Philadelphia 76ers: Daryl Morey and the return of analytics

The return of analytics for the Philadelphia 76ers

Former Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey is expected to agree to a long-term deal with the Philadelphia 76ers to become their new President of Basketball Operations. Morey walked away from the Rockets after 13 years, and a mere 10 days later has now landed in Philly.

Morey becomes part of the collective face of the Sixers front office alongside current general manager Elton Brand and new head coach Glenn “Doc” Rivers. Morey joins a franchise that is no stranger to the new wave of “analytics” based basketball.

Previous general manager Sam Hinkie, largely known for his “trust the process” slogan was also an analytics guy. Sixers fans had to endure multiple years of seemingly purposely tanking before seeing that process take form in any shape.

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Since Hinkie’s exit from the franchise, it looks as though the process has run its course in Philly with their two young stars, Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons failing to get their team over the hump in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.

With Morey coming in and him also being another branch off the analytics tree like Hinkie, one must wonder what type of roster changes are in store for the Sixers.

The biggest question now must be, what will Simmons’ fate be once Morey gets settled into his new position?

While Simmons is a great young point guard that can play as well as guard multiple positions on the floor, his style of offense isn’t exactly analytics friendly. During the 2019-20 season, Simmons attempted 24 total 3-point shots and only made two. That is just 8.33 percent from behind the arc. Let’s shoot straight here, Simmons can’t shoot a lick.

Sounds like a one-way ticket out of Philly with Morey now in charge of running the team.

If Morey is set on splitting up the Embiid-Simmons duo, there will be plenty of potential trade partners around the league lining up to acquire the services of a 6-foot-10 point guard who isn’t even 25 years old and still has the prime of his career well ahead of him.

Hopefully, Morey has learned from some of the mistakes he made during his time as the lead front office guy in Houston. Or will this Philly experiment just become another Rockets 2.0 kind of situation?

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Only time will tell but the storyline in Philly just got a little more interesting with the addition of Morey and the return of analytics to the Sixers organization