What Josh Harris, Bob Myers Said About the Futures of Joel Embiid, Paul George

CAMDEN — Bob Myers made one thing clear through the duration of his first press conference as the Sixers' temporary president of basketball operations.

He doesn't have many answers to the existential questions this franchise faces on May 14, but he will spend the next several weeks searching for someone whose answers stand out.

Still, in his 34 miutes of fielding curiosities at the team's practice facility on Thursday, he acknowledged there are several huge questions he has to address in his search for the team's next president.

There are two young cornerstones on this roster. There are two veterans in their 30s with contracts that are liabilities more than they are assets.

What is the philosophy going forward?

Is Myers trying to direct Philadelphia toward the future, or is he going to continue on with the core in place in pursuit of his fifth championship ring?

"That is the question. If I had the answer to that question, I'd actually just do it. I look forward to partnering with leadership to get that answer. You're asking the right question. But that's a question I think everybody's asking," Myers told reporters.

Myers didn't declare himself as partial to either direction, making clear he was neither praising the young players nor criticizing the more seasoned ones.

"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. If it was easy, it wouldn't be worth it. It's very hard to build these things and build them the right way," Myers said.

If Josh Harris and Myers have interviewed anyone already, they didn't want to admit to it.

But one of the things Myers' ideal candidate must excel at is managing star players. There must be alignment between the candidate and the stakeholders at Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment.

How dedicated will that person be to fulfilling the contracts owed to Joel Embiid and Paul George?

That's a good question that I will ask them. 'How do you feel about our roster?' I imagine I'll get different answers from different candidates. There will 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?'" said Myers.

He believes that external candidates may offer viewpoints that are free of the bias that comes with being inside the building already.

"There's a bias inside a building, as far as outside, somebody saying, 'Actually, I think this can work. Or I really like this guy. Or what if you play this way? What if you partner these two guys? Again, I don't look at it, though, whoever we hire, I'm not going to base it on the first thing they do," Myers explained.

"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."

The mystery person isn't signing on to go rogue. Myers believes strongly in collaboration. And with four rings to his name, few can argue with him.

"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. I like that idea. Working in sports is the best thing becuse you're on a team. So I look forward to building out someone that can lead that team and work with myself and certainly work with Josh."

While Myers was unwilling to commit to anything or anyone on Thursday, Harris was.

Perhaps he won't have much of a choice given the likely dry trade market for Embiid's contract. Or perhaps he's willing to ride with the guy who has stood by his business through thick and thin.

"We win as a team, we lose as a team. But like Bob said, it's not one player. Putting all the focus on one player is the wrong place to be. I think that he's an important player on our roster. He's a warrior. Some of the things that you said are also true," Harris said.

"So we're looking forward to welcoming him back on our team."

Myers can fend off giving real answers to these questions for as long as he wants. The reality is he sat courtside at games all season long. He surely has thoughts.

"Yeah, I watched the team, just like I'm sure you watched the team. The thing I liked was that we got to see a healthy team, at least in the playoffs for the most part. Joel came back," Myers said.

What he said next was, frankly, refreshing.

"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 that we were going into the playoffs with, 'Well so-and-so is hurt and if he had been healthy...' Those hypotheticals aren't helpful," Myers said.

That's a point of view that is blunt and necessary. Something that had been missing for years.

"So what is helpful is we played a team, we were mostly healthy, we lost. OK, let's just be honest about that. Let's acknowledge that," Myers said.

And then, it was back to filling time with words that left little known.

"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 is going to be, with what we have, how do we get better with what we have? And then the final question is going to be, we have a mid-level exception, what do we do with that?," Myers said.

Myer is not only looking to collaborate with the next leader of basketball operations. He wants to collaborate down the team's ladder of personnel.

"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, you talk to the training staff—what happened this season?," Myers said.

"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."

One of the few things Myers was ready to admit on Thursday? Depth is paramount.

is it still tenable to have 3 max players 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 think it's a smart question in that 'What's the modern roster supposed to look like with the second apron, really, which often operates as a hard cap?' The truth is depth may be more important than it's ever been," Myers stated.

"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 this model can work. That's really the question. I also understand that depth is key and you only have a certain amount of resources to spend. So that's all part of the question. It's all part of what we need to figure out going forward."

Myers wants to take the time to be thorough in searching for the next leader. But he would like to make a decision by the end of June, when the 2026 draft takes place.

Will he have all these questions answered in five weeks?

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