Whether working in Houston or Philadelphia, Daryl Morey knows a thing or two about building a team. He assembled numerous very successful Rockets teams, rebuilt the Sixers to an impressive degree even after being hired very late in the game in 2020, and has further fined-tuned Philly's finest despite having a limited asset pool.

So naturally, Morey doesn't just look at a player, decide whether they “have that dog in them,” and then divide them into two categories, ballers, and hoopers; no, Morey uses his MIT knowledge to craft a roster more like math equation than a fantasy draft. Morey looks at traditional stats, advanced analytics, and even evaluates intangibles like mindset before committing big-time assets to a player.

Why? Well, let's just say he had a bad experience with a player who never quite clicked with Philly and almost tanked a season of Joel Embiid's prime.

But who could that be? Was it Tyler Johnson? How about Willie Cauley-Stein, or even Andre Drummond? Well, read the following quote from Morey during his appearance on John Clark's podcast via Liberty Ballers and see if you can figure it out:

I’d say the biggest surprise are the players who can’t play here. It’s actually not helpful to me. The more options I have, the better. But I do think I’m starting to learn and I do love it about Philadelphia, ‘cause I do think it gets the best out of our team. And I’ve seen it with not only our team, the Eagles, and the Phillies.

And I never understood this, being in Houston when people would say, ‘Oh, you need to have a special mindset to play in Philly. You need to have a special mindset to play in, maybe, New York.’ Although I think that’s less true. Honestly, I can only speak to Philadelphia because I’ve been here now. I do think, I really do pay attention to the mindset of the players. Can they handle playing in Philadelphia? Because I do think it’s a different thing.

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… yeah, that's about Ben Simmons, isn't it? Dang, Morey shaded the former first overall pick without saying his name – now that is some advanced stuff indeed, Sixers fans.