4 takeaways on Morey and Nurse's press conference following nightmare season originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Daryl Morey’s wildest nightmares never included him speaking to reporters after the Sixers’ 58th and final loss of the season.
“For me personally, it was obviously the toughest season of my career,” the Sixers’ president of basketball operations said Sunday.
“I’ll just say personally, I’ll spend every waking hour figuring out how to turn this team around going into next season.”
In his opening statement, Morey noted that himself and head coach Nick Nurse “will be back” following an injury-saturated, brutally disappointing year.
Here are four takeaways on their joint press conference:
‘Very optimistic’ on Embiid
According to a Sixers official, Joel Embiid wasn’t present for the team’s season finale because he had a follow-up appointment and rehab in New York City days after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his left knee.
Essentially every Sixer asked Sunday about Embiid said he’d be hoping and praying for the best.
Morey said he thinks Embiid should return to “100 percent” and indicated there’s reasons for encouragement besides general faith.
“Dr. (Jonathan L.) Glashow, who did the surgery, is very optimistic about his prognosis,” Morey said. “After a lot of work — working with over 10 doctors, six in person who examined him — and a long process to get to the right answer, we feel great that Dr. Glashow is the right answer and that the surgery went so well.
“And we like that Dr. Glashow is going to do a lot of the early rehab with Joel in person. He has a great track record with a lot of great players in this league to have them come back strong.”
Grimes and Yabusele’s futures
Though Morey tends to consider all possibilities, it appears unlikely the Sixers will make extreme changes to their roster this summer.
Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George are each in the early stages of long-term, big-money contracts. Morey highlighted the Sixers’ plan of being a “younger, more dynamic group” around their stars next season, and rookies Jared McCain, Adem Bona and Justin Edwards certainly align with that vision.
However, the Sixers still have meaningful decisions to come in free agency. Quentin Grimes and Guerschon Yabusele stand out.
Grimes averaged 21.9 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.5 steals after being traded to the Sixers in February. The 24-year-old guard is set to become a restricted free agent.
“I think he was a real bright spot,” Morey said. “We’re excited for him to come back. We’ve positioned ourselves to bring him back. He had multiple 40-point performances. His defense we think really fits well with Tyrese. We think he’s a very good fit there. And we think with Joel, Paul and Tyrese, he’s a very good fit.”
Yabusele wound up being a bargain one-year signing for the Sixers on a minimum salary. He was second on the team with 70 games played and reliably adaptable, energetic and intelligent.
“We love what Guerschon was able to bring,” Morey said. “I think that was a great job by our scouting department and a great job by the coaching staff getting the most out of him. Just like Paul, he got pressed into some roles that were a little different that he thought. We thought he was going to play more of the four, and he’s excelled there. He gave us a lot of minutes at the five as well.
“With the team going forward, I think his mix of minutes will be a little different when we’re healthy. And we really like his fit going forward, so we would like to retain him. Obviously, he’s an unrestricted free agent so it’s not for sure that happens, but we would like to retain him.”
Pinpointing roster flaws
Whatever problem you inspect with the 2024-25 Sixers, you stare right into the injury sun.
Morey and Nurse both acknowledged other issues, though.
“It’s hard to look into the stats too much as a whole this year, right? … I think that the game keeps getting faster and faster, and more dynamic,” Nurse said. “Just for really basic things — defensive transition and defensive rebounding. We just need to be a little bigger, longer, more athletic, just to get that basic thing under control.”
The stats do support Nurse’s view. According to Cleaning the Glass, the Sixers ranked last in the NBA in defensive rebounding rate. They were 28th in opponents’ points added per 100 possessions through transition play.
Morey admitted he “didn’t put enough emphasis on the team getting through the regular season.”
“I do think the playoffs are still going to be pretty veteran-heavy and sort of a war out there, where the foul calls will go down and things like that,” he said. “But the regular season has turned really high-effort. Just to call out one area, it used to be every team was just dropping back after their shot. Now teams have length and athleticism, and they’re high-effort both attacking the offensive glass and being 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.”
Lottery on the horizon
In the NBA draft lottery picture, the Sixers’ outlook is not shabby.
They’ll have the fifth-best odds in the May 12 lottery. The Sixers must land a top-six pick to keep their first-round selection this year (instead of sending it to the Thunder) and there’s a 63.9 percent chance they will.
Morey also mentioned the Sixers got back their own second-rounder this year as part of the Grimes-Caleb Martin trade. That pick is No. 35.
“That’s going to be a tool for us. … If you look at teams that make aggressive moves like us and then have a rough season, most of the time those teams have, like, no draft picks,” Morey said. “We have above-average draft picks going forward to improve the team for next season.”
And, if the lottery breaks as the Sixers hope, how will Morey approach the draft?
“Definitely best player available,” he said. “It has to be that in the draft for sure, but we see the pick as sort of a tool to upgrade the team. It will matter if it’s one, two, three, four, five, six, or we just have the pick in the future. … It’s just a tool to make the team better, but there’s obviously a good chance we take someone.
“In that case, it will just be the best player. I’ve never shied from that.”
