After a year-long cycle of fans and pundits doubting Daryl Morey, the longtime executive brought the fireworks this offseason, re-tooling a Philadelphia 76ers team that seemed poised to stagnate without a shiny, new toy this time around.
Thanks to him and the front office's savvy financial gambits, the franchise managed to lure in Paul George to form a coveted Big Three, as well as an army of well-liked and battle-tested veterans who should come in handy around their new and fortified nucleus. Now, people are penciling the 76ers in as a championship contender.
Morey thinks so, too, but his latest declaration bears an eerie resemblance to a script that once exploded right in his face.
Daryl Morey has designed a frighteningly similar script for the 76ers next season
In a recent interview with radio show 97.5 The Fanatic, Morey resonated with the belief that the 76ers are now considered as one of the best teams in the league before acknowledging the defending champions, the Boston Celtics.
In typical Morey fashion, though, he zeroed in on their bitter archrivals and made a bold declaration:
"We are going to be coming to take the title away from them."
The analytics savant is definitely confident about the team's chances at a grand comeuppance against Boston, but this is frighteningly similiar to a former script he once laid out when he was the head poncho in Houston.
Back when the Golden State Warriors were at the thick of their dynasty, the Rockets constantly posed a challenge to their league-wide hegemony. Morey was even quoted saying that they are "obsessed with beating the Warriors".
To his credit, Houston almost snatched the crown from Golden State, but not before encountering a series of heartbreaks stemming from them focusing too much on the Warriors. They embarrassingly sizzled out against Kawhi-less San Antonio in 2017, shot themselves in the foot (and got unlucky) against the Warriors in 2018, and relatively struggled in the regular season in 2019, losing to their nemeses even with Kevin Durant injured.
To prevent the same string of events, Philadelphia has to realize that the league isn't run by a few teams anymore. Parity is at an all-time high in the league, and focusing solely on a certain team's quirks and stylings to dictate in-house moves would be a big mistake.
Hopefully, Daryl Morey has learned his lesson from before and manages to steer the Philadelphia 76ers to the promised land this time around.