers’ deadline moves as tinkering around the margins.
In his mind, the Sixers are still propelled by their stars. And he thinks those stars can pull off an incredible season turnaround for an injury-riddled team that started 3-14. At the moment, the Sixers are 11th in the Eastern Conference, a game behind the Bulls for the final play-in tournament spot.
“Our goal is to fight for the playoffs,” Morey said. “We had a plan going into this year, and I think Mike Tyson said it well: Plans are really good until you get punched in the face. And we’ve really been punched in the face by injuries this year. We’ve lost the most star games, we’ve lost the most wins. You can measure it a whole bunch of different ways, but the coaching staff, (head coach Nick Nurse), Tyrese — the whole roster, but I’m calling out those two in particular — have kept us in position.
“The new structure of the playoffs I think was really built for us this year. … We still think this can be a special season. That said, I think in my job I have to focus on both the now and the future. And we wanted to accomplish three goals: Get younger, get players who can help us now and into the future, and then (have) the ability to retain them. And all those moves in concert did that.”
On the subject of in-house talent, Morey was asked about his confidence level in the Sixers re-signing Guerschon Yabusele, who’s been a reliably strong (and available) role player.
“I don’t think you can ever be confident in an unrestricted free agent, but we feel very good,” Morey said. “He loves it here. We love him. We just freed up more with (Caleb Martin’s) contract going out; we freed up more room in the future. So we feel very good about retaining Yabu.”
Morey also said the Sixers hope to convert Justin Edwards and Jared Butler from two-way contracts to standard NBA deals.
“We see them as a big part of our future. … We think they’re good roster fits for the long term,” he said.
Again, though, the reality is everything rides on Embiid and his co-stars.
“Players like Joel are so special,” Morey said. “He reminded us of his greatness with a triple-double (vs. the Mavs) after being out for many weeks. I would say that you look at a lot of these teams that are above us in the standings, that have young players that are improving and playing well right now, they’re all hoping one of their guys becomes a top player in the world — a top-five player in the world — because that is required to win the championship. It doesn’t happen without one of these special players. And so we’re building around Joel, we’ve built around Joel and we’ll continue to plan to build around Joel because he’s the special player that can help us win the championship.
“We think Paul is a great fit. We think Tyrese is a great fit. What I’m excited about with Tyrese is what he’s added this year. … In this down season so far, there have been a lot of positives. One is Tyrese had maybe a bumpy start, like our whole roster did, but he’s materially added defense, he’s materially added playmaking, in particular drive and kick. So we see him as a key piece going forward as well — obviously, much younger.
“But Joel is core to everything we do. We believe he’s the right guy to build around. We believed it this offseason. We believed it, based on what we knew about his whole situation, and we believe that he, Tyrese and Paul can win a championship. We’ll see if that turns out to be true, and it doesn’t look easy to spot how it’s going to work right now, given the path we’ve given ourselves, but we believe in that.”