Josh Harris and Bob Myers Speak to the Media (Hour 3)

This is Unfiltered with Ricky Bo and Bill Collerulo on 97.5 The Fanatic and the Fanatic App. All right, we're coming up on the 4:00 hour here on Unfiltered. We're waiting for Josh Harris and Bob Myers to step to the podium. Now, if this was Nick Sirianni, I would say they're going to be late, but I don't know if Josh Harris and Bob Myers will be late. I don't know. In fact, I think this is the first time we've heard from Bob Myers because his job title was with Harris Blitzer Sports. Yes, correct. Right? He is not sports entertainment. He's the president of sports for the overall company. So, I don't think we've ever had a chance to even speak with Bob Myers in terms of a press conference. So, who knows? We'll find out if he's punctual or not. But, as soon as they get to the podium, we will go right to it. We will carry it in its entirety, and then we'll be reacting to it when it's over. So, I would love for people who are paying attention to the presser to weigh in after. We'll have conversations about what we learned, and if we did in fact learn anything about what the future plans could be. But, I do expect a lot of questions about Joel Embiid's future, Paul George's future, and then some questions about the past as well. Like, we just heard on the We Hear You say, 'Whose idea was it to trade Jared McCann? Were instructions given to Daryl Morey that he had to get under the luxury tax? Who had the bright idea in September of 2024 to give Joel Embiid a three-year contract extension even though he had two years remaining on his contract? When you went and gave Paul George four years, why'd you give him four? It sounds like from all reports, no team was willing to give him more than two. Why'd you give him four?' So, there's a lot of questions about the future and the past that need to be answered. So, as we await them, you also got the NFL schedule released tonight. But, all these insiders are leaking games and they're being confirmed. Ryan Fowler from NBC Sports Philadelphia has leaked a bunch of games and Dave Zangaro has confirmed a lot of them. They're all on the website. So as we wait for Bob Myers and Josh Harris, let's just go through some of the games we know because we know 13 games now for your Philadelphia Eagles. Week one, they're going to open up at home a 4:25 game against the Washington Commanders. Then they go on the road week two to Tennessee. Two winnable games to start the year. Then week three, this is a big one. It's a Monday night football game in Chicago. 8:15 Monday night on ESPN week three. That has the potential to be a really good game. And those are two back-to-back trips that Eagles fans would love. Oh, yeah. I already looked at that Nashville trip. Unfortunately, I don't think it works. Yeah, and both of them because you're going to get nice weather September 20th, September 28th. Beautiful. Nashville and then Chicago in September, beautiful. I mean that that's a great two trips back-to-back. even actually I really did not think about Chicago. There now. Yeah, you should go. Shy Town's a beautiful town. Beautiful city. All right, then you got week four, you're back home against the LA Rams a 1:00 game and then week five you go to London to take on the Jags 9:30 in the morning. Do you find it weird that the Rams is supposedly a 1:00 game? I found that a little bizarre. was 1:00 this year, too. Yes. This past season. You're right, that is weird because that's a pretty big game for both teams. I mean it has been also in recent years in general. They've always They've always, you know, been great games to watch in general. They've been opponents that match up pretty nicely. Now, as an Eagles fan though, the 1:00 start's great. Oh, yeah. Cuz the LA Rams are coming from the West Coast. That's great to have them start an early game. Yeah, they get the the disadvantage there for the Rams. so then I'm I'm thinking would that week six game then be a bye week? Because if you're in Jacksonville in week five, you're then home week seven against the Cowboys, at Washington on a Sunday night week eight. Oh, wait, excuse me. Week seven's a Monday night football game, too, at home against the Cowboys. And then you go to Washington for a Sunday night, and then you come back home for a Sunday afternoon against the Giants. Three straight NFC East opponents. I would not be shocked if they gave them the week six bye right before that three NFC East opponent games. I feel like that's what that is really alluding to right there, is that it is going to be a week six bye. Especially also since we looked last year, what was it? Vikings and Browns and I think what was it? The Vikings? The Vikings stayed there, right? And hold on, I'm being told Josh Harris and Bob Myers are at the podium. So, you'll give me the go-ahead I'll give you the go-ahead as soon as we Go-ahead is going ahead. All right, so we're going to go to Josh Harris and Bob Myers now. Listen closely. I'm going to be taking detailed notes. We will react to everything that happens. We will bring you this conference in its entirety. Here we go.

This is a passionate fan base. This is a blue-blood organization. And so, to get put in this position is a privilege, it's an honor. I view myself as a steward to the fan base, and I take that very seriously. I wouldn't have come here if I didn't think Josh and David Blitzer and HBSE was serious about winning and weren't committed to winning. Again, I view these things as great challenges. These are great responsibilities to be in these chairs. But also not easy. And I know we have challenges ahead. I spent yesterday with the existing members of the basketball front office in Chicago. Elton Brand is there today with the group. We've got a lot of work to do. And we know that. With the 22nd pick in the draft, time to get to work. We're less than 48 hours though away from this change, so I have some work to do and I look forward to doing that. And again, you know, what I would say is when you look at the NBA, there's a few places that stand out as far as the history of the organization, the care of a city, and this is certainly one of them, and I'm excited to kind of move forward in this role.

Gina Mizell from the Philadelphia Inquirer. Bob, can you sort of detail what qualities you are most looking for as you begin this search, what you're going to prioritize, and what you feel like are the what this organization needs in that type of leader at this point in time?

Gina, I'm a big believer in character and leadership, and I'm looking for a person who embodies those things. But there's many characteristics under that that I believe kind of qualify in making a modern GM a success. There's front-facing responsibilities, there's responsibilities of managing star players, there's responsibilities of managing up to ownership, there's contract negotiations, there's draft process, there's evaluating analytics, there's medical staff. You go down the line and these jobs have an enormity to them. So, I'm looking to find someone that can check as many of those boxes as possible, but also raise their hand and say, 'You know what, I'm actually not good in this space. I'm going to need some support.' Because the misnomer about these jobs is I had some success in my previous job, but it wasn't me by myself. There are teams of people that make a team in an organization successful. So, making sure we have the right person to lead them, but also the right people underneath them, which is important. And the person that is going to get this job, like I said, I hope they check all those. They won't. It doesn't exist. How can we support them in roles that they don't have?

Bob Cooney from On Patterson. What are some of the biggest obstacles that you see for this organization right now going into next year's, you know, immediately, and then some of the things that are beneficial to the next president of basketball operations for this organization?

I'm sorry, what was your name? Bob Cooney. Okay, Bob, nice to meet you. Look, there'll be one happy team at the end of this season. Just one. There'll be 29 teams that didn't get the job done. We're one of them. We're one of the 29 that didn't win the championship this year. Our season's over. And so you have to acknowledge the why of that. And how did we get here, right? So there's some good moments, there's some good things about this organization, and there's some things we need to get better at. And some of those things, Bob, we can fix internally, and some of them we can't. And so we have to be honest about who we are and why we came up short. Because you only do these jobs, you only take these jobs to win a championship. I think players, if they're being honest, only play to win a championship. I didn't hear any players say, 'Well, we've had a great season and this is exactly what we wanted to do. We wanted to get swept in the second round.' Nobody's saying that. I'm not saying he's not saying that. So, why did it happen and what can we do? And again, that involves an intense evaluation process, getting to know the players, getting to know the coaches, getting to know what works better, what can we change, and sometimes those solutions are ours to control, and sometimes they're not. Having done this job previously, sometimes I could get the team better internally, and sometimes I couldn't. And then you have to make changes externally. So that's our job. I think there are some positives and there's some things that are challenges that we have to work through, but all of it has to be evaluated starting with now we've got a 22nd pick in the draft. We've got to get that right. And then there's free agency. And then there's an off season program. And all those things matter to get us to where we want to go.

Tony Johnson with The Athletic. One of the adages in the NBA is that it's doable to go from bad to good, but it's very very difficult to go from good to championship contender. You guys have gone from bad to good. You've accomplished that. What is it going to take for you guys to go from second round knockout to championship contender and why haven't you guys done it?

I believe that adage because when you're bad you can try anything and if it doesn't work you're still bad. But if you're good you have to risk something to go to great. So that's why it is harder to go from good to great because you risk something. You risk making a mistake and falling back to bad. When you're good you're scared to do that or you're more resistant because you say if it doesn't work we're going to be bad. When you're bad if it doesn't work we're still bad. But yes, that is the nuance and challenge of any team, right? So there's some teams there's not a lot of teams. We made it to the Elite Eight you might say. Well, you know, you don't get it really celebrated for that in this business. Nor nor do I believe should you. So then you say what do we need to do to get to great? I've actually been lucky enough to see what great looks like. But that's not easy. Right? It's not easy. So it's a hard look at everything. It's a hard look at whoever we hire and we'll place it on them. It's a hard look at what I've experienced and what I know that makes a championship team, but it's also a question to our players. Do you want to get uncomfortable? Because it takes a great level of uncomfortability to win a championship. Attention. Do we have that? Do you want that? Do we want that? Do we want to take that responsibility on? Are we satisfied? I don't I know he's not. And our players better not be satisfied with four to six second round playoffs. Yes, it's not easy to make the playoffs. But nobody plays this game to make the playoffs. In fact, 16 teams make the playoffs. More than half the league. That's not anybody's goal. The goal is to win a championship. So I say these things I don't but I also want to say clearly how hard it actually is and how hard it will be. There is no wave of wand, me sitting up here at a press conference and talk for 10 seconds and that's the answer to fixing everything and we're off and it does not. This requires a ton of work. And so, whoever we bring into this process including myself, including our staff, our players has to be committed to that in a very big way. And that means sacrificing time and energy and putting everything you have into this. And we're going to demand that. I'm going to demand that of whoever we hire. I'm going to do that myself because I just don't know how to not do it. But we need our players to want that, too. And that's our challenge to put on them.

David Murphy from the Philadelphia Inquirer. In this process, who will be setting the philosophy big picture-wise? Is that are you going into this search saying this is what we think this roster can become? For instance, early in Steph Curry's career there was questions about whether to trade him or not. You know, there's a person saying no, this guy is going to be a guy that we build around and a championship roster will be developed around him. Is that are you looking for someone who will answer that question themselves or is that something that you're going into it kind of having looked at this roster knowing what general direction it needs to go in?

Dude, I'm a big believer in whatever the best answer is, whoever comes up with that is the best answer. I don't care who says it, but it requires a lot of debate, a lot of conversation. I'll tell you what I'm looking for in a leader. Somebody that's committed to getting it done, to getting us there. And is aligned with myself, is aligned with Josh, is aligned with our expectations, our work ethic, our commitment, our competitiveness. If they want to make a big statement about what we need to do, I'll listen to that. I asked the staff last night that's existing, what are you guys going to do? What do you think? A lot of different answers. And they said, what do you think? I said, 'I don't know the answer, but we're going to figure out the answer.' As far as like one specific thing, I never think like I said, having been fortunate enough to see how you win, I love Steph Curry. I love him. He got one Finals MVP. It's just crazy. It's not one person that wins championships. It's a team that wins and he would say that, too. And he doesn't care. He's got four NBA championships. That's what matters. It's not about anything else. It's about the team and that's we want as many people that I know the nature is to look at one person. It's never one person. It's a team of people. Whoever wins it this year, it won't be one guy. It'll be a team of people and we got to figure out what team we can put together that has an opportunity to do that.

To follow up on that, you have a roster right now that has two young guys who you mentioned who clearly are potential centerpieces and then you have two older kind of aging veterans who are also among the highest paid players in the league. You know, there's different ways to approach that. You know, do we build for the future around the two guys? Do we try to win next year thinking that we can get more out of the two old guys? That's kind of the philosophy that I'm referring to.

That is David, that is the question. And if I had the answer to that question, then I'd actually just do it. I don't have any to tell you. I just do it or I look forward to partnering with leadership to get that answer. But you're asking the right question, but that's a question I think everybody's asking, right? Like how do you Not and it's not to criticize an older player or praise younger player, it's about how do we get past the second round? How do we get further? But that's what makes the job hard. That's what makes it gratifying is figuring If it was easy, you know, it wouldn't be worth it. It's very hard to build these things and build them in the right way.

Hi Josh. Hi Bob. Crystal Rich, CBS Philadelphia. Bob, you mentioned that one of the responsibilities and things that you're looking for is someone who can manage our players. You also said you want them to be in alignment with Josh and yourself, which is understandable. And you just touched on this, but what is the dedication, if you will, to see the fulfillment of Joel Embiid and Paul George's contracts and how much in alignment does the new president of basketball operations have to be with you guys on that? How big of a role does that play in who you select?

Again, not having interviewed anybody, that's a good question that I will ask them. What how do you feel about our roster, right? And I imagine I'll get different answers from different candidates. And there'll be one answer or maybe a few that stand out and say that's really interesting. I didn't think about it that way. Or I might say, 'What about this? What do you think we can do here? What do you view from the outside?' Sometimes when you talk to candidates or people outside your organization, you get a different answer. When you talk people inside, there's a bias inside the building as far as outside. Somebody say, 'You know, actually I think this can work. Or I really like this guy. What if you played this way? Or what if you partnered these two guys?' Again, I don't look at it though, and I don't want to speak for Josh, is whoever we hire, I'm not going to base it on the first thing they do. The first player This if we get it right, this person will be here for a long, long time and make many decisions and hopefully many of the right decisions. But as far as near term, yeah, those are questions I'll ask. May borrow your question. Just ask that question. How do you think this can work? And then I might say, 'What about this?' Josh might say, 'What about that?' The people that have been in the building might say, 'I think this.' I'm a big believer in a group. I didn't win four championships- I didn't do that. Our group did that. People did that. And I love that idea. Working in sports is the best thing because you're on a team. And so I look forward to building out someone that can lead that team and work with myself and certainly work with Josh.

And if I could just take you back to the trade deadline. Daryl Morey admitted that he wanted to use the picks that he got for Jared McCann to get a player that can help them this year. It obviously didn't happen. He also said that they traded high for Jared McCann. In retrospect, what is your evaluation of that situation and his, if you will, emotional intelligence of how he came across when he said that?

Well, I'm not going to I like Daryl. I'm not going to disparage Daryl here today. I think he did a fine job and I think he's a good person. And what I will say to your question, and I understand why you asked it, is that what I will tell you is that was a few months ago. Right now we have the 22nd pick. Our job is to get that right. We have three second round picks from it. I'm not I know you're not criticizing or just asking a question. We should be graded on the ultimate result of transactions like that. But I understand I made draft picks where we got an F right away, 10 minutes after the draft, F. And I was like, how do they know it's an F? I mean, we didn't even play. But your job and everybody's job is to react. I totally understand that. Our job is to make a trade. There'll be a reaction, it'll be positive or negative, but that trade isn't done. And our job is to make sure that on our end of the trade, we do a good job with drafting the best player at 22.

Bob, hi, Adam Aaronson from Philly Voice. Can you talk about what you envision your role here being with the Sixers specifically after this hire is made? Josh mentioned the idea of you and Nick and this hire working together and how that differs from what it has been since you started working with HBSE.

Yeah, I view taking the next few weeks, not sure how long it'll be, to identify a day-to-day leader, that'll have a lot of authority here, which they should. What they're going to get and our fans are going to get is them plus me. I won't be on a day-to-day level, but on the high-level decision-making, which is being here at the draft, being here leading up to the trade deadline, being available for free agency discussions, free agency meetings, things like that. I'm going to be involved at that level. And I can tell you that I imagine, and this isn't I'm not saying this lightly, I'll be communicating with that person daily, if not five out of seven days a week. You know why? I don't only view that as a job because I want to. I want to hire somebody that I can work with. I want to hire somebody that Josh can work with. And most importantly, I want to win. And I think that I have had some experience in this space, and if I have something to say, it's harder for me not to say it than say it. But that'll be my role, and obviously continuing to work with Josh on all this very high-level stuff. But I'm looking forward to kind of that role, and you know, the best part about working in sports is the competition. If you like competition, it's a great space to live in. But you got to deal with some pain. You got to deal with some loss. But when you win, it's all worth it. But that would be how I would characterize it.

We got to do a question for Josh.

Patrick Liberty Ballers. Bob, just with the draft coming up and it is so close and as you mentioned they're already kind of, you know, doing a lot of the prep. Do you want to get this person in place before the draft or is that something where if it doesn't happen you're comfortable going with the scouting that's already been done and your kind of history as an executive.

Yeah, I think Paul I'd like to have someone. I hope to have someone, but if it hasn't happened that's okay, too. But the goal would be to have someone in place for the draft to get acclimated with the new group. By the way, the group is working now and whoever we hire not sure who that will be will likely possibly already be evaluating the draft from where they coming from. So, that's a benefit in some ways, but yeah, I'd like to and I hope to, but it'll be as much time as required to get the best person because again, sure have someone by the draft, but the goal would be to have someone that's the right person for a long amount of time after that.

Hi Bob. Hi Josh. Dave Uram from WIP, KYW radio. Josh, you had talked about a lot of frustration, disappointment in your opening statement and your statement from the other day, understanding the fans frustration and warranted frustration. I'm curious to taking you back to the end of the series. How did it feel for you sitting in that arena with all the Knicks fans that took over the building?

Hi. Kyle Carlin of Sixers Wire. Bob or Josh even, I guess how would you kind of evaluate what Nick Nurse has done through these three years? And I'm curious, is he going to have a say in the search at all?

Yeah. So, I mean, look, just Yeah, I saw Nick yesterday in Chicago. He He's got enough on his plate. And like Josh said, it is our job and our responsibility to locate this person. And it's not to exclude Nick, but again, he's got enough responsibility, and this is our focus. But look, I imagine somebody that we hire will be a great partner for Nick, and that's what we have to promise him.

Bob Austin Growon from SI. And you already said earlier that you'll have the new candidate evaluate the roster. But you did watch a lot of basketball this year with this team. What is your evaluation of Joel and Paul and their futures, their current states in Philadelphia?

Yeah, I watched the team just like sure you watched the team. The thing I liked was that we got to see and it's maybe not completely, but we got to see a healthy team, right? We got to see most at least in the playoffs for the most part. Joel came back. And when you're healthy in the playoffs, the best part is you don't have any excuses about why you lost. You lost. I didn't like ever going to the playoffs with, well, so-and-so was hurt, and if he had been healthy, we would have Those hypotheticals aren't helpful. So, what is helpful is we played a team, we're mostly healthy, we lost. Okay, let's just be honest about that. Let's acknowledge that. After that, to your question, that's going to be the next leading up to the draft. What do we need to draft? What are we missing? What do we not have? And then the question's going to be with what we have, how do we get better with what we have? And then the final question's going to be, we got mid-level exception. What do we do with that? But back to the other point, I want to partner with somebody that I can have those discussions with in a meaningful way, and I'm going to have those discussions with potential candidates and ask them that question. I don't have that answer today, but our job is to have that answer. It was fascinating to hear from the current staff that I saw yesterday in Chicago what was said at the exit interviews. I find that very impactful. I'm not going to tell you. That's not fair. All of it matters. All these conversations, all the things you learn about an organization when the game is over and you go in the locker room and you talk to the players, you talk to the coach, talk to the training staff, what happened this season? Until we get all of that, I'm not going to say we've got the answers to that question, but I do know this, we have to get better. We have to find a way to get better.

David Yeah. Josh, to go back over here. To go back to the Jared McCann thing, outside of the granular transaction level opinions. From a perspective of high-level organization decision-making, that's a potentially impactful move for the future of your organization trading away a guy you drafted in the first round and had shown a lot his rookie year. And the decision was made by a guy who then 3 months later, you're moving on from and kind of re-evaluating the direction of the organization. Was that Daryl's move laterally? Were you and Bob kind of involved in okaying that? And if not, how does that make sense if there was a chance that a move like this would happen and the next guy would have to deal with the aftermath?

For Josh, Matt George from the Delco Times, Daryl had said at the trade deadline that the position of ownership was that you'd be willing to go over the luxury tax if the right situation presented itself. What's your view of that? Is that still something that ownership is willing to do in the right situations moving forward? Is staying under the tax line a priority? How do you view that?

Yeah, and I'm just going to add to that. I don't know a lot of you but I just can't imagine a day where if I said to Josh or leadership said to Josh, this deal makes us a contender but you have to go into the tax. If he says no, which he won't, I wouldn't work for somebody like that because look, to be honest, if you look at the history of teams that have won a championship, I was one of them. We were in the tax. It'd be great if you can win a championship by not being in the tax, very hard to do but it has to make sense. And so I know again, I'm not worried about that part of the job because if that comes up, I know what the answer will be.

Bob Zach from Metro Philadelphia. Just curious, you mentioned earlier that Elton is in Chicago. Just about curious about his role moving forward and if he should have interest in the position would he be among the considered candidates.

Yeah, I'm going to take since we just like I said not even 48 hours. I'm going to talk to Elton get his thoughts on things. I've spoken to him like I said he's in Chicago now with the group look forward to going out in the long time figure out what we think is best but we haven't gotten to that level of detail with any of that yet.

Got you. Well then on to the draft just curious about your general overall philosophy the team has a number of needs regardless which timeline or if you go two timelines. Your personal preference in terms of drafting best player available versus going for a targeted need.

Yeah, I look I think that the philosophy will be what I want this group's done a pretty good job drafting to be honest. I don't want to come in and run over anybody this existing group including Daryl has drafted some good players Maxey, PJ good good examples of a very successful players that were picked. So I'm not an expert in that. I'll give my opinion. I want to meet with the group hear what they say each year is a little bit different of as to what you're looking for see who might be available at that pick and and partner with new leadership and see what their philosophies are on the whole thing but I'm look obviously you want somebody you can build on and Maxey is the ultimate success story in that range. I mean can't expect that but at the same time getting a quality player you can build with.

Hey hey Bob over here Kyle Neubeck from PHLY. What level of autonomy is the person you're going to hire going to have because this organization has had issues in the past where the power structure is more opaque than it appears on the outside and you know with they're inheriting a coach and you know potentially people internally. How do you avoid problems with that where there's a clear top-down vision for everything.

Yeah, I think Kyle people, right? You need good people. You need good people that are in harmony, so there is no acrimony, there's no You can debate, healthy debate, but I actually in my previous job, we had a lot of people in the room commenting on what we should do, what we shouldn't do. But ultimately we came together and I expect a lot of autonomy of this If I do a good job, a tremendous amount of autonomy because that's what you want. Hire somebody, let them do their job. But at the highest level, you certainly give your opinion, you weigh in. When you get into this I mean, look, a healthy organization, you're not in a room where people are storming out and back channeling and saying, 'I wouldn't have done that. I would have done this.' So, hiring a decent person that I can collaborate with. And by the way, it's not your problem. I'm not going to hire somebody that I don't think can be malleable, that can be collaborative, that can be thoughtful, that can take direction, that can be humble enough to say, 'You know what? That time I didn't get it right.' Or, 'You know what? I really believe in this. You have to give me the strength to make this decision.' All those things are part of hiring the right person. And as to what happened in the past, obviously I wasn't here, but I believe we're going to get a very functioning, high-functioning, quality front office with this hire.

But Yeah. Josh, I have a question for you, too. There I think a lot of criticism recently has been turned toward you specifically, fan frustration-wise. There have been some fans who have been thrown out of games recently for yelling things like sell the team. I guess what would you say to those people because I think some of that is about just the lack of success or lack of championship success, but also maybe some of the off-court things that have not been addressed by you.

Final question for the afternoon there. Derek Bodner, also of PHLY. Some of this for Bob. Some of the changes in the most recent CBA and some of the restrictions that come after exceeding aprons. Is it still tenable to have three max players, especially on 35% maxes, and still have the depth needed to contend for a title?

Well, we didn't get it done this year with three guys, but that doesn't mean it can't be done. I don't totally I think I know where you're going, and I think it's a smart question in that what's the modern roster supposed to look like with the second apron really, which is oftentimes operates as a hard cap. Depth may be more important than it's ever been. Maybe that's the pace of play. Maybe that's what we require of our players more. Not to say that this model doesn't work, but we have to look at what happened this year and be honest about it and see if We got to be honest about can this model work, right? And that's really the question. And also understanding that depth is key. And you only have a certain amount of resources to spend. So, that's something That's all part of the questions. It's all part of what we need to figure out going forward.

Gentlemen, thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, there it was. Josh Harris and Bob Myers met with the media for close to 35 minutes. There was an opening statement by Josh Harris and Bob Myers, then it opened it up to questions from the beat reporters. A lot in there, and I want to give you my thoughts on everything coming up. I would love to hear your thoughts as well on what you just heard from the owner and the person now in charge, Bob Myers, who's going to look for the next president of basketball operations. We will continue this conversation coming up next, but if you have strong opinions about what you just heard from the 76ers, three ways to get involved, phone call, text, voice memo, same number across the board, 610-632-0975. Coming up, I definitely want to talk about Joel Embiid because I thought there was a clear tone in this press conference as it pertained to both Joel and Paul George. We'll get to that coming up next on Unfiltered, 97.5 The Fanatic, NBC Sports Philadelphia.

Unfiltered with Ricky Bo and Bill Collerulo. 97.5 The Fanatic and The Fanatic app. All right, welcome back in Unfiltered. If you're just joining us, we had the press conference of Josh Harris and Bob Myers. Lasted about 35 minutes. And listen, it was it's they're smart guys, Josh Harris and Bob Myers, so they're not going to give you direct answers on a lot of things with regard to the future. But I thought what was extremely telling is one of the big questions that a lot of fans want to know, is Joel Embiid going to be traded? Is Paul George going to be traded? Or at the very least, are you going to explore those possibilities? And based off of the answers from Josh Harris and Bob Myers, at least to me and my interpretation of what I just listened to, it did not sound like two guys who are going to say they are not trying to trade Joel Embiid, that they are not going to try to trade Paul George. They could have come out, and they did not do this. They could have come out at this press conference, and when asked questions about Joel or even Paul George, and gave you how good of a talent Joel Embiid is. They could have said he's a Hall of Fame player. He's a big part of this team going forward. We believe we can win a championship with Joel Embiid, and make all of these crazy analysis of why they think they can win. They didn't do that. And to me, that was what was the most telling. So, for instance, Bob Myers gets asked a question directly about Paul George and Joel Embiid, and what their future is going to be. And in response to that question, now this is a quote, Bob Myers says, 'When you are healthy in the playoffs, the best part is you don't have any excuses for why you lost. You lost. I didn't like that we were going into the playoffs with so-and-so was hurt. And if he had been healthy, we wouldn't have lost. Those hypotheticals aren't helpful. We played a team, we were mostly healthy, we lost. Let's be honest about that.' And that's a great answer from Bob Myers. Because no more are we going to have to sit back and say, 'Oh man, but if Joel was healthy, and if Paul George was healthy, maybe things would have been different.' No, Bob Myers is right. You were pretty much healthy in that series against the Knicks, and you still lost the damn series. Joel Embiid played in games 1, 3, and 4, and you still lost all three of those basketball games. At the very end of the press conference, when they were asked about is it sustainable in the modern NBA to have three players on max deals, Bob Myers came out and said, 'With the modern roster construction, depth may be more important than it's ever been. And we have to ask the question, can this model work?' At least my understanding of what Bob Myers was saying is that everything is on the table right now. Now, whether or not they will be able to trade Joel Embiid's contract, that's another story entirely. We've talked about it at length. Who's going to want to take that? But at least this press conference did not entail Josh Harris and Bob Myers coming up there and telling us how great Joel Embiid is and how good this team can be with the three max players that they have in Joel, Paul George, and Tyrese Maxey. At least that's how I heard it. And I would love to hear from Sixers fans right now. Three ways to get involved with the show. You could text, you could send voice memos for We Hear You coming up at 5:25 to the Davis Auto text line, or pick up the phone and call, the old-fashioned way. We'd love to talk to some Sixers fans on the phones today. 610-632-0975, same number across the board. Now, some of the other important things that were said. Josh Harris was flat-out asked about the luxury tax. And does he try to avoid paying the luxury tax? Not only did he say, 'Absolutely, they have the green light to go into the luxury tax.' Bob Myers followed up and said he would not work for someone who would tell him, 'No, you can't go into the luxury tax if there's a move to be made that would lead to you being a better championship contender.' So, Josh Harris is saying they have the green light to do it. Bob Myers is saying he wouldn't work for Josh Harris if it was any other way. That was important. Now, Josh did get asked a question, Josh Harris did get asked a question about some of the fans who have been screaming for them to sell the team and being escorted out of the building. He kind of dodged that question a little bit, just basically saying that he's sweating more than anybody else and how frustrated he is. The quote was, 'What I can tell you is I'm sweating it really hard. I'm sweating just as hard as any of the fans. I understand people's frustration.' They kept trying to emphasize they understood the people's frustration. But all the questions, all 35 minutes, I did not feel that anything was said to lead you to believe that Joel Embiid and Paul George are not going to at least be discussed in trade scenarios. And Bob Myers is going to be involved in this going forward. They asked him what his role will be. Doesn't sound like he's going to be involved in the day-to-day, but he did say that once he identifies a day-to-day leader, that person will be talking with Bob Myers daily communications, that he will be involved in those decisions, that Bob Myers will be involved in the upper-level decisions. So, you'd have to believe that whoever's coming in here is going to have some autonomy, but Bob Myers is going to be the guy that they're going to go to to ask questions, to consult with, especially with major decisions about roster construction and what they do with the big max players that they have right now. But all in all, I know that it was, like I said, pretty politically correct in terms of avoiding saying certain things. I felt like this was the press conference that I wanted. I did not want them to come out and try to sell the fan base on how great Paul George and Joel Embiid are and how great this team can be as constructed if they just add a piece here or there. That is not what they just said. They did not sound like people who were committing to the future of Joel Embiid under these 3 years. Now, the whole Jaden McDaniels trade they asked Josh Harris about how that came about. Now, they didn't want to throw Daryl Morey under the bus today. They kept saying that they thought Daryl Morey did a good job. He's a friend. You know, that's a nice thing to do. But, I thought Josh Harris kind of threw him under the bus about the Jaden McDaniels trade because the way he outlined it, he said the front office will make a recommendation, meaning Daryl Morey came to them, made the recommendation to trade McDaniels, and then they okayed it. So, he's basically saying it was Morey's idea, and they just gave the okay, and that it was in fact part of a bigger plan, which we found out yesterday from Sixers Adam from Philly Voice. He laid out exactly who they were looking for. We knew they were looking at trade scenarios after they got the draft capital on the McDaniels trade. But, all in all, I do want to hear from Sixers fans. I see the phone lines blowing up. Get your texts in. Get your voice memos in. Get your phone calls in. I'm very curious if you heard what I heard from Josh Harris and Bob Myers with regard to Joel Embiid's future. Now, I'm not guaranteeing you that Joel Embiid is going to be traded. Not guaranteeing that at all. And I didn't hear in that presser that they're definitely going to be shopping Joel Embiid. But, I also did not hear the opposite, which at least gives me some hope that what Bob Myers is bringing here is an understanding that this old way of building teams, just trying to have a big three, and not having depth does not work in the modern NBA. It doesn't. And you got to do something to improve the depth on this team. And that might mean moving on from Joel, moving on from Paul George. In an ideal world, I'd love to move on from both of them. Probably not going to be a reality, but it sounds like it's at least something that they are going to consider and try to do based off of the non-answers you got today. I never expected them to come out and say, 'Yes, we're open for business. We're going to trade Joel Embiid.' I never thought they would do that, but I did have a fear that they were going to come out and try to tell us how great Joel Embiid is. Now, when Josh Harris was first asked the question, I think it was our buddy John Clark who asked it, about Joel Embiid still being the centerpiece of this team, Josh Harris felt like he didn't know how to answer it. Looked like he was looking to Bob Myers on how to answer it and not say something wrong. He basically said you can't put all the focus on one player, and we're looking forward to welcoming him back on our team. That was it. I mean, that was pretty much the only time they referred to Joel Embiid in the future of being back on this team. So, the fact that Bob Myers came out and said we were healthy and we didn't win and we have to be honest about that and we're not going to make excuses and then went on further to say that with the modern roster construction, depth may be more important than it's ever been and can this model work? At least it's something that's going to be considered. All right, so I want to hear from people. Coming up next, we'll get to your phone calls. We'll continue to react to the Josh Harris and Bob Myers discussion. We will also continue to update you on the Eagles schedule leaks because more leaks have been coming. In fact, let's just quickly check our Twitter poll before the top of the hour, Salvana. If you missed it, Eagles are playing at home on Christmas Eve against the Houston Texans, 8:15 on Amazon Prime. I can't stand it. Salvana can't stand it. But, surprisingly, a lot of fans like it. So, let's just check the Twitter poll. Standing strong, thanks to Dr. Avi Donapel of Iron Mountain Men's Health. What do we got? Eagles at home on Christmas Eve, love it or hate it. More people at least coming on our side, but 52% still love it, 48% hate it. I don't get it. I don't get it. All right, but Sixers fans want to hear from you. Your thoughts after listening to Josh Harris and Bob Myers talk about the future of this team. I'll give you some more quotes coming up about what they're looking for in the president of basketball operations, what they said about Nick Nurse's future, Elton Brand's future, but the most important thing for me, what did you hear in terms of Joel Embiid and Paul George's future? You can weigh in 610-632-0975. Unfiltered continues. 97.5 The Fanatic NBC Sports Philadelphia.