After the Guerschon Yabusele signing, Daryl Morey’s offseason:

  • extended Tyrese Maxey at five years, $204 million
  • signed Paul George in free agency (4 years/$212m)
  • re-signed Kelly Oubre on a two-year deal deal worth $16 million
  • re-signed K.J. Martin for two years, $16 million
  • signed Eric Gordon to two years, $6.7 million
  • signed Andre Drummond to two years, $10 million
  • got Caleb Martin to take less money to come to Philly
  • got Reggie Jackson on the veteran minimum
  • got Kyle Lowry on the veteran minimum
  • got Yabusele on the veteran minimum
  • added Jared McCain and Adem Bona in the draft

Looks great on paper. The Sixers went into the offseason with a ginormous amount of cap space and Morey built a new squad around Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. Paul George is 34, yeah, but he was the best free agent wing available and they got that deal done. He brought Oubre and K.J. Martin back on affordable contracts. He brought back Embiid’s best backup in Drummond and spent minimal money on Gordon, Jackson, and Lowry. He successfully lured Caleb Martin to Philly and found a 2nd chance player in Yabusele following a stellar Olympic run.

I wrote a column three months ago titled “On the Sixers’ Ladder of Blame, I Still Have Daryl Morey Third, and Can’t Move Him Higher.” The genesis behind that thought was the idea that twice he’s put together Sixers teams with enough talent to reach the finals:

You might call bullshit on that, but twice we’ve seen it in practice, once in 2021 and once in 2023. When Morey came him, he immediately got off Al Horford’s contract, turned Josh Richardson into Seth Curry, and added Danny Green and Dwight Howard. That team finished 1st in the conference and I think we’re all in agreement that they should have won that Hawks series. Maybe if Ben Simmons just dunked the damn ball instead of passing it, we wouldn’t be writing columns like this one at all.

The other team was the 2022-2023 squad, full-season Harden with the Simmons saga in the rearview mirror. That team was a three seed, but won 54 games, which was the highest total since Allen Iverson led the Sixers to the finals more than 20 years ago. People seem to lose sight of this for some reason, probably because Milwaukee and Boston were 58 and 57-win teams, but this iteration of the Sixers won more games as a three seed than the 2020-2021 team as a 1 seed.

As you know, the Sixers go how Joel Embiid goes, so Morey could build the best team of all time and if Joel injures himself again, it all goes to shit. That’s why the players are #1, the coach is #2, and the GM and ownership will always be 3 and 4 on the ladder of blame. What’s most important is that the Sixers are keeping our attention, and there’s excitement for the coming year. Tobias Harris is gone, reinforcements are here, and there’s no Simmons or Harden drama hanging over the team going into camp. Doc Rivers is long gone. It feels fresh and invigorating, so we try to keep an open mind and enjoy ourselves until the Sixers’ PR staff sends out the dreaded “will be re-evaluated in two weeks” email.