Daryl Morey (Politely) Declines to Answer the Ben Simmons Question
No Ben Simmons draft night trade, so we’re going to have wait for the Sixers to move their former #1 overall draft pick. Their much-maligned and fanbase-dividing #1 overall draft pick.
They decided to stand pat at 28 overall, and took guard Jaden Springer from Tennessee. Then they used their second round picks, 50 and 53, on Filip Petrusev and Charles Bassey. Petrusev, a 6’11” big, played a couple of seasons for Gonzaga before joining a pro team in Serbia. Bassey is also a 6’11” big who comes out of Western Kentucky. Bassey is 20 years old and Petrusev is 21.
Here’s the blurb from the Sixers on Petrusev, who you may have seen playing for the Zags:
Petrušev, the 2019-20 West Coast Conference Player of the Year, spent two seasons playing collegiately at Gonzaga before heading overseas to play in Serbia’s Adriatic League for the 2020-21 season. During his final year with the Bulldogs, he averaged 17.5 points and 7.9 rebounds while shooting .562 from the floor. This past season, he appeared in 21 games for KK Mega Basket, averaging 23.7 points, which was the highest average in the Adriatic League in 14 years, while also hauling in 7.6 rebounds per contest. During his lone season competing professionally in his home country of Serbia, he shot .580 from the field and .419 from three-point range. His averages led to league MVP honors along with the league’s Rising Star award as the top player under the age of 22.
And what they wrote about Bassey:
Bassey played three collegiate seasons at Western Kentucky University, averaging a double-double with 15.9 points and 10.5 rebounds over 72 career games as a Hilltopper. As a junior this past season, he tallied 18 double-doubles, which were the second-most in Division I. Following the 2020-21 season, Bassey was named the Conference USA Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, after posting 17.6 points, 11.6 rebounds (fifth in NCAA) and 3.1 blocks (fourth in NCAA) per contest, while shooting .590 from the field. He was the fourth player in C-USA history to earn POY and DPOY honors in the same season, while also earning a C-USA record seven Player of the Week awards over his career. Originally from Nigeria, Bassey moved to San Antonio in high school, where he continued his basketball career.
Reporters generally stayed away from the Ben Simmons question on Thursday night Friday morning, but then the intrepid Howard Eskin jumped in to break it up:
Eskin: “Daryl, I’m going to break the streak. I know you mentioned questions about the draft, but part of the draft, all the stories that have been coming out are about trading Ben Simmons. How close did you come? Did you come close at all to finding somebody that wanted to trade for him? And a second question is where does Joel Embiid stand on his surgery for his meniscus?”
Daryl Morey: “Yeah, so I’ll take the second one first. I would just say, high level, that I want to focus on the draft tonight. Sorry to disappoint you, Howard. It’s too late for me to joke, but you’re asking the questions you should ask. I would say Joel has been in the gym. He was in the gym today working on his game. He has a plan with our medical staff and we feel good about it. We are not concerned about him medically at all. In terms of the first question, frankly I’m focused on the draft and the three guys that we’re excited to have here. We’re back in the office Friday with the staff and have a lot of important work to do on the roster going forward.”
Morey declined to say if Joel Embiid would have surgery for the torn meniscus.
A good effort by The King, but nothing on the Simmons front. It seems inevitable that he gets traded, but if fans gotta wait, that’s alright. Ben is a regular season monster, and he’s only going to push his value higher if he begins the year with the Sixers.