Daryl Morey explains 76ers trade deadline and 'selling high' on Jared McCain

The Philadelphia 76ers traded Jared McCain to the Oklahoma City Thunder before Thursday's deadline, and, generally speaking, their fans aren't thrilled. "They can go f--- themselves," Spike Eskin, co-host of The Rights To Ricky Sanchez, said at the beginning of the latest episode of the podcast." He then added, "This is worse than I could have imagined."

The anger is not just about the Sixers' decision to send a talented young player to the reigning champs. It's about them ducking the luxury tax and not improving the roster for the stretch run, which is exactly what Joel Embiid said he hoped they wouldn't do.

At a press conference on Friday, Morey explained the front office's side of the story. He said he understands the negative reaction, and said it was the result of people being excited about the team. He also argued that the McCain trade was the right move at the right time and that they would have been a taxpayer if the situation had called for it.

'We were trying to add to the team'

Morey's front office traded McCain to Oklahoma City for a 2026 first-round pick (via Houston), a 2027 second-round pick (the most favorable of OKC, Houston, Indiana and Miami's picks) and two 2028 second-round picks (OKC's own and Milwaukee's). After that, they salary-dumped Eric Gordon and signed Dominick Barlow, who'd been a major contributor on a two-way, to a standard contract. That does not mean, however, that this is all the Sixers wanted to do.

"Because we're playing well, we were trying to upgrade the team and add to the team now," Morey told reporters. "That was goal No. 1. Obviously, no deal materialized, including using the picks we got from the Jared deal. That's why we did that move a little early. We were trying to reuse those draft picks to add now." 

Throughout the press conference, Morey reiterated that Philadelphia had tried to be a buyer. It offered the picks it got from the Thunder "to many teams," he said, but was unable to turn them into a difference-making player.

"We were trying to add to the team, and we didn't find a deal that made sense, that we thought could move the needle on our ability to win this year," Morey said.

The McCain deal is fascinating, though, because the beginning of his career has been ... unusual. He was the No. 16 pick in the 2024 draft, and on opening night last season he didn't check in until garbage time. Weeks later, he was the bright spot in a Sixers season that was falling apart due to injuries. In addition to being a lethal shooter, he was thrust into a playmaking role, and he scored 20-plus points in seven straight games, establishing himself as the favorite for Rookie of the Year. Then he suffered a season-ending knee injury, and, during a workout just before this season's training camp, he suffered a thumb injury. While coming back from those injuries in Year 2, McCain has averaged just 6.6 points and shot just 38.5% from the field, fighting for minutes on a deeper, healthier roster that now includes VJ Edgecombe and Quentin Grimes. He started to find his form in late January, but, if you're against the trade -- and if you believe what he did in November 2024 is more meaningful than what he's done this season -- you could argue that Philadelphia sold low.

Morey would disagree. "I am quite confident we were selling high," he said. "Obviously, time will tell." 

He added that the Sixers "weren't looking to sell," but teams came to them with "aggressive offers." In terms of McCain's trade value, "the only higher point would have been during his run last season," Morey said.

The package of picks that Philadelphia received, Morey said, is more than the typical return "for a starter-quality player on a good team." He did not trash McCain -- in fact, he called McCain "a great future bet and a potential great player" -- but argued that the team is in a better position with the picks than it was with McCain. This, and not cutting payroll, he said, was the primary reason for the trade. And while he thinks this year's draft class is a good one, it wasn't necessarily about getting another prospect, either. They could use the second-rounders to move up in the draft, he said, but they could also move that first-round pick to add a proven player.

"This just gives us more tools to make the moves that we think will help our future more than we saw Jared, who we gave up, but that's not a comment on Jared," Morey said. "That's just, literally, we think, given our team, this was the right move to set us up down the road in a better way."

Morey said that McCain's path to a bigger role in Philadelphia was "a little muted relative to where his path could be on another team." In other words, if he continued to play around 17 minutes per game, how long would other teams continue to value him like a starter?

On a related note, Morey said that the Sixers have talked to Grimes' representation "quite a bit" lately, describing him as "a tremendous fit with our other guards." Grimes signed the qualifying offer as a restricted free agent last summer, but Morey said they hope to re-sign him when he's an unrestricted free agent.

'I took his comments to heart'

Morey knows Embiid wanted the front office to do more than duck the tax at the deadline, and he's heard the criticism directed toward ownership.

"I understand the perception," he said. "I hope to defeat it by finding a deal that I can go to ownership and say, 'We think this move is the right move to do for that and create the apron issues that it would create.' But I haven't been able to recommend that move yet."

To be clear, the luxury tax and the aprons are different things. Put simply, if a team goes over the first or second apron, it becomes subject to team-building restrictions. If a team goes over the luxury tax, it simply has to pay the luxury tax.

Morey said that the Sixers kept their top players, Embiid obviously included, updated about moves and potential moves leading up to the deadline. "I think we all wanted to add to the team, and I took his comments to heart," Morey said, insisting that the problem was not an unwillingness to be a luxury-tax team, but a lack of trade options that justified being a luxury-tax team.

"For sure, if we had found an add and we were going to end up higher, we would've ended up above it," Morey said. "We've done it several times when I was here. Over the history of ownership, they've done it many times. We didn't see something that did that."

Philadelphia has two open roster spots and could still add a player in the buyout market. "We've had a lot of conversations already," Morey said. It could also convert Jabari Walker's two-way to a standard contract. Morey repeatedly emphasized, though, that the Sixers are happy with the roster they have.

"We like our chances in the East," he said. "We feel like we're in the mix with the top teams there. Obviously, we gotta prove that on the court, but yeah, I'm just reiterating: Yeah, we were hoping to add, and we didn't add, but we still believe in this team." 

Elsewhere in the East, the Cleveland Cavaliers effectively swapped Darius Garland, De'Andre Hunter and Lonzo Ball for James Harden, Dennis Schrôder and Keon Ellis. The Detroit Pistons effectively turned Jaden Ivey into Kevin Huerter. The New York Knicks effectively turned Guerschon Yabusele into Jose Alvarado. The Boston Celtics traded Anfernee Simons for Nikola Vučević. Without naming any of these teams specifically, Morey said he doesn't think anybody meaningfully improved its title odds.

"Folks have speculated on the improvements of our East competitors," Morey said. "I don't see it, it personally."