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Daryl Morey served as president of basketball operations for the Philadelphia 76ers for less than three weeks, but wasted no time putting his stamp on the team roster. The league’s most prolific trader with the Houston Rockets, Morey traded two draft deals designed to address his new team’s biggest weakness.
In the first, he returned ill-adjusted Al Horford to Oklahoma City (with first- and second-round picks, as well as the rights of Serbian guard Vasilije Micić) for Danny Green – whom the Thunder had acquired in a previous deal with Dennis Schröder. – and Terrance Ferguson. In the second, Morey sent Josh Richardson and rights to No. 36 pick Tyler Bey to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Seth Curry.
The Sixers duo of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons have been at their best when surrounded by shooters. The formation that paired these two with JJ Redick, Robert Covington and Dario Šarić, for example, outscored opponents by 17.7 points per 100 possessions. The pair plus Redick, Wilson Chandler and Jimmy Butler racked up 12.2 more points per 100 possessions than their enemies. With Redick, Butler and Tobias Harris, their margin was plus-19.6 per 100 possessions.
The 2019-20 Sixers knocked out three at an above-average rate (36.8%), but attempted treys less often than the average team. That shouldn’t be as much of an issue with snipers like Curry (44.3% vs. three for his career) and Green (40%) entering the rotation. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Green has extensive experience working as a 3D guy with stars from all walks of life, while Curry has starred alongside Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, and Luka Dončić.
Morey’s attempt to secure the snipers didn’t end there. With the No. 49 pick, the Sixers caught Arkansas shooting guard Isaiah Joe. Joe was widely regarded as one of the best shooters in the draft despite logging in just 34.2% of his treys last season. He reached 41.4% depth as a rookie in the 2018-19 season, making him a 37.8% shooter on more than 500 career attempts outside the arc. He was also one of only 10 power conference players to hit at least 75 threes in each of the past two seasons.
Later in the second round, Morey took over darling analytics Paul Reed. An athletic striker who claims he runs the ground like a deer, Reed was one of 10 college players since the 1992-93 season to average at least 10 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 2.5 blocks per game. Pair him with Matisse Thybulle and Zhaire Smith on the bench, and the Sixers have a whole mess of long, wide defenders tossing at their opponents and trying to force some turnovers, which in turn should help alleviate the problems of spacing associated with Embiid-Simmons. twinning by increasing transition opportunities to the detriment of half-court possessions.
Morey’s first pick of the night, however, was perhaps the most interesting. Kentucky point guard Tyrese Maxey is not yet a reverse shooter (he only made 29.2% of his three), but his free throw percentage (83.3%) is encouraging and he is extremely aggressive in trying to get down and get into the painting.
The Sixers sorely need someone other than Simmons who can bring down the defense from the outside to the outside of the disc, and Maxey should be able to provide that. Harris and Richardson were, aside from Simmons, the two most frequent drivers on the team last season, according to advanced NBA stats, but were both among the high-volume drivers least likely to pass the drive on instead. than to shoot. Philadelphia has often struggled to throw basic entry passes to Embiid at post without Simmons on the ground, and Maxey should help there as well. And at 6-foot-3, Maxey has the size to defend both guard points, meaning he could possibly be a fit alongside Simmons if his jumper were to show up.
Throughout his tenure in Houston, Morey was famous for strictly adhering to the math behind basketball. He has often said that he would do things a little differently if he had a different list, and he indeed has one now. Doing things a little differently than he did with the Rockets doesn’t necessarily mean giving up his principles, however. So it’s no surprise that each of Morey’s acquisitions align with attributes he has deemed valuable in the past: shooting, defense, athleticism, rim shots. He may have changed city and list, but he hasn’t changed his colors.
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