Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Morey embraces challenge of next big step
PHILADELPHIA >> Like any top NBA executive this time of the season, Daryl Morey is trying to improve his roster. Sure, NBA Top Shot — sort of a collectible highlight reel — is in its infancy, but Morey is all in on the frenzy stirred by digital dunks and nonfungible fast breaks.
“I just grabbed all the Sixers,” Morey said. “Well, I don’t have all of them because they’re hard to get. But I’ve got Joel (Embiid), I’ve got Ben (Simmons), I’ve got Tobias (Harris), I’ve got (Tyrese) Maxey, I’ve got (Matisse) Thybulle.
“Some of the players need to complain and say, ‘Where are my highlights?’”
Say, for example, Seth Curry.
So Morey juggles answering questions over Zoom about his first season running the 76ers with a Top Shot search on his laptop for clips of their starting shooting guard.
Morey needs patience completing his digital lineup.
He can revel that the real one on the court has been about as good as it gets. The Sixers (26-12) have the best record in the Eastern Conference headed into Sunday’s game against San Antonio, the first in Philly with fans since the coronavirus pandemic began. Morey says he can’t wait to see and hear what the fans are all about.
His Instagram Q&As are part of his appeal that connects him with fans.
“Younger fans want to feel like they’re part of something,” Morey told The Associated Press this week.
After 14 seasons running the Rockets, Morey wants to make the Sixers feel like they’re part of something they’ve largely missed since 1983 — the championship conversation. Yes, that’s Morey, 48, fist-bumping general manager Elton Brand after big buckets and lingering in his row with the frontoffice team long after the final horn, but he oversees a team largely in place when he was named president of basketball operations in November.
Simmons and Embiid, an MVP candidate, are All-Star cornerstones. Harris is having a career year under Doc Rivers, who coached the Celtics to the 2008 NBA title and in his first season has maximized the talent on a
team swept out of the first round of the playoffs last season.
“He really knows his stuff and does it as good or better than anything I would do if I dove in,” Morey said. “It allows me to just focus on my job, which is try and get better players for him.”
The NBA trade deadline is March 25. That means rumors and fantasy deals are at the forefront, and Morey said he’s not necessarily pursuing a blockbuster.
“We have a great group, a great chemistry, they’re playing at a high level, they play even better against very good teams,” Morey said. “That’s something fragile and we need to respect it. Long story short, everyone expecting some big thing, I would ask them to be excited about who we have more than what’s possible.”
Simmons is a regular triple-double threat, and Harris went from overpriced scapegoat to legitimate All-Star candidate averaging a career-best 20.2 points. Curry, a 44 percent career 3-point shooter, is just off that clip this year. The Sixers are 14th in the NBA in 3-point percentage but only 28th in total attempts. On Morey’s watch, Houston averaged 45.3 3-pointers per game last season, tops in the league.
“Well, we happen to have the best inside players in the NBA,” Morey said. “I don’t care how we win, just that we win. I would say our offense does need to be better. You want to be at least top 10. If you ask me, how are we going to make our offense better, it wouldn’t be by shooting 3s. Joel, Tobias and Ben all are top 10 in terms of being able to score 10 feet and in, so I don’t know why you’d do anything much else. The other guys we have are good at spacing. But Ben, Joel and Tobias are so good inside, we don’t need it.”
Morey and Rivers are both experienced at handling superstar players with supersized egos, and making sure one basketball can satiate three scorers hasn’t become an issue.
“I’ve found people are generally who they are by that age,” Morey said. “But I would say one source of tension that can come up that we are past, is that until everybody gets paid, I think there can be tension. All our main three guys are all paid, and hopefully feel well paid. They should. We’re past where a lot of tension can come from that.”
Embiid, 26, has two years left on a contract that paid him $148 million. Simmons, 24, is signed through 2025 on a $170 million deal. Harris signed a $180 million max deal in 2019.
Morey insists he still can’t believe he’s in this position and that he meant it when he said upon leaving the Rockets that he was taking a year off to spend time with his family. He joked he has texts from his two adult children wondering if they still loved him after he took the Sixers job.
“I feel like I want to grab my wife so she can tell you,” he said, laughing.
His wife recently joined him in Philadelphia, and his home is furnished after a post showing his bachelor pad in January with just a folding chair and TV.
Once the Sixers called, Morey got right to work. He undid two of the major 2019 moves on draft night when he traded freeagent bust Al Horford to Oklahoma City and sent Josh Richardson to Dallas as part of a deal for Curry.
Landing Curry seems like a breeze compared with trying to find him in Top Shot. Morey’s excitement flickers out after he thought he had a lead on a highlight.
“Ah, that’s the issue, he’s still on another team,” Morey said. “I don’t want that. I want Sixers. I want the best Curry on the Sixers.”
Morey is almost an open book compared with his recent predecessors Bryan Colangelo or Sam Hinkie, who worked with Morey in Houston and was the mastermind behind The Process.
“People always laugh and they think I’m going to be like Sam or Sam’s going to be like me since we worked together,” Morey said. “But yeah, we’re pretty different. I would say starkly different on a lot of things.”
His protegee got the championship ball rolling by orchestrating moves to land Simmons and Embiid. Morey’s steadfast belief that the NBA is a superstar-driven league has him convinced he can finish the job he failed to achieve in Houston and win the championship.
“I definitely think we can win the title,” Morey said. “Obviously challenging, but for sure, good enough.”
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLA. >> One week later, the two leading characters and the roles they play are still the same.
Only the stage — and the stakes — have changed.
Lee Westwood went from surprise to delight when his tee shot to the island green on the par-3 17th stayed on the top ridge, and then he trickled in a 25-foot birdie putt that carried him to a 4-under 68 on Saturday at The Players Championship.
Bryson DeChambeau pumped his powerful arms twice when he made a 15-foot par putt on the 18th hole, giving him a 67 and leaving him two shots behind and in the final group with Westwood.
That’s how it was last week at Bay Hill, when DeChambeau came from one shot behind to beat Westwood with a par on the final hole at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
“It’s like Round 2, the rematch,” Westwood said.
Westwood, who turns 48 next month, no longer has to go up a few classes to face DeChambeau, golf’s fearsome heavyweight. Unlike Bay Hill, the TPC Sawgrass is all about position, not power.
Then again, DeChambeau is playing well enough for any style of golf course.
“I suppose if you sat Bryson down here and you asked him which golf course would suit him more, he’d probably say Bay Hill,” Westwood said. “You can open your shoulders a little bit more around Bay Hill than you can around here. This place is a little bit more strategic. But credit to Bryson. You wouldn’t associate this golf course with his style of play, and he’s up there. It shows he can adapt his game.”
It was the first time the same two players were in the final group in consecutive PGA Tour events in more than 14 years, with one big difference. This one is separated by seven days. Vijay Singh and Adam Scott faced off nine weeks apart — the season-ending Tour Championship in 2006 and the season-opening Mercedes Championship at Kapalua.
Westwood capped off his round with a 5-foot par putt, extending his streak to 44 holes without a bogey, and he’s dropped only two shots this week on a Stadium Course where one swing can lead to a big number. Westwood was at 13-under 203. “He’s making a lot of amazing putts, too,” DeChambeau said. “That’s what it takes to win golf tournaments.”
Westwood has 41 victories around the world — at least one on every major tour of the International Federation of PGA Tours — and knows better than to get caught up with DeChambeau, especially here.
He had the 54-hole lead at The Players in 2010 when 14 players were separated by five shots going into the final round, and Tim Clark rallied from three behind to win.
Among those three back going into Sunday was Justin Thomas, who started with four straight birdies and capped off his 64 with a 5-iron that stopped inches away from the hole on the par-5 16th for a tap-in eagle.
Doug Ghim, who is making his debut in The Players, also was three behind. He was among seven players who had at least a share of the lead at one point Saturday and was motoring along until one costly swing on the easiest hole, the par-5 16th. He came up well short in a bunker under a tree, tried to blast low under the limbs and caught the rough and wound up with his lone bogey.
Paul Casey had six birdies and an eagle to offset his mistakes in a 67, leaving him four shots behind with Jon Rahm (67). Also four shots behind was Brian Harman, who began his day by holing a wedge for eagle and shot 69.
Sergio Garcia was five shots behind and still can’t handle the short putts, including a 4-footer for birdie that missed badly on the low side at the 17th. He had to settle for a 72.
DeChambeau can’t blast away at Sawgrass because of the bending tree-lined fairways and water hazards. But his power still comes in handy. With his tee shot buried in deep rough right of the 18th fairway, some 210 yards away, he ripped an 8-iron to just short of the green and set up his chance at par.
BUFFALO, N.Y. >> The Buffalo Sabres will be without captain Jack Eichel for what coach Ralph Krueger called “the foreseeable future” in delivering yet another blow to a team in the midst of a nine-game skid.
The injury is not considered season-ending, though Krueger on Saturday was unable to provide a fixed timetable on how much time Eichel will miss.
The update came after Eichel traveled to see a specialist over the past two days to further determine the severity of the injury. Under the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol rules, Eichel is required to spend seven days in quarantine as a result of the trip, meaning he will miss at least Buffalo’s next four games. RANGERS 4, BRUINS 0 >> Chris Kreider scored his team-leading 14th goal, Artemi Panarin had an assist in his first game back since leaving the team, and New York beat Boston to halt a three-game losing streak. BLUE JACKETS 4, STARS 3 >> Zach Werenski scored 4:55 into overtime and Elvis Merzlikins made 27 saves, leading Columbus to the victory.