Draft night trade for Melton a reflection of Sixers’ urgency
CAMDEN » The latest disappointing 76ers season had just finished, and there was Daryl Morey with half a promise and half a plea.
“We are,” he said, “going to figure this out.”
After so many ideas, gimmicks, losses, draft risks and processes, that’s where it had reached: A stage not necessarily of panic, but at least of urgency. The time for waiting was over, and so was the opportunity to build through the draft, the minor leagues and any putit-off-to-later load management. The Sixers’ basketball operations president knew it was time to take the structure of what was there and do what he could to make it work. And soon.
That was one reason the Sixers had been willing to offload what would become the No. 23 overall pick in the first round of Thursday’s NBA Draft to Brooklyn in the James Harden deal, only to find that the Nets didn’t want it either. That left Morey standing there with a low-value selection and the charge to find an operation to use it while he went to work trying to shove the Sixers into an NBA Final Four before Joel Embiid tore one more ligament.
With that understood, Morey would prove unwilling to trust another unproven rookie to a development process decades in the making, flipping his only pick to Memphis along with the rights to Danny Green for experienced 6-2 point guard De’Anthony Melton. Nothing special in his first four NBA seasons — one in Phoenix, the last three with the Grizzlies — Melton was known to show consistent improvement and had multiple organizations intrigued by his skills.
A second-round draft choice of Suns out of USC in 2018, Melton has made himself a useful outside shooter, hitting on 41.2 percent of his 3-point attempts in 2021 before settling in at 37.4 percent last season. Since the Sixers not only have a point guard of some accomplishment and are about to pay Harden $47 million for next season with two more years tacked on, the acquisition of Melton is an obvious attempt to improve a bench that for too long has been less than postseason ready.
“We’re excited to do that,” Morey has said. “We’ll have the maximum resources under the CBA available to us, but a lot
of it is going to be finding the right minimum guys, which I think we’ve had good success with.
“One of the best parts of this job is, once you have your main guys in place, which we do, is finding the guys who can fit in. We need to do a better job, but that’s part of the job.”
The Sixers are known to be preparing a three-year, $30 million deal to add 37-year-old P.J. Tucker, a forward who intrigued Embiid, among others, with his edge in leading the Heat past the Sixers in the second round. For that, there will have to be some payroll adjustment, but Morey has time for that.
If there is a question about Melton, it is why he often sags in the playoffs. With Morey and Doc Rivers not disputing the need for more toughness, they have added a player who has made just 17 of his 64 career postseason 3-pointers. Over two series last season, Melton shot 11for-44 from distance. Melton, though, is
known as a ferocious defender and, in a task that Rivers demands, a valuable rebounder.
For that, he could fit the get-tougher profile.
“Give credit to Miami, they went out and took it,” Morey said after the secondround series. “But we need some of that toughness.”
Tucker, should that deal happen, would supply some. Melton could, too.
Already overwhelmed in his first shot at improving the Sixers in the draft — wasting picks last year on Jaden Springer, Filip Petrusev and Charles Bassey — Morey did a good job at season’s end pretending it didn’t happen.
“I’m excited for Doc and his staff to have a whole offseason to work with the players,” he said, “and to come up with the best plan for the roster we’ll have.”
Doc and his staff had just as full an offseason as any other coach and staff last summer, but Morey had to figure it
sounded good, so he went with it, hoping to do something meaningful before anyone could chime in with a cross examination.
For purposes of history, the Sixers Thursday technically drafted versatile David Roddy, a 6-6 swingman with 3-point ability from Colorado State. But once the paperwork dries, he will sign with the Grizzlies. The Sixers did have a chance to improve immediately via the draft, as Ohio State forward E.J. Liddell, who would have supplied some big-moment toughness, was available. But for their Draft Night haul, the Sixers were satisfied with a developing backup point guard.
“We’re excited,” Morey had said, “about what we can build on from here.”
One move into the offseason, they showed they are in no mood to wait.