Morey to Philadelphia - A Quick Gap Year

According to both Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania, the standard for breaking NBA news, former Rockets general manager Daryl Morey will sign a five year deal to manage the Philadelphia 76ers, and be “Head of Basketball Operations”. What that means for the 76ers current power structure is unknown.

The 76ers clearly mean business, recently hiring Doc Rivers, and Morey.

What does this mean from a Rockets perspective? It would appear that Daryl Morey is perhaps less interested in other opportunities, and spending time with his family. He will, however, return to the east coast.

Watching the departures of Morey and Mike D’Antoni, it might appear that some of the doomsaying regarding the Rockets has come to pass.

The team has currently promoted a GM from within (not necessarily a bad thing at all) and currently has no coach. One option seems to be a path to the future, the other, looks back at the past. To be fair to Jeff Van Gundy, look back at his recent USA Basketball work, where he did a lot with very little. He’s still a good coach.

The sad thing at this point is, in the past, with Daryl Morey, a Rockets observer got the feeling that if he could tell the truth, he generally would. He was a favorite interview for the NBA media, because he’d always give them something interesting.

While it might be that he really had planned to take a year off with his kids, but just couldn’t say no to the 76ers offer, it also might mark the beginning of a new era of corporatespeak at the Rockets. That would be unfortunate, as Houston sports seems to be entering something of a fallow period, after flirting with being (almost) the smartest city sports franchises anywhere.

Taking a step back, as a Rockets fan, it’s difficult to view this as anything other than bad news. When a top NBA coach refuses to even talk about a new deal, when a GM, with years to run on his contract walks away, only to sign elsewhere within weeks, when coaches are disappearing from the market, and no one has been hired; it does not speak well of your organization. There will, of course, be plenty of quality applicants, as there simply aren’t that many top jobs in the NBA, but this isn’t good.

With Morey at the controls, when the Rockets weren’t contending, they were still interesting. You knew there was an aim, a goal. It might not have been reached, but never for a lack of trying. Is Houston destined to join the teams that make the playoffs, but do little else? It would be a shame, as they still have a top level star, though with Morey in Philadelphia, perhaps not for long.

As for the Morey, it will be interesting to see what he does at a team that desperately needs to win, now (just like the Rockets).

What does this mean for the 76ers? It’s hard to say, as the team has had something of a stylistic drift over the past several years, ranging from the “More Morey Than Morey Sam Hinkie & His Tanking Process” to “Proper Basketball Man & His Scandals” to “Kind of Middle of The Road, But No Jimmy Butler & No Point Guards”. I’m sure I’ve gotten that wrong, and angry, vociferous Philly fans will correct me, possibly in contradictory ways.