Kendrick Perkins doesn’t hold back in praise of Daryl Morey after Joel Embiid extension

Kendrick Perkins — who formerly played with the likes of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love on the Cleveland Cavaliers — gave Philadelphia 76ers general manager Daryl Morey his flowers after he inked star Joel Embiid to a three-year extension.

“Daryl Morey is a bad motha-holy-bleep,” said Perkins. “… Daryl Morey as a general manager, he’s one of the best that I’ve ever seen when it comes down to makin’ sure guys — I mean teams are built to compete on a year-to-year basis. I’m not even gonna go back to the Houston days because he did an outstanding job there with James Harden — Golden State was just in the way.

“But when you look at this Philly situation, with all the Ben Simmons drama that happened, with all the James Harden drama that happened and havin’ to walk into that locker room on a day-to-day basis — into that arena or practice facility and look at Joel Embiid and have him trust you throughout this process that you were gonna put the necessary pieces around him to make sure that, at the end of the day, he could go out there and compete for a title.”

Across nearly two decades of experience as an executive with the Houston Rockets and 76ers, Morey’s teams have went 841-517 in the regular season, which is well above the .500 mark.

The 76ers and Embiid have reportedly agreed on a three-year, $193 million extension.

Embiid has been one of the best players in the NBA for several years now. He has averaged 28-plus points and 10-plus rebounds per contest in each of his last four seasons in the league.

The Cameroonian native also earned the MVP award for the 2022-23 season after he averaged 33.1 points, 10.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.0 steal and 1.7 blocks per game across 66 regular-season games.

Embiid has accomplished more from an individual standpoint at age 30 than most NBA players can hope to achieve over the entirety of their careers. But there is one glaring hole in Embiid’s resume, which has nothing to do with personal accolades — he has yet to win an NBA title or even play in an Eastern Conference Finals for that matter.

The big man has arguably never had a better supporting cast of basketball players around him in Philadelphia than he does now. With the help of Morey, the 76ers made several additions to their roster this offseason, and Paul George sticks out as the team’s most important acquisition.

George, a nine-time All-Star and six-time All-NBA selection, signed a four-year deal with the 76ers after he spent the previous five seasons playing for the Los Angeles Clippers organization.

What’s more, the 76ers signed Caleb Martin to a four-year, $35 million deal. Martin was one of the unsung heroes during the Miami Heat’s Cinderella run to the NBA Finals in 2023. He’s a quality two-way player who can both space the floor (a career 35.7 percent 3-point shooter) and hold his own defensively against guards and wings alike.