Sixers’ Daryl Morey would like to save ‘some balls’

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Daryl Morey doesn’t like to dodge questions.

“I’m an almost too straight shooter,” he told Anthony Gargano on 97.5 The Fanatic on Monday. “I used to be in trouble all the time. (Managing Director Elton Brand) is already trying to delete my Twitter account. “

While he’s still active on Twitter and always happy to share his thoughts on the Sixers, the team’s new president of basketball operations won’t reveal all of his plans. He did, however, elucidate how he sees things at this point in the offseason.

“… Again, I said in my first press, teams make a mistake trying to revise,” said Morey. “We have some balls. We have (the mid-level taxpayer exception), we have future draft picks. We have some balls that we can use and I don’t really like using them now. I’m not doing it because the issues that we’re seeing now… it’s going to be a different set of issues a month into the season.

“I almost guarantee you we’re going to say, ‘This doesn’t quite work’ or ‘Endgames don’t really work.’ And if we use the balls now, we’re going to use them on the bad ones (instead of ) when the information becomes clearer as we get closer to the trade deadline and places like that. I think that’s really what I love to do, assess and fill in the gaps as we get closer to the playoffs.

Morey has so far signed a free agent, Dwight Howard on a one-year minimum wage contract. He clearly does not feel in a rush to correct any perceived deficiencies right away.

The mid-level taxpayer exception is worth around $ 5.7 million and can be used on multiple players. It’s possible that Morey and the Sixers will use some of that mid-level exception in the buyout market during the season. The contract for 21st pick Tyrese Maxey should be a formality, but the Sixers must determine which deals will receive second-round picks Isaiah Joe and Paul Reed.

Seth Curry is the only non-rookie Morey hasn’t added to an expiring contract, and the 30-year-old goalie is due $ 24.5 million over the next three years. Filming was an obvious priority during Morey’s first offseason in Philadelphia, as was flexibility, both for this season and years to come. Al Horford and Josh Richardson’s loss of trades wages should open up options for the Sixers down the line.

“A good thing about the movements is that they put less pressure on us in a lot of ways so that we can respond to whatever (head coach Doc Rivers) thinks is the team’s greatest need as we’re getting ready for the playoffs, ”Morey told me.

Morey stressed again Monday that his primary mission remains around Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid.

“I think (former Sixers general manager) Sam Hinkie came out of his groundhog, like he does once every four years, and he said it best,” Morey said. “He said, ‘Look, the fans went through The Process to get these two guys. Why would we want to leave them?

“I know it’s not, I know the fans don’t. All the fans I talk to love Ben and Joel. Two superstars in their mid-twenties, that never happens. It doesn’t. ‘never happens … The reason Doc is here and me’ I’m here, let’s be clear.

During another stop on his radio tours on Monday, Morey spoke a bit about some of the options open to him besides the Sixers after his resignation in October as general manager of the Rockets.

“I was hoping someone would call, but I thought it was going to take at least a year because it was so close to the season,” he said on The Rich Eisen Show. “Usually these transitional periods happen a bit earlier. … I just thought I would sit there for at least a year and then evaluate the options. So it was kind of cool that a few NBA teams, an NFL team, a baseball team – two places got in touch. … Sometimes you just don’t know. You hope there is something there but you don’t know.

According to Morey, this anonymous NFL team was interested in him acting as general manager. He thinks he’s best suited for his current gig.

“I told them I probably didn’t know enough,” he says. “It would be very presumptive for me to think I could help an NFL team, but they reached out. I just think my skills are just higher and better in the NBA, just with experience and stuff. It was a fascinating idea.

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