In February 2009, Michael Lewis, known for authoring “Moneyball,” the landmark book about advanced statistics’ impact on baseball, wrote a piece for the New York Times entitled “The No-Stats All-Star.”
It was ostensibly a profile of Shane Battier, then playing for the Houston Rockets and in the eighth season of an eventual 13-year NBA run.
But it was just as much a deep dive into the analytics-driven approach of Daryl Morey, the Rockets’ general manager at the time. How Morey valued not traditional metrics (“Someone created the boxscore,” he told Lewis, “and he should be shot”) but rather such measures as plus-minus (with a twist he wouldn’t reveal at the time).
Battier was by that point emblematic of guys who do winning things — things that absolutely do not show up in the boxscore. He averaged a modest 8.6 points a game for his career, but was known for his defense, as well as an ability to bolster team chemistry. Clubs of which he was a part reached the playoffs all but three of the seasons he played, and he won titles with Miami in 2012 and ‘13.
Such was his ability to help the parts fit together that Morey had a nickname for Battier: “Lego.”
Now Morey, who last week became the Sixers’ president, will be looking for a new Lego — not necessarily a Battier clone, but someone who can help meld Philadelphia’s disparate parts. Preferably that would be a ballhandler and shot creator, as that was a glaring deficiency when Boston swept them out of the playoffs in the first round (a series Ben Simmons missed with a knee injury). But suffice it to say that the team also needs shooters to space around Simmons and fellow cornerstone Joel Embiid.
Morey, who spent 14 years in Houston (the last 13 as the GM), did as much as anyone to hasten the rise of the 3-point shot in the NBA, as the Rockets have led the league in attempts from the arc the last seven seasons. (They launched over 45 a game in 2019-20.) Now he inherits a very different squad, one that hoisted just under 32 3s a game this past season. Simmons eschews them almost entirely, Embiid shoots them a bit too often and nobody else brings to mind Stephen Curry.
There was an important point made here by Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer, though: Morey doesn’t necessarily design teams with the 3 in mind — though that is certainly the way to fly in today’s NBA. Rather, he wants teams that create the most efficient shots. Maybe that’s an Embiid post-up. Maybe that’s Simmons fashioning early offense on the dead run. So while the Sixers will certainly gun more from the arc this coming season (whenever that is), they will also accentuate the abilities of their two stars.
It is not unlike the early stages of Morey’s time in Houston, when the Rockets made it work with Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady. Yao was a 7-foot-6 post presence, McGrady more slasher than shooter, as his career 3-point sniping (.338) attests. But then as now, it’s a matter of getting two stars on the same page. Of tethering Simmons and Embiid — unique as they are, different as they are — together. Of making the whole greater than the sum of the parts.
That means finding that Lego.
O’Connor mentioned several veteran point guards that could be available, Chris Paul foremost among them. And while Morey has a history with Paul (as does the Sixers’ new coach, Doc Rivers), the Sixers have precious little to deal, beyond draft picks. Hard to picture anybody taking the ponderous contracts of Al Horford or Tobias Harris off their hands, and they are veering perilously close to luxury-tax territory.
Certainly, though, Morey has shown a willingness to take big swings in his personnel moves. He fleeced Oklahoma City out of James Harden in 2012. He sent no fewer than seven players (Patrick Beverley, Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams foremost among them) to the Clippers for Paul in 2017, as well as a first-round pick. And before last season he dealt Paul, two first-rounders and two first-round pick swaps to OKC for Russell Westbrook.
Similar creativity will likely be required now. Because the Sixers need a Lego. In truth, they need a lot of things. But Morey (in combination with Rivers) gives them a firm foundation, an ample starting point. It’s just a matter of piecing things together, of finding a player capable of bringing the best out in everyone.