Philadelphia 76ers: Why Daryl Morey might trade Joel Embiid

The Philadelphia 76ers are hiring Daryl Morey to be the President of Basketball Operations where he will be working in collaboration with GM Elton Brand. While this is an exciting move, there will most likely be some personnel changes and Joel Embiid might just be one of the casualties.

Daryl Morey is a brilliant basketball executive who is well-known around the NBA for his analytical decision making. Morey most recently worked as General Manager of the Houston Rockets, where he was on borrowed time last season after making public comments about protests in Hong Kong, a place where the NBA has large financial interests. The Rockets’ loss, though, is the Philadelphia 76ers gain.

During Morey’s tenure with the Rockets, analytics drove all personnel decisions so much so that he restructured last season’s roster to have a starting lineup of all players under 6-foot-7. Small ball took on a new meaning and the data told Morey that the most efficient shots on the court were 3-pointers or layups. The mid-range game and big men who could not stretch the floor were a thing of the past and had no place in Morey’s game plan. This is the part that should be concerning to Sixers fans as well as the front office.

Morey’s obsession with smaller, more athletic players greatly favors Ben Simmons; I cannot wait to see how he thrives in this fast paced, open-floor system. Joel Embiid, on the other hand, might be on his way out of Philadelphia.

If you ask Embiid if he can shoot 3s effectively he would say yes, but anyone who watches the Sixers play, knows that Embiid is at his best and most effective in the post playing bully ball. In Morey’s system, Embiid would have a negative impact on the floor spacing and he would not excel at the efficient parts of Morey’s analytical NBA offense.

Now saying that it is inevitable that Embiid will be traded is an overreaction and too simplistic when solely considering last year’s Rockets team. Embiid is a top-10 player in the NBA and a matchup nightmare for most of the 29 other teams in the league. Morey cannot and will not be blind to this. The big men on the Rockets did not have the talent or skill set of Embiid and I believe Morey will recognize this even in his analytics.

I strongly hope that Embiid is not on the trading block. He is a generational talent whose ceiling is incredibly high as long as he stays healthy. I am optimistic that Doc Rivers and Daryl Morey, both who have been around the game for years, will develop new and creative ways for the Sixers current roster to flourish and compete for an NBA Championship for years to come.