Daryl Morey knows Sixers’ crucial summer is about maximizing Joel Embiid’s prime: ‘We put our focus on now’

Joel Embiid has already sent Daryl Morey some thoughts on his offseason plans. Soon, the 76ers’ superstar and the team’s president of basketball operations will sit down with coach Nick Nurse and the medical team, among others, for their customary postseason meeting.

Morey on Monday called Embiid incredible, a stud, and a warrior while putting up historic numbers before his midseason knee surgery, and then fighting through the aftereffects of that torn meniscus and Bell’s palsy during the Sixers’ first-round playoff series loss to the New York Knicks. Morey also called this upcoming offseason “a big one” — with the salary-cap space and draft capital to sign or trade for a marquee player — because it is perhaps his best remaining opportunity to capitalize on Embiid’s prime, so long as the big man stays healthy through a postseason run.

“Joel cares about this — as you might expect, it’s his life — more than anybody,” Morey said at his end-of-season news conference at the Sixers’ practice facility. " … I know Joel is trying to think through everything of, how can he make sure he’s at his maximum abilities once the playoffs roll around?”

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Embiid’s status as perhaps the NBA’s most dominant player was crystal clear this season. He again amassed MVP-caliber statistics — including a 70-point game against the San Antonio Spurs — before the Golden State Warriors’ Jonathan Kuminga fell on his knee in late January. During Embiid’s eight-week absence, the Sixers tumbled from third place to seventh in the Eastern Conference standings while struggling to consistently generate efficient offense. He returned in early April, then averaged 33 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 5.7 assists in the six games against the Knicks, including a 50-point outburst in a Game 3 victory.

Morey acknowledged Monday that he wished the Sixers’ roster had featured more depth to better sustain during Embiid’s extended absence, which likely would have kept them higher in the standings and put them on a more viable postseason path. But the executive added that, despite the 30-year-old Embiid’s extended injury history throughout his career, that “it can’t be a big focus, how we play without him.”

“We know that team can’t win a championship,” Morey said. “It’s really just, how do we manage through it better? … We spend most of our time on how to win when Joel is here. I think that’s the right thing.”

That Morey did not swing for the splashiest possible in-season acquisition (Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby were among those who swapped teams) was at last partially to maintain maximum optionality for this summer. With 10 free-agents-to-be, Morey acknowledged “there is going to be a lot of change” on the Sixers’ 2024-25 roster. And though Embiid has lacked teammate, coach, and executive continuity throughout his career, he does now have it with lead guard Tyrese Maxey, the recently crowned NBA’s Most Improved Player who emerged as a bona fide costar in his fourth season.

When asked following Game 6 about how the Sixers should proceed to build around him, Embiid responded, “That’s not my job.” He did express excitement about the potential options for the front office, along with appreciation for the group that left the locker room last Thursday.

“Obviously, they’ve got a lot of decisions to make,” Embiid said, “but I think the group of guys that we had this year, they were amazing. And I still believe that, if everything went right, we had a chance. But everything didn’t go right.”

Embiid’s job, he said, is to continue improving himself through his offseason work. In recent years, that has included adding a variety of off-the-dribble moves to make him a lethal three-level scorer, and improving his playmaking for when he gets swarmed by opposing defenders. Following Thursday’s game, for instance, Maxey said that this season he has gone from teasing Embiid about not having a right-handed hesitation pull-up jumper in his arsenal, to watching him use that in games. Ditto for “actually [backing] somebody down and [doing] jump-hooks,” like Embiid pulled off against the Knicks in his 39-point Game 6.

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Embiid’s summer will also include representing Team USA for the first time in the Summer Olympics, a career goal Morey said he will not discourage despite Embiid’s health status.

“It’s important to support the dreams of your best player,” Morey said. " … First of all, it’s not even in our hands [to tell him he can’t play]. Second off, we would always support Joel in something that important to him.

“I think it’s really cool that he thinks that’s one of the dreams he’s had since he became a citizen.”

Before that, Morey and Embiid will meet to formalize an offseason plan. Then, Morey is tasked with retooling the Sixers to maximize the player he called incredible, a stud, and a warrior on Monday.

“Similar to [that] we put most of our focus on the team when Joel was available,” Morey said, “we put most of our focus on now, vs. the future, where Joel is in his prime.”