The One Mistake the Sixers Must Avoid After Firing Daryl Morey

The next team president should not feel compelled to immediately clean up his or her predecessor's mistakes.

Dec 15, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia 76ers resident of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey speaks with the media before a game against the Detroit Pistons at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

When Daryl Morey took over as the Sixers' president of basketball operations in the fall of 2020, he immediately set out to undo his predecessor's mistakes.

Before the 2020-21 season even began, Morey traded Josh Richardson to the Dallas Mavericks for Seth Curry and sent Al Horford and a lightly protected 2025 first-round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Danny Green. The Sixers finished that season atop the Eastern Conference and blasted the Washington Wizards in the first round of the playoffs before suffering an embarrassing meltdown against the Atlanta Hawks in the conference semifinals.

Six years later, the Sixers are moving on from Morey. He also left a mess for his successor to clean up, as the Sixers have two of the league's worst-value contracts on their books in Paul George and Joel Embiid.

Whomever the Sixers hire as Morey's replacement might be tempted to follow in his footsteps and take a sledgehammer to this roster to expedite the Sixers' transition into the Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe era.

Rushing into that could backfire tremendously, though, particularly if it costs the Sixers draft picks to offload either George or Embiid.

'Eff them picks'?

George still has two years and more than $110 million remaining on his contract, while Embiid is just about to begin a three-year extension that's projected to be worth more than $185 million. Given their respective ages and injury histories, the Sixers would be lucky to get off either contract without attaching additional assets.

Brian Windhorst on Joel Embiid questioning his future in Philly:

“He has 3 years $192M left on his contract…which will begin next season. That is why I can promise him he will definitely be back. He is not going anywhere.“ pic.twitter.com/6FfJNl6gQz

— SPORTSRADIO 94WIP (@SportsRadioWIP) May 11, 2026

By the time the Sixers hire a new lead executive, the NBA will likely have finalized its new draft-lottery reform to dissuade tanking. That throws the trade value of draft picks into question moving forward.

"Team executives believe that it will cause more variance in the draft because the lottery odds will have shifted so dramatically," Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic wrote after this year's draft lottery. "So, aside from whatever implications that has for tanking or its elimination, team executives believe that the new construct will make draft picks more valuable going forward because that variance will make it more likely to land a high pick."

Jake Fischer of The Stein Line speculated that the new lottery "could make it harder to convince teams to surrender future first-rounders, since teams will naturally be eager to keep hold of picks that enable them to take their chances in such enticing conditions."

The Sixers are in fairly decent shape with draft picks moving forward. Although they're sending the No. 17 overall pick to the Thunder this year—consider it Horford's final parting gift to Philadelphia—they received the No. 22 pick via the Houston Rockets from their controversial Jared McCain trade.

The Sixers owe their 2028 first-round pick to the Brooklyn Nets as long as it falls outside of the top eight, but they otherwise have full control of their first-rounders moving forward. They also own a fully unprotected 2028 first-round pick from the Los Angeles Clippers, and they have the right to swap first-rounders with the Clippers in 2029 as long as the Clippers don't land in the top three.

In other words, the Sixers have the draft-pick ammunition to offload George or Embiid and/or make a big splash in the trade market if so desired. But doing so would suggest that they learned nothing from their ill-fated decision to assemble their Big Three in the first place.

Trust the Process

As tempting as it might be to reset around Maxey and Edgecombe, the Sixers will have an organic opportunity to do that in the near future. In the meantime, they should consider what they already have in place.

Even though George and Embiid combined to play only 75 games this season, the Sixers still won 45 games and made the playoffs. Not only that, but they completed the first-ever 3-1 series comeback in franchise history and beat the Boston Celtics in a playoff series for the first time in 40 years.

They immediately proceeded to get swept by the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, which left a sour taste in fans' mouths after the historic upset of the Celtics. But in some respects, the season was a clear success, as Embiid said in his exit interview.

"I know we lost. ... But for me, this was a success."

Although the Sixers got swept, Joel Embiid is grateful to finish the season in good health 💯 pic.twitter.com/h6Lc1em4I9

— ESPN (@espn) May 10, 2026

More than a decade into his career, the Sixers still aren't sure whether Embiid can hold up physically for an entire playoff run. With that in mind, they began to transition away from being so reliant on him this season and leaned more into a Maxey-led team.

Even if Embiid returns next year, that process figures to continue, especially given the emergence of Edgecombe. Shifting Embiid and George into more complementary roles can help reduce the wear and tear on their bodies throughout the 82-game grind of the regular season, too.

The Sixers need to bolster their supporting cast this offseason, which could prove tricky given their lack of financial flexibility. If they lose Kelly Oubre Jr. and/or Quentin Grimes in free agency, they won't have an easy way to replace either one.

But the Celtics series gave them proof of concept in their Big Three model. If anything, the Sixers' owners need to stop forcing the front office to duck the luxury tax at the trade deadline every year.

Building around three max contracts but refusing to pay the luxury tax speaks to a lack of a coherent organizational direction that the Sixers need to rectify ASAP.

In 2027, George will be on an expiring contract (assuming he picks up his $56.6 million player option), while Embiid will have only two more years left on his deal. It should be far easier to move both, particularly if other teams continue to keep their 2027 cap sheets clean in the hopes of making a run at Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokić or another megastar in free agency that summer.

The Sixers might be able to move off George this offseason without attaching picks—Fischer wrote that it sounds "as though George has somewhat rehabilitated his trade value around the NBA"—although they aren't likely to get significant value in return.

As frustrating as it might be for fans, they'd be better off running back this core one more year and then considering a larger-scale pivot in 2027 if they fall flat on their faces again next season.

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Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.

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