CAMDEN — Sometime toward the end of October, 13 people will climb into 76ers uniforms to begin again what has come to seem impossible.
There will be new players and familiar ones, tougher players and some of the non-contact variety, players hungry to complete an ongoing project and others anxious to join the effort as it nears, one way or another, its conclusion. And while there are plentiful certainties — Joel Embiid, both of his hands surgically repaired in the interim, will return and promise to dominate — there is also the reality that neither Daryl Morey nor Doc Rivers is interested in a 2021-22 play back.
“We’re trying to win now,” Morey said after the NBA Draft. “We’re looking for players that can contribute.”
A healthy approach that beats trying to lose now and looking for players that will commit open-floor turnovers, it wasn’t all the fault of the Sixers’ basketball operations president that he had to be vague. Even while all in the basketball solar system knew he’d just traded Danny Green and a flimsy first-round draft choice for experienced guard De’Anthony Melton, Morey was prohibited by archaic NBA regulations to comment until the league officially allowed a panel of middle mangers to feel important.
Yet with his muffled comments, the multiple credible reports, the noises he and Rivers made at the end of the season, with Embiid always able to make it known what he is thinking, with history, logic and with vision, it’s becoming clear what Morey has in mind. That began with the addition of Melton, whose reputation as a snarling defender and capable point guard instantly makes the Sixers both different and deeper.
“If we could get a perimeter defender maybe for a draft pick, we’d feel very good about that,” Morey said, expertly outlining what he’d just done without naming names. “I think someone like that could really contribute and be a two-way player and be a really nice addition.”
Though Melton has been known to disappear in postseasons, that sample size hasn’t been large enough to dismiss him as a rising NBA contributor. The Sixers had two major offseason needs: Better defenders and veteran depth. Melton, 24, has a better ability to provide both than David Roddy, the 21-year-old above-ordinary forward from Colorado State whom the Sixers selected for Memphis at No. 23.
There was no chance that Rivers would allow Morey to send him into another NBA season with a bench core of Shake Milton, Georges Niang and Furkan Korkmaz. Too many flaws. So Melton becomes Step 1 in Morey’s plan.
From there?
Naturally he is prohibited from discussing it, but Morey is about to recommit to James Harden for three more years, beginning with the upcoming season at a fee of $47 million. Harden is no longer playing to Hall of Fame specs and thus wildly overpaid. But taken for what he is — an experienced point guard with special vision and the ability to put up an occasional 30-piece — he has value to a 51-win team interested in making it 55.
With Green, whose multiple knee injuries were not likely to heal enough to remain a useful piece in 2022-23, gone in the Memphis deal, the Sixers need to fill a starting lineup spot. Splendid a defender as Matisse Thybulle is, Rivers has tired of waiting for him to become an acceptable shooter. Reports are that Morey has made him available in trade for veteran scorer Eric Gordon of Houston. A flip of the 25-year-old Thybulle for Gordon, 33, would be another example of the Sixers’ growing impatience.
Also in play is P.J. Tucker, whom at the age of 37 the Sixers are said to be readying a free agent offer for. While unlikely to be of assistance later in the contract, Tucker would be an upgrade as the Sixers try to nudge past Boston, Milwaukee and Miami in the East before Embiid, 28, can no longer put up an average point total higher than his age. Nor is that an unreasonable goal, as the Sixers were the top-ranked club in the conference in 2021 and fell two games out of first place last season.
“They are tough teams,” Morey said. “But I think we can compete with them. All of them. Absolutely.”
Why not?
First, though, the bench needs improvement, a veteran needs to join the starting lineup, a backup center needs to be located and Embiid needs a refrigerator full of ice bags.
Melton and Tucker can be a start.
“Josh (Harris) and David (Blitzer) are going to allow us to spend what we need to spend,” Morey said. “The CBA constrains us in certain ways, but we have quite a few options, and we feel confident that we can find someone to help us in our playoff rotation.”
The optimism is reasonable. The leaked game plans are reasonable. The Draft Night maneuver was reasonable.
So, it begins. By October, the Sixers will have 13 players in uniform. One of these years, it could all work.
Contact Jack McCaffery at jmccaffery@21st-centurymedia.com
