Daryl Morey was optimistic about the outlook of the Philadelphia 76ers next season, saying that the Eastern Conference was “open.”
“I do think it’s open in the East,” said Morey. “I do think that’s a fair characterization. I do, obviously, think that we weren’t the only team that’s unfortunately gone through a lot of tough injuries.
“That’s opened some things up. But we’re going to have to prove that we’re with those upper-echelon teams in the East. But we do feel like if all things come together, we can be right there, and we’ve given ourselves a lot of flexibility to upgrade the team during the year, if things are going as well as we hope.”
Morey then discussed his reasoning for bringing back either Guerschon Yabusele or Quentin Grimes this offseason. Yabusele would go on to sign a two-year, $12 million deal with the Knicks.
“Yeah, that sucked,” Morey said. “We offered Guerschon the most that we could that wouldn’t limit us and our ability to retain Quentin. That was above the minimum. I’ve seen reports saying that we only offered the minimum, and that wasn’t true. But it was definitely below what he ended up getting. We knew it would create a challenge for us. So we wanted to retain Quentin.”
Grimes and the Sixers are still reportedly far from agreeing to a new contract, with Grimes looking for $25 million per season. Grimes averaged 21.9 points in 28 games with the Sixers.
Morey added that he was looking to sign more athleticism around Joel Embiid.
“I think we’re optimistic where things are at with Joel, and we are looking forward to next season,” Morey said. “I think we went in with the big goal of being more athletic among the group that we think will likely be on the floor.”
Embiid has yet to return to on-court basketball activities, though the team remains optimistic that he will be ready by the regular season opener.
