Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey confirmed that Furkan Korkmaz requested a trade and said he tried find a new home for the sixth-year wing, Derek Bodner of The Daily Six tweets.
“Look, he’s a very good player,” the Sixers’ top exec said. “I think he would be in the rotation of many teams in the league, so we were hoping to help him out. He’s been a great partner with the organization.”
Morey added that Korkmaz has a “great attitude.” The Sixers did swing a deal for the Hornets’ Jalen McDaniels, who will be an unrestricted free agent after the season. Philadelphia would like to retain him, Kyle Neubeck of Philly Voice relays. “I think he’s got starter potential. We’d like to obviously have him have a great run, help us win a championship this year, and then re-sign him,” Morey said Friday.
We have more from the Eastern Conference:
- James Johnson was waived by the Pacers due to a roster crunch in the aftermath of the Kevin Durant multi-team blockbuster. However, Indiana plans to bring back the forward if he clears waivers, Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star tweets. Johnson, who appeared in 12 games this season, attended the Pacers’ game on Friday.
- Caris LeVert was relieved he wasn’t dealt by the Cavaliers, he told Chris Fedor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “Just a feeling of relief,” he said. “Relief that nothing happened and I’m going to be here, having an opportunity to finish out the season and finish it out with this group. We have been playing great basketball. I think we’re all glad that the group stayed together and we’re excited to make this final push. Can’t wait to see how far we can go.” LeVert is headed to free agency after the season.
- Cam Reddish fell out of the Knicks’ rotation well before he was dealt to the Trail Blazers this week. New York coach Tom Thibodeau said the “change” may be good for the young forward’s career, Fred Katz of The Athletic tweets. “I don’t know if it didn’t work,” he said. “I just think there were some good moments, some moments that probably could’ve been better and that’s part of the league. Sometimes you need a change.”
- Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said he wasn’t close to making another deal after acquiring Mike Muscala from the Thunder, implying that they weren’t really interested in making another move, Jared Weiss of The Athletic tweets.
I agree with morey, McDaniels does have starter upside. Needs to improve his 3pt shot. I really like the move by the sizers
Agree nice pickup. His FT shooting is good. So his shot should get better. Sixers are deeper.
Philly should have moved off korkmaz and someone else and kept Isaiah Joe and Trevelin Queen, like I had said at the time.
I like McDaniels as a 4/3, but I just think they’re going to have multiple guys playing out of position a lot, when they could have had actual wing depth, and then they moved their best wing defender.
James Johnson could be an option for the Heat at smallball 5 for 1 of the 2 roster spots
That first sentence was supposed to say before the season lol
Joe has been very good in OKC. That was a mistake cutting him.
If this was just a debate between Kork and Joe in a vacuum, than yeah they should and likely would have kept Joe…but there is this crazy thing called a salary cap and guaranteed contracts that you didn’t factor in.