Sixers President Daryl Morey Re-Visits Isaiah Joe Release

Before the 2022-2023 NBA season started, the Philadelphia 76ers had a couple of cuts they needed to make to finalize their roster. The former second-round pick Charles Bassey was expected to be the final cut before the Sixers got their roster down to 15, months back.

However, they sent Isaiah Joe to the waiver wire with him, leaving an open spot on the roster rather than keeping him around. The Bassey release wasn’t surprising, but cutting Joe loose certainly wasn’t a favorable move to fans of the Sixers.

After losing his spot with the Sixers, Joe was picked up by the Oklahoma City Thunder. He went into OKC with two years of experience playing with the Sixers. In 96 games, Joe averaged four points while knocking down 35 percent of his shots on 2.5 attempts per game over the last two seasons.

With a more notable role in Oklahoma City, Joe has left many Philly fans wondering why the Sixers let him go. In 45 games with the Thunder, Joe is averaging a career-high 15 minutes on the court. Over that span of games, he’s accounted for eight points per game while knocking down 45 percent of his shots from beyond the arc.

Doc Rivers mentioned on several occasions that Joe’s lack of playing time in Philadelphia was simply a result of the roster being too deep, making it difficult to offer playing time to the 23-year-old former second-round pick. In an interview with the Philly Voice, Sixers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey explained his logic behind the move, echoing a similar sentiment.

“We’re not going to have playing time for everyone. So sometimes, we’re going to cut players who are very good players. And we’re happy for those that go on to do great things,” Morey said when asked about cutting Joe last fall. “There’s a lot of factors that go into it, including the current contract or the goals of the season to win a title. We could start bringing in worse players so we never cut a good one.”

At the time of Joe’s release, the Sixers were ready to rely on players like Shake Milton, De’Anthony Melton, Danuel House Jr, Matisse Thybulle, and Furkan Korkmaz to offer value off the bench. Milton remains consistent in his role, and Melton has been elevated to the starting lineup, which brought Tyrese Maxey down to the second unit.

Meanwhile, Thybulle’s minutes have fluctuated while House and Korkmaz have been out of the rotation. It’s tough to say whether or not Joe would still get an opportunity to play in the rotation if he stuck around and everything panned out in a similar way, but his emergence in Oklahoma City so far certainly has been a tough pill for Philly fans to swallow.

As for the Sixers’ organization, they don’t seem to have many regrets about the decision as they are only focused on who is currently on the roster — and who they might be able to pick up ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.