Daryl Morey Addresses 76ers’ Search for Doc Rivers’ Replacement

Following another second-round exit in the 2023 NBA Playoffs, the Philadelphia 76ers moved on from their head coach, Doc Rivers.

Heading into the 2022-2023 NBA season, the Sixers made it clear that they’ve built their roster with the postseason in mind and had a clear goal to bring a title back to Philadelphia for the first time in decades.

Through the first two seasons with Rivers running the team, the Sixers came up short in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. During the 2021 playoff run, the Sixers dropped Game 7 against the Atlanta Hawks.

During the 2022 playoff run, they came up short against the Miami Heat in six games. This year, the Sixers felt they were much more improved ahead of the playoffs. In the first round, the Sixers took care of business by sweeping the Brooklyn Nets.

However, they came up short once again in the second round. After going seven games with the Boston Celtics, the Sixers found themselves eliminated, despite having two chances to close the series out to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2001.

By failing to finish off the Celtics, the Sixers moved on from Doc Rivers after three seasons.

“I want to say thank you to Coach Rivers, someone I tremendously respect and have worked with for a long time,” Daryl Morey said on Wednesday afternoon. “Like I said yesterday, first ballot Hall of Famer. Led us to advancing in the playoffs multiple times. Just really us, and one other team have even advanced in the playoffs the last couple of years. Winning’s hard, and Coach Rivers was a great leader and someone I learned a lot from.”

Although Rivers had an overall winning record with the Sixers during the three regular seasons he spent in Philadelphia, along with three-straight playoff appearances, which resulted in several Eastern Conference Semifinals appearances, Morey explained that after taking a hard look at the situation following a Game 7 loss against Boston, he suggested a change at the head coach position to the Sixers’ managing partners.

“My job is to evaluate everything, and we felt like that was the best move for helping us get to our goals going forward,” Morey explained. “It was carefully thought out, and I recommended it to ownership, and they accepted it.”

So far, the Sixers have been linked to six coaching prospects since moving on from Rivers. Among them are former Milwaukee Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer, former Phoenix Suns head coach Monty Williams, former Los Angeles Lakers head coach Frank Vogel, former Houston Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni, former Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse, and current Sixers assistant, Sam Cassell.

“We’re taking a careful process with the coach,” Morey explained. “We do not think it’ll move quickly. It is true, we’re going to look at all of the candidates. We’re already very encouraged by the candidates that have reached out. We have an MVP player, we have a great roster that lots of players want to play with, and a lot of coaches want to be with, so we will look at that carefully.”

While Morey will obviously have his core players in mind, notably the MVP center Joel Embiid, when searching for the next head coach, the President of Basketball Operations clarified that players won’t have a say in who comes in next to follow Doc Rivers.

Clearly, the Sixers will look for a coach that’s system best fits the personnel that they have and the players that they are targeting in free agency and the trade market, but there are other factors that come into play during the search.

“I would say that we have a roster ready to win,” Morey added. “Obviously, we've been very successful, just kind of short of our goals. We have an MVP-level player and if you look at the history of the NBA, it's challenging to walk into that as a first-time NBA head coach. That doesn't mean it hasn't worked. For every rule, there are solid counterexamples. So we're not going to go in with like a prescription, but you know, we're looking for someone who brings leadership, accountability, someone who is good at tactics, someone who has great relationships with his star players, someone who is good at recruiting star players, and players want to play for someone who builds a great organization.”

When the Sixers hired Rivers following Brett Brown’s departure, part of the reason they brought him in was due to the fact that Rivers had a championship on his resume. While Morey won’t avoid a coach because they don’t have that box checked off, he noted the importance of having that accolade as a candidate.

“The available coaches are very strong,” he finished. "We’re encouraged by the ones who have reached out to us already. As you mentioned, recent championships is a factor. It’s definitely not a litmus test, but all else equal, I think that can lend a lot of credibility with players. I think that matters. It’s why like adding a PJ Tucker last year was a positive.”

Of the six coaches the 76ers have already been linked to, half of them have an NBA title as a head coach. One other has a Conference Finals victory, while another has several Conference Finals appearances without an NBA Finals appearance. Then, there’s Cassell, who has never led as a head coach but has three championships to his name as a player.

Clearly, the goal moving forward for Morey and the Sixers is to build a championship-winning team. While they believed that Rivers was initially the guy to get them there, the experiment failed to live up to expectations. Now, the Sixers will take their time finding Rivers’ replacement.