The Philadelphia 76ers are a franchise in transition as they look to move on from a disappointing 2019-20 season. The Sixers had championship expectations after coming so close the season before, but they were swept out of Round 1 by the Boston Celtics.
A season such as this one puts a lot of pressure on the organization to change things and to move forward. The Sixers did make a change at the head coaching position as they brought in Doc Rivers to replace Brett Brown, but some are calling for changes in the front office as well.
General manager Elton Brand is under a lot of heat at the moment due to the moves he made in the 2019 offseason. The team let Jimmy Butler and JJ Redick go in free agency and he replaced them with Al Horford and Josh Richardson. They are both fine players, but they did not mesh with the star duo of Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid.
Ever since the season ended, there have been reports that the Sixers had their eyes on Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Keith Pompey reported that the Sixers would “attempt to inquire” about Morey and there was another report that Philadelphia was looking into hiring a President of Basketball Operations as somebody above Brand so this could be another dot connector.
On top of that, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Morey was set to hire Rivers in Houston before Philadelphia hired him. With the news of Morey stepping down in Houston, it does seem as if he wanted to step down on his own so he can spend more time with his family, but now that he is free and he is available, that does put a little more pressure on Brand to step up and get the job done and bounce back from a rough season now that Morey is free from Houston. He may want to be with his family right now, but if he does get that itch to return, the Sixers could be there with a phone call.
All of this is purely speculation, but it should have Brand thinking that he does have to step up to the challenge in the 2020-21 season in order to save his job. It’s no secret that the team did not live up to their expectations this season and that falls on Brand a bit for the moves he made. Not bringing back Butler is fine, but then giving Horford $109 million compounds the problem. [lawrence-related id=38351,38347,38341]