Daryl Morey Discusses Joel Embiid's Backup, James Harden Rumors

Daryl Morey reveals his thoughts on the current state of the Sixers' backup center position, the James Harden and Houston Rockets Reunion rumors, and more.

When the Philadelphia 76ers hosted the Cleveland Cavaliers before the NBA All-Star break, the six-time All-Star center Joel Embiid surpassed 10,000 points in his career. He became the ninth Sixer to do so, and the fastest to do it by five games, beating out Sixers legend Allen Iverson.

After the Sixers knocked off the Cleveland Cavaliers, head coach Doc Rivers talked about the fact that playing against Embiid as the head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers helped him find out the big man was a good player. However, it wasn’t until Rivers got in the building and started working with Embiid directly that he found out just how great the six-time All-Star is, both physically and mentally. 

“I came here because of him and, at the time, Ben (Simmons),” Doc said. “I thought he was really good, but I had no idea. Being in the West, you only saw him twice. He is so much better at almost everything that I thought, and he's so much smarter, too. That's what you don't know when you don't coach a guy — like his brain. He's powerful, he's quick, he can be deliberate. I mean, he literally can shoot. Literally, can do every single thing. He’s just an impressive guy. What's great about him is every year, he adds stuff. You know, he's still working. He's not satisfied.”

Sixers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey couldn’t agree more. As the former frontman of the Houston Rockets front office, Morey saw his team play against Embiid just seven times before he switched sides and joined Philly’s front office. 

“I know exactly what he means,” Morey told All76ers when presented with Rivers’ quote. 

The Sixers’ President then recalled a discussion with the Rockets’ current general manager, Rafael Stone, who went through the Embiid experience from a Western Conference competitor’s lens this season.

“One of the first things [Rafael] said was, ‘I had no idea.’ He’s like, ‘I watch the Sixers a lot more,’ just because I’m there,” Morey said. “I watch the Rockets a lot still, too. I watch every team, but your former team, you tend to watch a little more, and he was like, ‘My Goodness, Joel is ridiculous.’”

In two games against the Rockets, Embiid totaled 62 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists, three steals, and two blocks while knocking down 57 percent of his field goals and 50 percent of his threes. 

“Joel is one of those players where we win the game, and you feel like, there are these like XYZ out of like 40 plays that he could have done this or that, and then you see he has like 45-18-6,” Morey continued. “You’re just like, ‘Oh, my god, he’s so ridiculous.’ He’s one of those very few players I’ve ever had that, not only do they have these amazing accomplishments in the game, and we win the game, and you’re still like, ‘Oh, he could’ve done more.’ That just shows you how good he is. I always feel like he should be promoted to the next league. Like, there should be some Super NBA he gets promoted to.”

These days, if you’re a Sixers fan talking about Embiid, you’ll more than likely pivot to discussing the state of the big man’s backup. Since Embiid has starred for the Sixers, he’s had a plethora of backups, teaming up with names such as Greg Monroe, Boban Marjanovic, Dwight Howard, De’Andre Jordan, and many more. 

This year, the Sixers went into the season with Paul Reed and Montrezl Harrell behind the big guy. Recently, Dewayne Dedmon joined them after getting traded from the Miami Heat and reaching a buyout with the San Antonio Spurs. Is that group good enough? Many are skeptical. And once again, the backup center position is a popular debate.

“I’ve heard that,” Morey joked when the subject of the backup center position was referred to as a “burning topic.” While it might be a popular topic amongst fans in February, just how important is the backup center position in the playoffs in the eyes of the team’s President?

“I think it's important,” Morey explained. “I mean, look, you ask the right question, which is like, on any given team, you know, there are 100 things that could be better. You could turn it over less, you could have better wing defense, you could be better at jump balls, your late clock offense could be better, and your ability to switch and generate turnovers. Like, you can come up with 100 things, right? But the key is prioritizing those that drive winning. And especially winning in the playoffs. You only have like a particular set of resources that you can array across everything. Long way of saying it's important, but it's less important than a lot of other things.”

Going into the 2023 trade deadline, many expected the Sixers to acquire a center. The deadline came and went, and the Sixers made one move to acquire multiple second-round picks and the young veteran wing, Jalen McDaniels, from the Charlotte Hornets. 

“We felt like the most important thing was getting a two-way player who could give us defense,” Morey explained. “It was actually the same priority we had before the season. You can put it on me. Maybe not every player we brought in is giving us exactly what we owe for. So, we tried to address it at the deadline. We thought that was a bigger priority than the backup centers, where the price for those were going really, really high and didn't seem to make a lot of sense relative to the folks that we could pick up.”

Only time will tell if the current group of options at center will be enough for the Sixers when Embiid takes a breather in the playoffs. For the time being, Morey is comfortable with the current situation.

“Any team that can win the title, they almost always have a Top-10 player in the league, if not Top-5, right? Almost always those teams when their main player is off, that team gets a lot worse,” said Morey. “So, it's something that fans really feel, and I get it. But your question is always like, compared to what, right? So, would you want to have like a slightly worse star just so you could allocate more resources to when they're off? The answer is no when you work it all out. … We felt like we could set up our situation so that when Joel is off, we would be at least fighting to even, if not better. I believe we've done that even recently against a recent run of very good opponents. Three of our last four (before Boston), for sure, have been pretty good opponents, and I believe we've done fairly well when Joel’s off. That's why I love this stretch of very tough opponents. We're gonna get a good sense of sort of where we're at to win.”

After a distraction-filled season last year when the three-time All-Star Ben Simmons held out from the Sixers before getting dealt to the Brooklyn Nets in the blockbuster that reunited Morey and James Harden, the Sixers didn’t have too many rumors getting tossed their way, which was a breath of fresh air. 

Recently, they’ve been tested, though.

On Christmas Day, a report surfaced about James Harden, speculating that the ten-time All-Star could seriously consider returning to the Houston Rockets in the offseason. Hours later, Harden downplayed the report. Everything went quiet on the rumor front regarding Harden for a couple of months, but the speculation recently returned. 

“That one makes no sense,” Morey said with a smile. “There just seems… that seems to be invented by someone. Look, I have to be honest. I don't understand it at all.”

While the Harden-Houston speculation has been a popular topic amongst the media and the fans, the Sixers don’t seem too affected by the outside noise.

“Really all that matters is what's in the players' heads,” Morey continued. “I know in all our players’ heads, and James specifically, that he's just focused on winning here. He's done everything since he got here to just focus on winning the title. He’s never like… I find all these rumors very hard to believe. For sure, I know the thing that he wants to do is win a title. If, at some point, he decides we're not the best place to win, then yeah, let's have a conversation. But I know he feels like that's here. And we feel like, for us, it's with him here. So, to me, it's sort of like a weird thing that's come up.”

It’s not easy for a team to battle injuries and rumors the way the Sixers have over the past year. Reflecting on where they’re at and focused on where they are headed as a team, Morey feels encouraged. 

“Doc’s been incredible,” Morey finished. “The thing I love about what Doc and his staff do, and I think we have three of the top assistants just off the top of my head in Sam (Cassell), Dan (Burke), and (Dave) Joerger, and they have a bunch of good people below them as well, is we’re on this continuous improvement where they’re constantly tweaking as teams throw stuff at us they are learning and adjusting. It was nice. We’ve gotten some practice time recently, which has been great. So, I think that’s been really good.”

There are a lot of unanswered questions surrounding the Sixers. Like, will Embiid’s dominance be enough for them in the playoffs? Do they have a serviceable backup for him when he’s off the floor? Is James Harden going to stick around beyond this season?

We’ll find out soon enough, but for the time being, Morey is confident that the Sixers made the necessary moves to satisfy the team’s needs and help everybody achieve the same goal of bringing an NBA title back to Philly.

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