Daryl Morey checked in on a bunch of stars before the trade deadline, including LeBron and Kevin Durant, according to Woj at ESPN.com. It didn’t go anywhere:

After seeing James’ cryptic social media post of an hourglass a week before the trade deadline, Philadelphia 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey called Pelinka to probe on a James trade and was immediately told that James wasn’t available. In fact, Pelinka responded by asking Morey if Joel Embiid was available, sources said. And that ended that brief conversation. These sorts of bold trade calls are historically a common practice for Morey, who also called the Phoenix Suns and asked about a trade for Durant prior to the deadline, sources said. When told no, Morey then asked about the availability of Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, too. Unsurprisingly, those were nos as well, sources said.

I hate how aggressively online Daryl is. Saw a LeBron tweet and called the GM right away to check the temperature. What did the emoji even mean?

He’s too online. He’s lost context:

Don’t get me wrong, I like the aggression, but this is like someone checking in on a house that isn’t for sale. There are ways to go about it. You can’t just walk up and pound on the door asking to buy it. Maybe leave a note or find the homeowner’s phone number. Ease into it. Daryl walked up and told them he’d blow their house down unless they gave it to him.

You gotta wonder how much these conversations affect league perception when Daryl wants to hammer out a trade. The more times you try to blow someone’s house down the more they don’t want to deal with you. There’s always been rumors he’s not particularly liked by other GMs because he hates to lose trades. He’s the guy in your fantasy football league that is offering Derek Carr for Jalen Hurts every week hoping you’ll finally give in.


I mean look at how the Warriors handled trying to swing a trade for LeBron:

Buss told Lacob the Lakers had no desire to trade James, but that he would need to seek the answer on James’ state of mind from his agent, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, sources said. As an owner, Buss has operated with the mindset that she wants her star players content with the franchise, and that instructed her thinking on referring Warriors leadership to James’ representation, sources said.

If the Lakers ever wanted a temperature check on James’ commitment, here was his chance. In the end, the answer was returned resoundingly on the eve of the trade deadline: Rich Paul told Lacob and Warriors GM Mike Dunleavy Jr., that James had no interest in a trade and wanted to remain a Laker, sources said. When Dunleavy reached out to Lakers GM Rob Pelinka in those pretrade deadline hours, Dunleavy had been told the same: The Lakers wanted to keep James, sources said.

Earlier Wednesday, Green — whom Paul also represents at Klutch — had sent Paul a text message soliciting his help convincing James to join him in Golden State, sources said. Once, Green had been a lead recruiter on Kevin Durant’s free agency signing with Golden State, but this was a far different, far more futile eleventh-hour pursuit.

Ownership, GMs, and players all involved. Night and day how things were handled in Philly. Maybe I’m thinking too far into it. Maybe I’m misinformed: