Marcus Morris is the latest player to question whether the Sixers’ Daryl Morey can be trusted

You knew there were going to be negative reactions the moment Daryl Morey talked about using artificial intelligence to assist in evaluations during a recent interview at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.

The 76ers president of basketball operations was criticized on sports talk radio and podcasts. But Marcus Morris’ comments while ripping Morey on The Kevin O’Connor Show were somewhat surprising. Or were they?

“This is the first time I ever said this, I don’t trust Daryl Morey,” the North Philly native and former Sixer said when asked about Morey’s use of AI. “I just don’t trust him. I think he’s thinking too far ahead of the way basketball needs to be played. He’s trying to do a whole new team. He’s trying to bring guys in. He’s flipping them in and out, in and out, in and out.

“Does he even understand the dynamics of being in Philadelphia? What guys do you need to play in Philadelphia? Like, understand how the team needs to jell first before you start talking about AI. What does AI do?”

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What stood out most was Morris saying, “I don’t trust Daryl Morey.” Does he not trust Morey’s basketball mind because of his position on AI in decision-making? Or is Morris saying he’s untrustworthy in general?

What we do know is that Morris joins a list of players — most notably James Harden and Chris Paul — who have spoken out about the executive. Asked Wednesday, Morey declined to comment about Morris or the other players who called him out.

But Paul said in 2019 that Morey lied to him about not being traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Morey served as the Houston Rockets general manager from 2007 2020. Paul was the Rockets point guard for two seasons from 2017 to 2019.

He said Morey told him directly in June 2019 that he wouldn’t trade him during the offseason. A month later, Paul was traded to the Thunder for Russell Westbrook.

“My initial reaction?” Paul said with a laugh in an Undefeated article on Dec. 4, 2019. “I was shocked. Truth be told, I just talked to Daryl a couple days before the trade and he said he wasn’t going to trade me [to Oklahoma City]. That’s funny because that is going to be the alert that pops up on everybody’s phone because nobody knows that. But what the hell, I just said it.”

Sources say Morey did the same thing to P.J. Tucker before trading him along with Harden to the Los Angeles Clippers on Nov. 1, 2023. After being told by the executive that he wouldn’t be traded, Tucker signed a lease for an apartment. Sources say Tucker, who didn’t want to go to Los Angeles, was upset. A source close to the Sixers said Morey was unaware that Tucker would be included in the package at the time of their discussion.

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And on Feb. 8, 2024, the X account for the Pat Bev Podcast with Rone broke the news that Patrick Beverley had been traded to the Milwaukee Bucks. On that day’s episode, Beverley revealed to cohost Adam Ferrone that he, too, was told that he wouldn’t be traded.

“So [we’re] playing in Denver, and I hit Daryl Morey with, ‘Hey, I’m getting traded?’” Beverley said. “‘You? No. No, not you, no. Of course not.’”

“So he’s a liar,” Ferrone said.

Beverley momentarily laughed and fell back on the couch before slightly changing the topic.

“But you got to think, you feel me?” he said. “Like, you know, there’s probably a bigger move that’s about to happen. Certainly, you wan to win right now, you know, a player like me, I want to win right now. So now I get a chance to be with Doc [Rivers], too … I can’t wait.”

Team sources have said that Morey is still in good standing with Beverley and Tucker.

And who in Philadelphia can forget when Harden didn’t bite his tongue in a video on Aug. 14, 2023, when speaking of his disdain for Morey?

“Daryl Morey is a liar, and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of,” Harden said at an event in China. “Let me say that again. Daryl Morey is a liar, and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of.”

The video surfaced after word broke that the Sixers had ended trade talks involving Harden and planned to bring him back for the start of the season.

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Sources said Harden was upset that Morey didn’t trade him to his hometown Clippers within a couple of weeks, as he said he would.

That stung more for Harden, who had taken less money a year before to help Morey and the Sixers.

The 2018 league MVP took a $15 million pay cut and signed a two-year deal with a player option in the second year.

He previously opted out of his $47.36 million player option for the 2022-23 season. By picking up that option, Harden would have been eligible to sign a four-year, $233 million contract extension that would have paid him $61.7 million in the 2026-27 season.

But Harden’s opting out in 2022 allowed the Sixers to bolster their depth and toughness during free agency by signing veteran forward Tucker with the full midlevel exception and forward Danuel House Jr. with the biannual exception.

League sources also said Harden was upset with Morey when the executive didn’t negotiate a contract to re-sign the star guard before the 2023 free agency period.

But it was unlikely that Harden would have received the lucrative deal he coveted. The Sixers weren’t willing to hamper their short- and long-term future by overpaying for Harden. The prevailing thought was that a deal in the two-year range would be ideal for him.

Without any options, Harden opted into his $35.6 million player option for the 2023-24 season to be traded to the Clippers.

“You tell my guy [Harden] that you’re going to do something for him,” Morris told O’Connor. “A guy that you brought from all these teams, and then you don’t know — like the AI told him not to pay James Harden this amount of money? Does the AI tell him to go get Paul George? Hire Nick Nurse? AI tell you to get the guy from Miami, Caleb Martin, because he played well in the Boston series? He can’t shoot the ball.

“You got three dominant guys that need the ball in their hands. Why is that the first guy that you go get, right? Like, how did you come up with picking a team? Why do you want to start a brand new team and try to win a championship?”

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Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Kelly Oubre Jr., Ricky Council IV, KJ Martin, Kyle Lowry, and two-way player Jeff Dowtin Jr. were the only returnees from last season’s team. Martin was traded to the Detroit Pistons on Feb. 6 before being rerouted to the Utah Jazz.

The influx of new faces hasn’t translated to a championship roster.

This year’s team was too old and had too many banged-up players to remain competitive. At 23-46, the Sixers are tied for the league’s fifth-worst record after a 133-100 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday.

“I haven’t seen any team that has 10 new guys be really good the following year,” Morris said. “I don’t even know if any team has ever done that. Like, I’m just not a fan of, like, how he goes about choosing players and, like, flipping players in and out. It’s kind of like he’s trying to, like, outsmart the game too much, right?”

Morris had two stints with Morey.

He was drafted by the Rockets in 2011 before being traded to the Phoenix Suns on Feb. 21, 2013. Morris and Morey had a rocky relationship back then because Morris was assigned to Houston’s D-League team, according to sources.

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Morris and Morey reunited when he was acquired from the Clippers in the trade that sent Harden to Los Angeles. The forward had several solid moments in 37 appearances before being traded to the Indiana Pacers on Feb. 8, 2024.

Morris, a 13-year veteran, also had some discussions about returning to the Sixers this past summer. And, according to sources, the Sixers considered signing him following the Feb. 6 trade deadline.

“Some of the things I think that he does doesn’t have anything to do with basketball,” Morris said. “It’s his own values in how he thinks a team should be structured or ran. It’s mind-boggling. I just don’t understand it.”