Can Philadelphia 76ers GM Daryl Morey’s master plan really work?

By Martin Rogers
FOX Sports Columnist

It wasn’t supposed to look like this for the Philadelphia 76ers, riding high with a spot atop the NBA’s Eastern Conference standings heading into Tuesday's games.

It wasn’t supposed to look like a team united, together and functioning at something close to the peak of its powers.

It wasn’t supposed to look like a six-game winning streak until that loss to New York, especially not with Joel Embiid off to a slow start that’s about to get slower and Tobias Harris out due to COVID-19.

Not with the drama surrounding this team. Not with the Ben Simmons saga poking holes in whatever certainty the squad had. Not for as long as the great impasse remains involving Simmons, one of the league’s most talented, scrutinized and criticized players.

Yet here we are, with some kind of meaningful sample already in the books and 8-3 Philly thriving under Doc Rivers — and without Simmons — who has not played since he asked for a trade following the team’s exit from the 2021 Eastern Conference semifinals.

Simmons was the story of the NBA preseason, first holding out and being hit with fines, then turning up begrudgingly, practicing with a cell phone in his pocket and getting kicked out of training camp by Rivers, then informing the team he needed time off to work on his mental health.

Over the past week, Simmons' mental health has been at the forefront again, with the 76ers fining him for missed time once more and claiming that he did not provide sufficient information on his treatment after refusing to be seen by a team specialist.

Player power has never been stronger in the NBA, and when this situation kicked off over the summer, most assumed Philly general manager Daryl Morey would have little choice but to trade Simmons for whatever unfavorable deal was dangled.

But with no offers of any legitimate strength coming in, Morey and the franchise decided to hold firm. Such tactics have been tried before — think the Houston Rockets and James Harden — but the endeavor is usually exceedingly short-lived and non-productive.

Perhaps not this time.

Without Simmons, the 76ers haven’t floundered. They haven’t struggled on defense or with ballhandling. The disruption hasn’t been very, well, disrupting.

And suddenly, thanks to a string of fine performances on the court that have seen the 76ers top of the power rankings for several publications, Morey and the front office have a ton of leverage that previously resided in Simmons’ palm.

"What have the Sixers gained?" David Murphy wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer. "They look like a team that can afford to wait. They’ve given the rest of the NBA’s general managers reason to believe that Morey might actually be crazy enough to let the Simmons situation linger all the way to the trade deadline in February."

That probably won’t happen, but what is certain is that the 76ers have, at the bare minimum, bought themselves some time.

While Matisse Thybulle is doing much of the defensive work for which Simmons was responsible and Seth Curry is shooting lights-out, the 76ers don’t have any immediate need to act.

"I don't agree with the way Morey has handled the Simmons situation, but he's been brilliant on the margins since arriving in Philly," Yaron Weitzman, FOX Sports NBA writer and author of "Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in the History of Professional Sports," told me.

"In trading for Danny Green (40.0 3P%) and Seth Curry (48.3% 3P%, 58.3 FG%), signing Georges Niang (12.2 PPG, 38.2 3P%) and drafting Tyrese Maxey (14.4 points and 4.7 assists per game), he's surrounded Joel Embiid with depth and shooting.

"With a player like Embiid, that's enough to survive — and even thrive — during the regular season."

A further misfortune came at the start of the week, when Embiid tested positive for COVID-19, but for as long as the 76ers sit comfortably above .500, there is flexibility. What Morey wants, what he has wanted since the start, is an All-Star-quality player to replace Simmons, not a bunch of pieces or draft picks the team doesn’t really need.

The longer he waits, the greater the likelihood of a situation in which a team has a pressing need for a player of Simmons’ ability, due to a superstar injury, a desire to make the playoffs or as a final piece to contend for a title.

Morey needed this flying start. His chance of getting value for Simmons requires the world to believe that his team is willing to let this drag out. That’s impossible with a losing team that looks like it has a gaping hole in the lineup.

"People should buckle in," Morey said on Philadelphia local radio station 97.5 The Fanatic recently. "This is going to go for a long time because my only job is to help us have the best chance to win the title. If we can trade Ben Simmons for a difference-maker, we will do it. I think that’s best for everyone in this situation."

In truth, there might be no "best thing" in this odd scenario in which a fine, young player and his team found themselves completely unable to coexist.

But by thundering out of the gates, it is the 76ers who have asserted some control and Simmons who is left to wonder what his immediate future holds.

Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider Newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.