Daryl Morey gives insight into offseason plans as Sixers move forward

[ASFN Admin]

PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia 76ers finished up a dreadful season on Sunday with a 122-102 loss to the Chicago Bulls. In a season where they were expected to be championship contenders, they finished only 24-58 as they battled through a ton of injuries and adversity.

President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey has a lot of work to do in the summer as he looks to turn this team around and get back into championship contenders. As he heads into the offseason, the Sixers have a lot to address as they look to build around their star trio of Joel Embiid, Paul George, and Tyrese Maxey.

The Sixers had a supporting cast focused on adding veterans who can produce in the playoffs, but the game is getting faster and younger. Morey and Co. saw that at the deadline with the additions of Quentin Grimes and Jared Butler, but now, the goal is to continue to get younger in the offseason.

Reflecting on 2024 summer, looking ahead to 2025​

"We feel good about those three guys. Our three All-Stars," Morey said on Sunday. "I have to do a better job putting a supporting cast around them."

He's right about that. While the moves in the 2024 offseason of bringing in George as well as veterans like Caleb Martin, Andre Drummond, bringing back Kyle Lowry, and others looked good on paper, it didn't lead to success. The league is getting faster and more dynamic and Morey needs to keep up.

"I was very focused on finding veteran type players who generally perform very well in the playoffs and didn't put enough emphasis on the team getting through the regular season," Morey said. "So next season for sure, we will be a younger, more dynamic group."

Morey and the Sixers have a good young group to start with in rookies Jared McCain, Justin Edwards, and Adem Bona who will look to build off very good maiden seasons in the league. McCain, of course, was limited to only 23 games due to injury, but the potential he flashed before going down was intriguing.

Continuity​

The good news with the Sixers now is that there will be some continuity now for them to build on. There was lot of turnover in the 2024 offseason, but Philadelphia will have Embiid, George, and Maxey heading into a second season together--although it will almost feel like their first season when considering how little games they played together--and Morey will just need to find some young, dynamic players.

"I think last year, we had no choice, but to have a lot of turnover," Morey stated. "I think this year, we’re gonna have a lot of continuity. So I think that will help. On the margins, all of us equally would rather have continuity than not. It wasn’t really a choice we had. This year, really continuity with our main three guys is the most important thing so that’s gonna have to develop during the season."

Still need great, veteran players​

The Sixers will still need some veteran players. That's something Morey is still focused on. He will be looking to add to this group in order to prepare for the playoffs, but the Sixers still need to get through the regular season.

Morey gave a lengthy answer on what he would like to add to the roster in the summer:

You still need great players to win. The history of the league is pretty straightforward in that you need great players to win, and then, I feel very good about what Elton (Brand) and our scouting staff can do, and finding draft picks, finding (Guerschon) Yabusele's, finding guys like that to fill it out. I would say the biggest thing is I do think the league is trending towards there’s just a higher—I think the playoffs are—it’s a team building challenge actually. I don’t expect the playoffs to change. Especially, with the changes to the foul rules that happened last February that have continued. I do think the playoffs are still gonna be pretty veteran heavy and sort of a war out there, and where the foul calls will go down and things like that, but the regular season has turned into a really high effort just to call out one area, it used to be every team was just dropping back after their shot, now teams are with length and athleticism and high effort both attacking the offensive glass and able to get back in transition. It’s just a very high effort regular season so that’s why we need to deliver a deeper, younger, more athletic, longer roster to Nick around our three main guys.

This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Daryl Morey gives insight into offseason plans as Sixers move forward

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