Daryl Morey, the Sixers think Paul George’s season was compromised by health. That’s a flawed bet.

The Sixers' worst nightmare was realized early in this forgettable season, Joel Embiid's knee refusing to cooperate from the very start.

Philadelphia's second worst nightmare was a slow bleed, Paul George only playing 41 games in the first year of a maximum deal. When he did play, it was discouraging.

16.2 points on 54.3 percent true shooting, 5.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists. Unquestionably the worst season he's had in a decade.

Oh, and he's still owed $162,379,140 over the next three seasons.

George suffered a bone bruise in his knee in a preseason game. He re-aggravated the injury toward the end of November. He battled with an uncomfortable groin at various points throughout the season. In late January, he tore a tendon in his pinky. The last time anyone saw him play basketball, he donned a splint on that finger that he was required to wear 24/7.

It was a season derailed by injury, but also maybe age. We'll never know how much the latter affected his play.

When he sat in front of reporters at exit interviews this past Sunday, George expressed that he was on the mend.

"Feeling a lot healthier in that still taking some time, taking things slowly. The finger is kind of non-existent, as far as the limitations. The groin is taking a little time. The knee has been trending in the right direction," George said.

"So, all in all, I'm expecting to ramp up to a great summer and hitting the ground running. So there shouldn't be any limitations for me in the future to train and get prepared for this next season."

Perhaps that George missed the final month of the season and is still recovering speaks to the depth of what his body was trying to play through.

Maybe all the people who deemed George 'washed' or 'cooked' were a little too quick to their triggers.

But the output is the output. George never produced at a level that was commensurate with the expectations of his contract. He often faded into the shadows when on the floor with both Embiid and Tyrese Maxey.

I don't need to give you the net rating with the trio on the court again. It left everything to be desired.

Nick Nurse bears some responsibility for them never looking coherent. As does Embiid. The offense was not creative and rarely ever weaponized all three at once. The defense was capped because Embiid physically couldn't be the presence at the rim that he's been throughout his career. (An aside: I thought, by and large, George had a perfectly fine defensive season.)

Daryl Morey was quick to point to health when explaining why he thought the three never played inspiring basketball.

"Well, I think mostly health for me because, again, even the games they played, at least three of them, something like that, they didn't finish the game. I know quite a few of those, it was the first game back, which is generally worse as you're returning from injuries," Morey said at his exit interview. 

"So, I'd have to go look at each game in detail, but I almost feel like they had zero healthy games together. I think we haven't really seen what they can do. Didn't even get game one, but we feel good we'll be out there game one and showing the fans what we can do starting next season."

That's all well and good, but this was the risk you assumed when you put the fate of the franchise on two 30-somethings with extensive injury histories. While Morey never claimed to be surprised by the health woes, that he shouldn't have been surprised is its own commentary on the decisions his front office made last summer.

That he gave that quote is something that many could have and did see coming. It was reasonable justification to not put your hopes and dreams on George being the missing piece.

That's why Morey's attempt to trim the sample size on the basis of injuries is worthy of questioning. If you're going to justify data by blaming health when two of the variables are historically affected by health to begin with, what case  are you building here? Which data isn't an outlier then?

The biggest concern going forward should be whether George's inability to create separation off the dribble was a product of injuries or health.

"His fit here has always been elite defense, which I do think - and coach and I have been talking about it - he does deliver. And then he's very good when paired with players like Tyrese and Joel on offense," Morey said.

"I do think he was asked to do a lot of things where you put really anyone in that role and you're going to lose efficiency and things like that."

Heavy is the head that wears the $50 million crown. If George went out shooting tour dates on 20 shots per game, that would've been more acceptable than his reality was. The issue was just as much about George looking as though he was coasting through the season, unwilling to bend the game on offense, as it was about him being inefficient.

Not only did George's true shooting and effective field goal percentages dip, but his free throw rate was the worst of his career, too. That's linked to rim frequency, and George had the lowest volume of attempts at the hoop in his career, as well, per Cleaning The Glass.

That all paints an offensive player who simply could not create leverage off the bounce. Whether it was sharpness with ball-handling or burst with legs, the player simply could not manufacture driving lanes to get into the paint.

"Also, he was very low percentage on very open corner threes. Just stuff like that that will definitely bounce back. Sometimes, players go through that. I had Eric Gordon one year in Houston won the three-point contest and then shot 31 percent the next year," Morey said.

"But we all know he can shoot. We all know Paul can shoot. Of all the list of things coach and I are worried about, whether Tyrese can shoot or Paul can shoot are not on the list. But I do think, when we have our full compliment, Paul is a very positive force on offense."

There is truth in that statement. George shot just 34.5 percent on wide open threes this season, per NBA.com. That's probably the one facet of his offense that you would bet on bouncing back in blind faith.

But there is a misdiagnosis here. You can live with the problem being wide open threes. You can't live with the problem being contested midrange jumpers.

George took 7.4 two-point shots per game this season, according to tracking data on NBA.com: four were pull-ups outside of 10 feet, 2.6 came on 3-6 dribbles and 3.4 came with a defender within 2-4 feet of George.

That shot profile runs counter to everything you want in a modern wing.

And we can't possibly know whether that was caused by injuries or natural regression due to aging.

All we know is that we'll have a better sense of that the next time George takes the court in a Sixers uniform.