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Joel Embiid made one thing crystal clear to the Philadelphia 76ers’ front office heading into the trade deadline…
Make the team better, even if it means not ducking the tax. The Sixers made two moves between the timing of those comments and Thursday’s deadline. The only roster changes that occurred were two players going out without any coming back in.
Jared McCain was moved to the Oklahoma City Thunder for a handful of draft picks. Eric Gordon was a salary dump to the Memphis Grizzlies. He will become a free agent in the coming days.
It’s hard to say the Sixers got better when they hardly changed.
"I understand the perception," 76ers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey told reporters on Friday.
"I hope to defeat it by finding a deal that I can go to ownership and say, ‘We think this move is the right move to do for that and create those apron issues,’ but I haven't been able to recommend that move yet."
The Sixers’ “big move” was dealing away the second-year guard in McCain for a first-rounder, along with a few second-rounders. Morey admitted that the Sixers are thinking about flipping the potentially late first-rounder more than using it. There wasn’t anywhere to send it on Thursday, and now the Sixers are stuck with it until the offseason.
Despite the perception that Morey speaks about, the President of Basketball Ops claims to be confident in his team still.
"We like our chances in the East," he added. "We feel like we’re in the mix with the top teams there.”
After a loss in Los Angeles, the Sixers dropped to 29-22 on the season. They are sixth in the Eastern Conference, trailing the Toronto Raptors by one game. It’s clear that better health has the Sixers looking much stronger than were one season ago when they missed the playoffs. But consistency is still proving to be difficult to come by.
“We still believe in this team,” said Morey. “Folks have speculated on the improvements of our East competitors. I don’t see it, personally. I think all the teams made moves at the deadline, but there weren’t any needle movers, in my opinion."
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