76ers miss in attempt to steal Daryl Morey from Rockets

The Philadelphia 76ers took the shoot your shot approach in their general manager search, but the Houston Rockets and Daryl Morey come up with the block.

The Philadelphia 76ers are still without a general manager following their parting of ways with Bryan Colangelo. Naturally, they tried to lure away the reigning Executive of the Year for his current estate. The New York Times’ Marc Stein reported that the Sixers were “rebuffed” in their attempt to hire Daryl Morey from the Houston Rockets.

Morey has been the general manager of the Rockets since 2007. Since then, he’s built Houston into one of the premiere teams in the league. His aspiration to acquire stars has Houston big-game hunting every offseason. Last year, he acquired Chris Paul from the Los Angeles Clippers. Paul, alongside James Harden, helped lead Houston to the best record in the West in 2017-18.

Along with star searching, Morey popularized analytics in basketball. He co-founded the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference and developed a style called “Moreyball,” which favors three-point and restricted area shots over everything else.

Philadelphia was unlikely to ever steal Morey from Houston, but you can’t blame the team for trying.

It’s been over a month since Colangelo resigned from the Sixers organization following an investigation pertaining to potential burner accounts. Philadelphia is one of the most attractive jobs in the league thanks to the work of Sam Hinkie and the progress of The Process.

Of course, Hinkie’s name still lingers on the tip of Sixers’ fans tongue. Hinkie worked under Morey in Houston until 2012, when he became the general manager in Philly. A return to Philadelphia seems almost too perfect, which is curious as to why it hasn’t happened yet.

Next: The Whiteboard: Let’s all calm down about the Brooklyn Nets

Maybe going after Hinkie’s mentor is the first sign of a potential reconciliation between the architect of the Process and Philadelphia.