Daryl Morey chased Kawhi Leonard at the deadline, traded Jared McCain, ducked the tax, and got absolutely nothing to help the Sixers down the stretch

Let’s put it all on the table at once. Daryl Morey traded Jared McCain to Oklahoma City, reportedly spent the weeks before the deadline chasing Kawhi Leonard in calls that never came close to materializing, ducked the luxury tax for the organization’s second consecutive season, and walked away from the deadline with nothing to show for it.

Joel Embiid watched. Tyrese Maxey watched. Now, across the country in Oklahoma City, Jared McCain is busy dropping 20-plus points on the defending champions for the third time in 11 games.

Tyrese Maxey says he misses Jared McCain as Daryl Morey faces growing backlash:

“I ain’t gonna lie and say I don’t miss Jared,” Maxey said after Tuesday’s 40-point blowout loss to the Spurs. “But I’m happy for him.”

Let’s talk about what actually happened with Jaren McCain in Philadelphia before anyone accepts Morey’s “selling high” framing at face value. McCain played in 37 of 60 possible games with the Sixers this season.

He had a quick leash every time he was on the court. He scored 6.6 points in 16.8 minutes per game. He was used in eight dribble handoffs across more than triple the number of games Oklahoma City has used him in 21 already.

Jared McCain drops third 20-point game with Oklahoma City as the scoreboard keeps getting more embarrassing for Daryl Morey

Nick Nurse turned one of the most promising young guards in the league into a passive role player and then the organization sold him because his value in Philadelphia had declined.

Daryl Morey’s version of selling high is technically accurate in the narrowest possible sense. McCain’s value was declining in Philadelphia.

What Morey is leaving out is that his value was declining because Nurse could not figure out how to use him, which manufactured the very situation that made trading him seem reasonable in the first place.

The Thunder figured it out in one practice which is hilarious because if there’s any team in the NBA that did not have room for another guard it was the Thunder but of course, they found room anyway because they actually wanted to.

Before the trade, McCain was scoring 13 points per 75 possessions on a 48.3 effective field goal percentage. In Oklahoma City he is at 20.5 per 75 on 59.2 effective field goal percentage.

Almost identical to his healthy rookie season when he was the frontrunner for Rookie of the Year before a meniscus tear ended his year.

Point Being: The player did not change. The situation did.

Now let’s talk about Josh Harris…

The deadline cannot be fully understood without Jeffrey Epstein’s buddy.

Since Harris purchased the team in 2011, the Sixers have paid the luxury tax exactly once, during the 2019-20 season following the Al Horford signing.

Over the last two deadlines they traded a combined three second-round picks just to dump salary and stay under the tax.

This deadline Paul George’s 25-game suspension created a $5.8 million tax credit that brought them to just $1.3 million over the threshold.

Trading McCain got them under. Salary dumping Eric Gordon created wiggle room.

The Sixers pinched their pennies and called it asset management. Embiid said it out loud before the deadline. “In the past we’ve been ducking the tax, so hopefully we think about improving, because we got a chance.”

His own owner did not listen.

View this post on Instagram

You have Joel Embiid, still one of the 15 best players on the planet when healthy, in the final chapter of his prime, on a closing window, and the organizational response is to avoid a luxury tax that exists specifically for this kind of situation. A luxury tax designed to let contending teams push their chips in when the moment calls for it.

Josh Harris looked at that moment and folded. It is indefensible and it is awful for everyone involved, most of all for Embiid who has given everything he has to Philadelphia and watched this franchise find creative new ways to not give him enough to work with.

Instead of adding a piece that could move the needle, Morey was reportedly making calls about Kawhi Leonard. Kawhi Leonard, who has played 75 games over the last three seasons combined.

Nothing came close. Nothing happened.

Kevin O’Connor at Yahoo Sports talking about Morey trying to add Leonard:

“Executives have said that the Sixers were actively making calls pre-deadline, though nothing seemed remotely close. Some sources suggest that Morey was star hunting with Kawhi Leonard being a name that was connected to Philly. But nothing happened. So Embiid, Maxey and the team saw McCain get dealt, the tax get ducked, and no pieces brought in to help.”

That pretty much sums it all up perfectly.

In case you’re still confused on where we are right now in South Philly, the Sixers got under the tax, kept their picks, and watched their most promising young guard become a nightly highlight for the team with the best record in basketball.

The Thunder are 48-15. The Sixers are 33-28. Jared McCain is playing with a freedom in Oklahoma City that was nowhere to be found in Philadelphia and you can see it every single time he touches the ball.

Nothing ever makes sense in this city but as usual, Daryl Morey, Josh Harris, and the Sixers front office did this to themselves.

Join The Chase