While the Sixers‘ backcourt play has understandably garnered most of the attention during the team’s 5-1 start, veteran forward Kelly Oubre Jr. has been a key contributor as well, writes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (subscriber link).
In Sunday’s matchup with Brooklyn, Oubre was tasked with slowing down Michael Porter Jr., who had a season-high 32-points in his previous game against Atlanta. Not only did Oubre limit Porter to two first-half points, he scored 24 of his own, including a career-best 22 in the first quarter alone.
“So [Kelly] set the tone big-time on that,” head coach Nick Nurse said. “And, again, I really believe this to be true: When you start the game super focused on D, that really usually translates to the other end, too. It really does.”
Oubre, who will be an unrestricted free agent next summer, is averaging 19.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.2 steals in 38.0 minutes per contest on .526/.416/.800 shooting through six games.
Here’s more on the 76ers:
- Kyle Lowry officially became the 12th player in NBA history to play 20 seasons when he checked in for garbage-time minutes at the end of Sunday’s win against the Nets, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. The six-time All-Star, who was born in Philadelphia and played his college ball at Villanova, is a leader in the 76ers’ locker room. “That’s a Hall of Famer we’re talking about,” Tyrese Maxey said. “Jersey’s probably getting retired in Toronto. And he’s up cheering for everybody, motivating people, talking in the locker room. I’ve got nothing but love and respect for K-Low and we appreciate having him.”
- In a column for The Inquirer, Pompey (subscription required), Pompey wonders whether VJ Edgecombe will be able to reach his full potential offensively playing alongside a ball-dominant center in Joel Embiid. Edgecombe has been the league’s top rookie in the early going, averaging 20.3 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 5.0 APG and 1.5 SPG on .495/.421/.824 shooting in six games (39.0 MPG), but has often ceded touches to Embiid when they share the court, Pompey explains.
- Embiid’s defensive mobility has been limited in his four appearances this season after he underwent another knee surgery in April. In a subscriber-only mailbag, Pompey speculates that the former league MVP may have lingering issues with the knee, though he acknowledges it will probably take another month or so to determine if Embiid will look like this going forward or if he’s just trying to work himself back into playing shape. Pompey also tackles questions about Paul George‘s play-making and how the nine-time All-Star forward might impact the team’s defense when he makes his season debut.
- In case you missed it, second-year guard Jared McCain is expected to make his season debut on Tuesday in Chicago.
Try to offer Paul George, Drummond, Justin Edwards or Barlow, Bona, a butt load cash and some kind of package deal of picks (also a under the table deal of some sort) to Portland for Jrue Holiday and Jerami Grant
Paul George and Lillard can hang out for a year or two on a injured list
Win win
The best move for the 76ers is to contract match Embiid out of town for literally anyone who is healthy and can stay on the court. If they do that, they might be turning the ship around and be a top 8 team in the East this year.
Dump Embiid. Or just let him ride the bench with injuries.
can’t thank ace bailey enough for not wanting to be a sixer
Why is Morey still here ????
He extended Embiid in 2024. So he can sit and heal. It’s time to retire Embiid. Medical retirement.
Keep saying the same thing over and over again, Al. Maybe eventually you’ll get how what you’re talking about works.
Doesn’t take a genius to criticize Morey. I lived in Houston when he was hired for yrs. My cousin is a Rockets fan. We talk all the time. All you have to do is look at his record. Analytics and stats don’t build teams.
Oh and One more thing !!!!!!
Has something changed with Morey ….
It’s such a frustrating time to be a realistic Sixers fan.
On one hand you have this really really good group lead by two young guards in Maxey and VJ. Oubres been awesome, Bona has been great, Grimes has been massive and McCain is coming back aswell.
But on the other hand you have these two aging and offensive injured vets in Joel and PG. Both take away touches from our promising group, both and too slow and banged up to play as good as they used to, and both command basically all of our salary cap for the next 3/4 years.
Daryl Morey won’t do anything about it cause his job is on the thinnest of ice, he will keep this group together and sell everyone on our ability to compete for a championship of everyone can stay healthy but us fans know we have these massive limitations and our roster isn’t as good as OKC’s, Denver’s, Cleveland’s etc etc.
What we would like to see is Morey out the door and dumping off PG and Embiid and building around the young guards. Who cares if Embiid gets us a playoff series win we know we ain’t getting a chip. I’d rather build up the young guys and be better in the long run while playing an exciting brand of basketball now.
Morey acquired all of these players. He fleeced the Mavs out of Grimes. He drafted McCain 16th in a weak draft. Signed Undrafted Justin Edwards who quickly became a rotation player. Drafted VJ, who looks like he’s stealing ROY from Cooper Flagg which was otherwise unthought of.
He also maneuvered a gap year where they were 20-29 into a 24-58 finish to even get the #3 pick and draft VJ.
The idea that he’s a bad GM is just stupid and reactionary. There is an actual process here under the surface, but you’ll always have dopey fans who act like he is Joe Dumars / Troy Weaver making actively negative decisions that 95% of people realize right away are horrible asset management, team fits, etc.
They weren’t the only team offering big money to George, who fell off harder/faster than was reasonably anticipated. And the Embiid extension doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme because it would have happened with 29 other franchises, it’s necessary to lock up an MVP/star level player (esp an enigmatic one) to keep him happy/engaged and not a destructive force like a Jimmy Butler.
It’s two weeks into the regular season. A 5-1 record is fools gold. They are not a contender with Adem Bona as the starting center. They are not a contender with Two-Way players starting at the four. They still need Embiid. They still need George. That they have this record (which we expected last season) despite minimal/non-existent contributions from key players should be a good thing.
If you have watched the Sixers games so far, you will have noticed that Embiid has struggled to put away centers he used to eat for lunch – he arguably got outplayed by Alex Sarr. He has been so slow that his presence on defense is minimal.
So if this is what he is, we’re in trouble. We’ve been lucky so far with the schedule, but that will change.
I have seen Embiid. He looks like he’s playing on one leg. Can still affect a game offensively.
Sarr is also much improved this year (also took it to KAT).
My general point is that any beat writer who thinks Embiid is taking touches away from VJ is fooling themselves. He is a young Derrick White. He looks good as a straight line driver getting wide open threes. That efficiency is going away the moment he becomes a focal point for the defense.
Ok but you cant claim VJ over Flagg is because of Morey, Flagg was always going #1. The players drafted after Flagg and VJ, sure, but VJ was always top 5. Also its been 6 games and the idiotic Mavs are making Flagg play PG instead of SF/PF for some reason. If they change that, he definitely will be better. Do you think VJ would be this good if the 76ers made him play center?
The 76ers have beaten the Wizards, Nets, Hornets, Celtics and Magic so far. I think this is an example of slamming your cup down and the water splashing around for a second until he becomes still. When the water finds its own level, this isn’t a playoff team, it might barely be a play-in team. VJ and Maxey make the 76ers rebuild look at lot better right now, but you are right, over 82 this isn’t going to be enough. I would try and contract match Embiid out of town for literally anyone healthy as soon as possible.
Changing your name doesn’t change the fact you are a babbling fool.
Look at your PFP – your opinion doesnt matter, lil bro.
They could have drafted Ace instead of VJ.
Yes, I will give a small W for Morey there. Only problem is I have Morey with like 5,000 L’s in his career.
I don’t hate him or even particularly think he’s a bad GM, he also did great making trades for stars to try get us over the hump be it Harden or Butler. Tobias was obviously a fail but can’t win them all. It’s more now about the situation he’s got us into with the long contracts for broken old players that is terrible. But I definitely think he’s had some good moments and think he’s a respectable GM
Tobias wasn’t a Morey signing (and if anything was why they needed someone like him to take over). Jimmy was likewise before his time (likely would have kept him, given his proclivity towards stars).
Tobias signed in July 2019. Morey became President of BB Ops in November 2020.
His first order of business was drafting Tyrese Maxey 21st overall.
(Also drafted Isaiah Joe 49th, and Paul Reed 58th).
Anyone crying about Morey should remember that little tidbit. They identified, among other things, how hard working & dedicated he was, and what a fit he was for what they wanted to do. Maxey, for his part, has gone from an 8 PPG backup to a star averaging 34 points right now.
He is a great GM. Drafts well and wins trades. Every single media pundit gave the Sixers an A for their 2024 offseason when they gave that max deal to George. It didn’t work out. Not every move is going to. Find a GM out there with a flawless record. His record shows something like 80% of the time he’s going to do something that positively impacts his basketball team. A far cry from some of the actual bad GMs in the league.
I’m fairly certain the resigning of Embiid was something that came from the top that he was directed to get done as well. Granted he has to be the fall guy because the owner won’t be lol. But all in all I don’t love Morey but I do like him and his work along the fringes of the roster.
Morey’s Draft Record w/ PHI
2020: Tyrese Maxey (21), Isaiah Joe (49), Paul Reed (58)
2021: Jaden Springer (28)
2024: Jared McCain (16)
2025: VJ Edgecombe (3), Johni Broome (35)
Jon Horst’s Draft Record w/ MIL
2017: DJ Wilson (17), Sterling Brown (46)
2018: Donte DiVincenzo (17)
2019: Jon Leuer (40)
2020: Jordan Nwora (45), Sam Merrill (60)
2021: Sandro Mamukelashvili (54), Georgios Kalaitzakis (60)
2022: Marjon Beauchamp (24), Hugo Besson (58)
2023: Andre Jackson Jr (36), Chris Livingston (58)
2024: AJ Johnson (23), Tyler Smith (33)
2025: Bogoljub Markovic (47)
They have traded plenty of firsts over the years to keep a team around Giannis, but the firsts they did keep they’ve punted on badly. Their 2024 Draft was one of the worst in recent memory, neither player is even on the team a year later.
Even Merrill/Mamu, those guys developed with other teams, so they don’t even have a Paul Reed type success. And Horst is arguably an AVERAGE GM.
Morey always has this contingent of anti-analytics people who think he is the worst thing to happen to the league. His results have always spoken for themselves. Maybe he’s the Thibs of GMs where the best he’s ever gonna get you is a regular season juggernaut too flawed to have prolonged championship equity, but there are a helluva lot worse fates out there for franchises.
^Left out Adem Bona (41st) from the 2024 Draft
Morey is -not- “a great GM” a great GM wins titles. Morey does not. Case closed.
We’re in the era of parity in the NBA. A GM who consistently puts their team in position will eventually hit on those 5-10% odds.
Masai traded the core of his team in a Hail Mary for Kawhi, who left after a season. Just about everything Masai has done since that move has shown a distinct lack of process.
Is Masai a “great” GM because he went all in for one unsustainable title? Does that one title discount everything he’s done since?
How about Joe Dumars who won a title in 2004? He a great GM? The only thing “closed” is your mind.
Only one team wins a championship each year. There are plenty of great players/coaches/execs who are “losers” each and every season.
The irony in this of course is the Warriors have won how many times and you’re the biggest Kerr hater on this forum. “Greatness” only extends where you want it to.
Wait? You used all GM’s in your examples…and then said Kerr, like he is the GM? Almost like you are bending over backwards to make this work just to win points on me, or something. COOL BRO
I’m not a Sixers fan and have laughed at their endless woes the past decade or so.(trust the process, lil) But they have something with Edgecombe, Maxey and hopefully a healthy McCain eventually and if they allow having a foot stick in the past with Embiid, to keep them from growing into a contender than the President, GM and the head coach should all be fired immediately. (can’t fire ownership) Sometimes ya just gotta move ahead and let the past go.
I agree with everything you wrote here and want to add Trust the Process was the corniest failure of all-time, and Embiid and everyone (except Maxey) from that era should be gone by now. The East is so weak, the 76ers really just have to somehow jettison Embiid and PG13 and they are looking like a contender.
All I think about when I hear Lowry’s name is him grabbing a defenders arm and pulling them down and getting a foul called against them.
He turned it into an art form chasing the drive to the rim
And underhooking the off arm
Had season tickets — I watched him get away with at least one a game for years. He memorized the refs blind spots. It was incredible how good he was at it
Embid as he is right now is an impediment to this team. He’s slow on defense and he disrupts the flow on offense. This team has something special going right now but not when he’s on the court.
Morey was hired by Rockets in May 2007. He was there till October 2020. In that span. He got lucky when he traded for Harden. Then his analytics in basketball was all the rage. I’m not against analytics. Bur it’s a false prophecy when building a team. As Harden proved over the yrs. As he took down the Rockets, Nets, and Sixers.
Morey has rode Hardens game right to where Harden is now. Exposed ….. even as he is having a decent run now in LA. He plays no D and will NEVER win anything.
Morey deserves NO credit for VJ. He does deserve credit for Maxey. Sixers were put together to win the East with George. So Morey again lucked out by tanking had VJ fall to him. And if Bailey had kept his mouth shut. He would be a Sixer and not VJ.
In the 14 yrs Morey drafted in Houston. His analytics produced —— only Cappella #25 pick. And Jalen Green #3 pick who he tanked for when he left. He has one of worst draft history as a GM. It is laughable to think otherwise about this counter. He belongs on his computer reading the numbers. Not running a franchise. Analytics is a Tool not a way to run a franchise …………
link to basketball-reference.com
LMAO of course you would think this
The Rockets made the playoffs 10 times in 13 years under Morey (2008-2009 and 2013-2020) (2x Conf Finals, 4x Second Round, 4x First Round).
They went 119-111 (51.7%) during their three rebuilding seasons. That makes 13 consecutive years of 42+ wins.
Wants me to do the Knicks now? FOH.
Rockets from 2008 to 2020 (Morey)
10x Playoffs (2x Conference Finals, 4x Second Round)
Peak: 65 wins (7x seasons w/ 50+ wins)
Doing all this in a stacked West
Knicks from 2008 to 2020
3x Playoffs (1x Second Round)
Peak: 54 wins
—————————————————–
Sixers from 2021 to 2025 (Morey)
4x Playoffs (3x Second Round)
Peak: 54 wins
Knicks from 2021 to 2025
4x Playoffs (1x Conference Finals, 2x Second Round)
Peak: 51 wins
LOLOLOL of course you would think Morey is bad. Curious what you think about the job Leon has done!
————————————————
Morey Total (2008-Present)
14x Playoffs in 18 seasons
2x Conference Finals, 7x Second Round, 5x First Round (11-14 Series Record)
Knicks Total (2008-Present)
7x Playoffs in 18 seasons
1x Conference Finals, 3x Second Round, 3x First Round (5-7 Series Record)
Morey w/ PHI: 230-176 (56.7%)
Leon w/ NYK: 233-180 (56.4%)
One of these is apparently a bad GM LOL
You’ve had quite a few of these over the last 30 years, one would think you’d know quite a bit about this. Sounds like you took the wrong lessons away if you can’t separate Morey from the dog**** execs you’ve had in charge of your team for most of your adult life.
Another damaged goods already… he is done.