What Bob Myers didn’t say about Joel Embiid — and himself — spoke volumes
Myers will be hiring his man on the ground. But he himself will effectively replace Daryl Morey.
There are lots of potential reasons why Bob Myers and Josh Harris spent 35 minutes of their Thursday afternoon sitting in front of a conference room full of media and dodging any explicit acknowledgment of the only rational explanation for either one of them being there.
The likeliest culprit was professional courtesy …
… to Daryl Morey, ousted as 76ers president of basketball operations two days earlier.
… to Morey’s former staff members, most of whom still remain with the organization and are chin deep in preparations for the NBA draft.
» READ MORE: Sixers owner Josh Harris said it was tough to part ways with Daryl Morey
… to Joel Embiid, who has never before watched a press conference in these circumstances that didn’t include a full-throated endorsement.
… even to Myers himself, his professional and personal ambitions perhaps conflicting with the idea that he will be serving as Morey’s permanent replacement.
Yet the more Myers and Harris spoke, the more reality seemed to lie in what neither would just come out and say. That the Sixers will be Myers’ team moving forward. That he isn’t just some corporate suit parachuting in to lead an executive search. That his 11 years as president and general manager of the Warriors were the principle reason he was hired in October by Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment, who own both the Sixers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils. That, regardless of the eventual titles in the corporate directory, his will be the vision guiding the organization on an existential level. That all of the questions that Myers did not answer on Thursday will serve as his mandate.
David Murphy alerts
— How do the Sixers build a roster and a style of play that can contend for a title with Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe at its center?
— How do they do so with Embiid’s immovable contract and indomitable presence on the books for the next three years?
— How does Paul George factor in?
“I won’t be on a day-to-day level, but on the high-level decision making, which is being here at the draft, being here leading up to the trade deadline, being available for free agency discussions, free agency meetings, things like that,” Myers said. “I’m going to be involved at that level.”
In other words, he will be involved with all of the things on which Morey and Bryan Colangelo and Sam Hinkie were previously judged. The rest is semantics. Myers will be hiring his man on the ground. But he himself will effectively replace Morey.
“I’ll be communicating with that person daily, if not five out of seven days a week … I want to hire somebody that I can work with,” Myers said. “I want to hire somebody that Josh can work with. And most importantly, I want to win. And I think that I have had some experience in this space, and if I have something to say, it’s harder for me not to say it than say it. But that’ll be my role, and obviously continuing to work with Josh on all this very high-level stuff. But I’m looking forward to that role.”
On paper, it is both a sensible plan and one that recalls Harris’ missteps of the past.
The good sense lies in Myers’ track record. He arrived in Golden State the same year the Warriors drafted Klay Thompson, two years after they drafted Steph Curry. Over the next couple of years, Myers led a front office that made a flurry of high-value moves to build out a roster around Curry and Thompson that would go on to win four titles. The Warriors drafted Harrison Barnes at No. 7 and Draymond Green at No. 35 in 2012. They signed Andre Iguodala as a free agent. Later, they drafted center Kevon Looney at No. 30 in 2015. All this before signing Kevin Durant.
» READ MORE: Who is Bob Myers? Five things to know about HBSE’s president leading the search for Daryl Morey’s replacement
“His credentials speak for themselves,” Harris said.
Of course, credentials can just as easily be survivorship bias. Curry turned out to be one of the most unique and unstoppable talents in NBA history, a player whose name deserves consideration with anybody behind Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Wilt Chamberlain. Thompson was the perfect complement, one of the game’s best all-around defenders and purest shooters with the on-court IQ to match. The hardest work was done by the time Myers had the reins. It would not have mattered what he did if Curry and Thompson didn’t become who they were.
But the process is important. Myers built a championship team around an undersized point guard and a two-way off guard. Maxey is not Curry and Edgecombe is not Thompson. But they are close enough to the profile for Myers’ experience to be relevant.
Again, on paper.
We saw how paper can play out with the Colangelos. It is worth noting the similarities between Harris’ hiring of Jerry the Elder above Hinkie and Myers above Morey. Less relevant but nevertheless conspicuous are the similarities between the aesthetic profiles between Myers and Bryan the Younger.
Myers’ situation is far less enviable than the one Bryan Colangelo inherited and squandered. The presence of Embiid and George and their respective contracts might prove unsolvable. At the same time, those contracts offered Harris more than enough justification to lose faith in the man responsible for them.
On that note …
The one concrete thing that Myers said on Thursday came with his very last words. A reporter asked him about the feasibility of building a team with three max contracts, given the resulting difficulty in building depth in the wake of the NBA’s reconfigured CBA.
“Well, we didn’t get it done this year with three guys, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done,” Myers said. “I think it’s a smart question in that, what’s the modern roster supposed to look like with the second apron, really, which oftentimes operates as kind of a hard cap? The truth is, depth may be more important than it’s ever been. Maybe that’s the pace of play. Maybe that’s what we require of our players more.
» READ MORE: The six most important quotes from Bob Myers and Josh Harris as they start the search for a new front-office leader
“Not to say that this model doesn’t work, but we have to look at what happened this year and be honest about it and see if — we’ve got to be honest about, can this model work? And that’s really the question, and also understanding that depth is key, and you only have a certain amount of resources to spend. So that’s something — that’s all part of the questions. It’s all part of what we need to figure out going forward.”
As Myers spoke, it was more than clear who would be spearheading those deliberations.
