During his end-of-season media session on Wednesday, Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey told reporters taht it may take the team some time to pick its next head coach, according to Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice.com.
“We’re taking a careful process with the coach, we do not think it will move quickly,” Morey said. “We’re going to look at all the candidates, we’re already very encouraged by the candidates that reached out. We have an MVP player, we have a great roster that lots of players want to play with, lots of coaches want to be with.”
According to Morey, the Sixers are seeking a candidate who prioritizes accountability and who can build great relationships with star players and recruit stars (Twitter link via Gina Mizell of Philadelphia Inquirer). While the team also wants to hire a tactically sound coach, Morey suggested that won’t be his primary goal.
“I actually think people put too much importance on that, like it ends up being a much smaller part of the game than people expect,” Morey said. “Relative to you know, working with star players, recruiting star players, things like that. It is an important element, but it tends to get overvalued…it can only be one part of the puzzle.”
Interestingly, as Neubeck writes, Morey said the Sixers’ star players won’t have “direct input” on the hire. Morey also acknowledged that MVP center Joel Embiid was “shocked” by the club’s decision to move on from Doc Rivers, per David Murphy of The Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link).
“It’s my job to help convince him that the new head coach is someone he’ll have a great relationship as well,” Morey said.
- In a separate story for PhillyVoice.com, Neubeck takes a closer look at the six head coaching candidates who have been linked to the 76ers so far, breaking down the pros and cons of each one.
- Doc Rivers posted a parting message to Sixers fans on Instagram, writing that he “really enjoyed” his time in Philadelphia and respected how “tough” and passionate the fans were. League sources tell Chris Haynes of TNT and Bleacher Report (Twitter link) that Rivers has a desire to continue coaching if the right opportunity arises.
- Sixers forward Georges Niang, who will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, admits he doesn’t know what his future holds, but he sounds like a player who would happily re-sign in Philadelphia, writes Ky Carlin of Sixers Wire. “Obviously, I love it here in Philly,” Niang said after the team’s season came to an end. “Like I said, I haven’t really wrapped my head around everything, but I really enjoyed being here and the guys, the camaraderie, the organization, it’s been amazing.”
- Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype and Bobby Marks of ESPN.com (Insider link) previewed the Sixers’ offseason, observing that the team faces several big decisions beyond hiring a new coach and resolving Harden’s future. Tyrese Maxey and De’Anthony Melton are among the players eligible for contract extensions, while Philadelphia needs to find a way to improve its bench depth.
At least 76ers need to keep big 4
After signing Harden,
Contract extension
Harris? (3-year $90MM
Maxey (Max)
Melton (2-year $20MM)
Projections
Milton 4-year $24MM
Niang 3-year $21MM
Reed, 1 year $6MM
Trade away Korkmaz and House ASAP.
McDaniels, Milton and Niang are likely to walk for nothing if keeping big 4
Why on Earth would Harris get extended.
If Harris was signed to a 5/125M at the time we wouldn’t hate that deal. If they somehow inexplicably extended him. 3/60 is max for me.. and if hes a 15pt guy, that’s even too much.
Tobias is “only” a “15 point guy” because he didn’t take a large volume of shots. He had a great session going 49/39/88 on about 11 shots per game. He does disappear on occasion but I blame that on not getting the ball consistently playing with ball dominant Harden, Embiid and Maxey . He’s pretty much the 4th option if you depend on Harden to score more often ala his Houston days.
Finding a way to move Tobias 1 year @ 39M left, should be priority #1. Unless they want to tear up his remaining year, and give him 5/100M- $20M per, then that 39M this year MUST be moved!! I think Paul Reed and Jalen McDaniels would be the 1st players(after Harden), that I would prioritize bringing back. Reed should be playing the 4 regularly,he’s an elite rebounder (76ers were 28th in rebounding) and he can play some time at the 5 as well, Doc just had him sitting for over 2.5 years before giving him any time, but Reed shot the 3 at 42% in college.Mcdaniels has a decent offensive game & can guard the 3/4/some 5s as well,Both give the next coach flexibility. I’d like to bring Niang back as well, he can fire games up from 3, and while not a good defended, he plays hard and brings toughness go the team. Harden made sacrifices of $$, role, training, and played the best defense he’s played in a long time. I think another year with Joel, Maxey, PJ, Melton,Reed, McDaniels, & I like what I’ve seen from Springer (especially on D), to think they can beat any team in the NBA, provided the 1st round playoff opponents don’t intentionally injure Embiid again. He needs to be protected by officials like other NBA stars are. Siakam’s sore loser elbow that broke his face in 2022, wasn’t even ruled a foul, and BRK targeting him in Rd 1 game 3 this year was obvious from the start of the game, but the refs didn’t take control. It seemed to be a common theme this year, (Giannis, Embiid, Randle,JA CP 3, Ayton, Kawhi,KAT, all missed at least a game in playoffs/playin this year. The league officials need to do their jobs, or at least what their jobs are supposed to be, rather than setting up a Lakers/Celtics finals!
Harden is gone
I would not want to coach for Morey he is a guy who always blames everyone else for his bad decisions.
Doc goes to Milwaukee, Nurse goes to Philly, Bud to Toronto.
No thanks on Bud.
Niang would take a job anywhere that keeps him in the league. If Philly has him back they aren’t trying.
I think Niang serves a good role in Philly, and would on many teams. He’s an excellent three point shooter. He was exposed at times bc Doc would play him for longer stretches when they weren’t hurting for offense , and he’d get exposed defensively. The 76ers have been destroyed on the glass for 2 straight years! After being 2nd worst in NBA (above only HOU) in 21-22,So this year, they add a 6’4 3/4 PJ Tucker to start at the 4! They finished 5th worst in the NBA,They were 2nd worst most of the year but Paul Reeds starts put them up .5 a reb over the final 2 weeks, they finished w/ 40.9/game,Only Port/Brk/Mia had 40.6, and Dallas was abysmal w/38.8. MIL, finished approximately 10 rebounds per game ahead of them.
Really odd comments from Morey…
This season Harden averaged
21, 11, 6
Morey, Doc Rivers and Harden are on the same level.
Trade all future picks to improve in regular season
Does “taking our time” with this coaching search sound like code for “we will wait until all the other top candidates are taken and default to D’Antoni”?
hey no one outside the organization is supposed to know that! LOL! you must be an Insider LOL
That is the 1st thought I had when I read the statement. D’antoni or Cassell, bc our ownership group (who wouldn’t allow Doc to be fired prior to this season bc they “weren’t going to pay him to do nothing for 3 years”, so now that they’ll be paying Doc to watch soap operas for 2 more years, expect a low cost hiring.
So far, I have 3 candidates that I wouldn’t mind seeing at the moment, q) Monty Williams, 2) JJ Redick, 3) Frank Vogel…if Willie Green becomes available, I’d like to see him also.
I said it before and I’ll say it again blow it up!
Moreyon …….. catch-up lol
Is a team really that stupid to hire Doc Rivers? Who wants to coach Harden? It will be interesting in Philly but I don’t see them getting better next year unless Maxey takes a big jump
Does any Philly fan have the stomach to let Harden walk AND use that money saved to bring in Kyrie? I think he and Embiid would work well because Kyrie is NEVER going to hesitate to carry the team offensively if needed. His health and of course quirkiness are obvious concerns.
Embiid, Irving, Maxey, Harris and maybe a Harrison Barnes type would be nice.
I would let Harden walk and take his damn chicken wing move
A backcourt of Irving and Maxey would be exciting
I would give Irving a one year deal
Irving will carry the team right into TMZ headquarters with some new ridiculous controversy
As a Celtics fan I would be very happy to see Irving join 76ers.
1) if Harden walks, they will only have a mid level exception to use to sign a replacement. 2- Keep Kyrie away! I like him from far, but between injuries, and weird problems, I’m not taking that chance.
I think Harden was great this season. He suffered when the rest of the team suffered- when BRK decided to gameplan on being “physical “, which was just a bunch of cheap shots on both ends of the court. I think they were trying to be annoying and get him frustrated enough to get himself tossed or fouled out, but instead they partially tore his LCL, and for the 2nd straight season, a frustrated 1st rd opponent on the verge of defeat, injured the best player in the NBA and didn’t have to answer for it.
Offseason plan has to be…
Hire Nurse.
Re-up Harden or S&T.
Trade Tobias for 2 players and cut salary at same time.
Trade Furkan, Springer, Shake (S&T).
Keep Niang and McDaniels.
Target FAs Seth Curry, Jae Crowder, Dillon Brooks, KJ Martin, Oubre, Thomas Bryant, Jevon Carter, Josh Richardson, Torey Craig, TJ Warren.
They need to come away with above average 3-pt shooters, and depth up and down the lineup. Some of those guys above will be priced out immediately, some may only garner vet mins or could work in a S&T.
I don’t want Nick Nurse- he’s a whiny egotistical price! LOL. He has regressed each year since his 1st year.
I’m with you on most of your other plans though.1) Sign Harden or (S&T)
2) Trade Tobias for multiple contracts (Id throw in our 2029 1st and whatever 2nds we have if we can bring back at least 1 player who is a good fit here- maybe John Collins?& a contract or 2 to matcb up $). 3. Im a big Paul Reed supporter and think he should have been playing the 4 for the past 18 months or so. Hes y’9, 210, an elite rebounder (16.8 per 48 min) with many on the offensive glass and resulting im put backs or assists
He’s a RFA, so I’d make sure to get him back here. If we can trade Trez’ & Korkmaz for maybe Drummond (we’d save $4.5M in doing so, and if Shake will do a (S&T) that’d be great, but he’s more likely to just walk bc he’s not going to get big $- maybe $5M/yr at most? I’d like to keep Springer, but open to trading him if its to moveTobias or acquirea much needed wing or 4, or PG if Harden leaves. . I think he can certainly be a + defender and has shown some flashes on offense as well, particularly in G-league.
I liked your list of players to bring in outside of Richardson-I don’t want any reminder of that nightmare offseason of losing Butler signing Tobias to a zillion $ or AL Horford $109M! Lol
Ngl in my ideal work,
Miami beats Boston and they also enter this offseason frenzy feeling they need to do something like everyone else.
All of a sudden question marks come once again about Jaylens fit with Tatum. Can they get over the hump? Jaylens non committal over his future, deal expiring soon….
In which case we trade Joel Embiid for Jaylen Brown, Rob Williams and a first round pick.
We then let James Harden walk, and look to try trade PJ Tucker for a first round pick aswell.
We would then have a little bit of money to spend in free agency, I’d try go for Cam Reddish and Andre Drummond in FA, while bringing back McDaniels.
It’s setting us up to look something like this …
Maxey Reddish Brown Harris Rob Will
Melton … Niang McDaniels Drummond
Yes it’s a huge step back from Harden and Embiid, competing for the title etc etc but it’s about building for the future too. Our best chance at a title is gone, Embiid has peaked having reached his MVP, he’s a huge injury concern, Harden is almost 34 and wants an expensive 4 year deal, and together they couldn’t get it done this year. We tried in the past with other guys like Simmons and Butler but it hasn’t worked out. Three game 7 losses in the playoffs.
Time for a new coach and a new direction.
Maxey is ready for the next step, he’s a future all star. Jaylen Brown is ready to step out of the shadow of Tatum and try have his own team. Rob Will wouldn’t have to compete with Horford for minutes, Tobias gets to prove himself in a contract year, as does Melton. Reddish returns home to Philly, Niang and McDaniels stay, Drummond returns. I’d try hire Nick Nurse, ex championship winning coach, managed to do a great job devoting FVV and Siakim. Loves that 3 and D, long athletic style of player and ask a lot of his players defensively.
Running it back isn’t going to get any better for us, let’s just start clean.
Morey needs to go. Harden was a bad match and now he’s traded away all their draft picks and mortgaged their future.
Brown being named to the All NBA team, combined with his play in the win over PHI all but made his return to Boston a certainty. However, even if Brown were to want out of Boston, he can opt out and become a FA, so he’d likely choose a team he wants to play for.
3rd- In no world anywhere, would I trade Embiid right now, and if I had the choice of trading Embiid to Boston, or folding the team, I’d be delivering pink slips in the office today If we were to have to trade Embiid,he’d be going West, maybe a package of Anfernee Simons,Shaedon Sharpe,Jusuf Nurkic 2023 #3 pick, +2 more unprotected #1s for either 1.Joel & Tobias 2.Joel & PJ. If this trade is being made, that means Harden left, so we could have a starting lineup of 1 Maxey 6’3 200 2 Simons 6’3, 185, 3 Sharpe 6’6 201, 4. Jalen McDaniels(resign)6’10 205
& 5 Paul Reed (resign)6’9 220,- it would be a small ball run & gun type of lineup, but we would have a deep bench that can play in the half court setting with players like Nurkic, Niang(resign) Melton, Springer,etc…
I really like the idea of the Spurs trying to win some games in their first Wemby year. They have the cap space to take Harris off the 6ers hands in what would likely be a very good deal for the Spurs.
You had me sold at “moving Tobias” lol