Neither James Harden nor Joel Embiid: The Sixers’ key weapon, per Daryl Morey

Once again, Philadelphia comes from a disappointing season. Even though they made a massive trade to get James Harden while having Joel Embiid at the best level of his career, the Sixers fell short of expectations when it mattered the most.

However, that’s part of the past now. The Sixers stayed busy in the offseason, signing coveted free agents PJ Tucker and Montrezl Harrell in an attempt to coming back stronger this year.

Daryl Morey is confident the team is on the right path, which is why it will run things back with head coach Doc Rivers and Harden. For Morey, however, the key to the 76ers’ success this season will not only rely on The Beard or Embiid.

Daryl Morey says 76ers have another key weapon besides Harden, Embiid

In an appearance on The Takeoff with John Clark podcast, Morey claimed that Tyrese Maxey’s contribution will be pivotal for the 76ers’ high aspirations in the 2022-23 NBA season.

“He’s key to our season,” Morey said, as quoted by NBC Sports. “Obviously the new players on the team I think are two-way players and are going to set the stage, but winning the title really comes down to your best players. And probably the key things are we need Joel to yet again give us an MVP-level performance; we need James to be just himself — we don’t even need five years ago James, we need the guy we saw last year for most of the games; but the biggest inflection point is probably we need Maxey to take another step forward.

“And he can do it. He’s putting the work in. Look, it’s really hard. His rookie year was way ahead of schedule. His second year was way, way ahead of schedule. And to ask him to do another leap forward is asking a lot, but we do need it. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he does it given how much time he puts in.”

No pressure at all on the 21-year-old… Embiid, Harden, and the veterans are the ones who must put the team on their backs. That said, the Sixers will also need Maxey to keep up with his good level in order to contend. But then again, he shouldn’t be the one to blame if things don’t go according to plan.