The Philadelphia 76ers are still picking up the pieces after an embarrassing sweep in Round 1 of the playoffs at the hands of the rival Boston Celtics. This is going to trigger a lot of change as the franchise gets set to move forward and they already made a change at head coach firing Brett Brown.
The changes won’t stop there though, general manager Elton Brand is looking at the front office as well. He would look to bolster the front office and get what he called, more basketball minds into the building.
“Since I’ve taken a deep dive on where we failed, what went wrong, and how we get better, I felt like we need to strengthen our organization from top to bottom and that starts with the front office,” explained Brand on Tuesday. “Balancing our strengths with analytics and strategy with more basketball minds.”
Brand declines to list a specific example for how wide and what the front office changes will be, but does use one example briefly: “Balancing our strengths with analytics and strategy with more basketball minds, or whatever happens.”
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There is a line of thinking out there that Brand is referring to guys such as Alex Rucker and Ned Cohen who were holdovers from the Bryan Colangelo era, but Brand did not specify who he was talking about.
“I’ll do a thorough assessment of our front office,” said Brand. “I don’t want to pinpoint Alex as a scapegoat or anything like that. Our group has to get stronger, we know that so I’m taking time to assess where we are and how we get better. We failed and we’re not happy about it. Actually, pissed about it.”
Philadelphia is a team that has relied on more strategy points and analytics instead of traditional basketball thinking. The point that Brand wants to make is to bring more basketball minds into the building and on the staff in an effort to improve the team’s fortunes.
“I’ll take a hard look at it and assess where we need to go,” he stated. “A lot of people know we’re strong from a strategic and analytic standpoint, we’ll get some more basketball minds in here, but all options are open. We’re just looking at ways to improve our team and improve our chances and if I’m a part of that, that’s what’s going to happen.”
To that point, there is a question of who will lead the coaching search. Brand already laid out the team’s preferences for a new coach, but he made it perfectly clear that he will be the one leading the search and making recommendations to the managing group of Josh Harris and David Blitzer. This will not be a group effort.
“To be clear and frank, we feel that the collaboration days did not work too well so I will be leading the search,” Brand stated. “I’ll make the recommendation to Josh and David, of course. I feel like I’ve grown as a leader, I’ve grown as a general manager. I was put in the fire, had some tough decisions to be a part of, but I’m looking forward to putting my stamp on this thing, and take full accountability for whatever happens next.”
There is no doubt that the team failed. When a team has two bright talents such as Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid and then a good supporting cast such as Tobias Harris and Al Horford around them, and then they get swept in Round 1, that’s a failed season. The challenge now is to respond in the right way and grow as a franchise.
“My job is to fix our failures, that’s what I’m working on now,” Brand continued. “We’ve had some candid conversations, but the options are open. Whatever the talent is that’s going to come fix this, we’re going to do the right thing for the organization. We’re not going to skip any steps to better this organization regardless of who that is and how that plays out.”
Brand is not free from the blame from the 2019-20 failures. He was the one who gave Harris and Horford those big contracts, but he is also still learning on the fly. This is a guy the Sixers plucked from their G League affiliate, the Delaware Blue Coats, and handed him the general manager job. He has grown a lot and now is the time for him to put those experiences to work as he faced a huge challenge.
“I was a rookie thrust into a position to lead a team with championship aspirations that the fan base had sacrificed and struggled for some years,” he explained. “My understanding of the game grew and how to manage and how to lead grew, I admit that I didn’t know a lot, but now I do know a lot more and I’ve been through almost every situation there is so I’m looking forward to leading this offseason and figuring out how to get us back on the right path.”
This is a big challenge for any general manager let alone who is still relatively inexperienced general manager like Brand. He has made some bold moves and he has been through a lot, but he has still only been on the job for two years. It is understandable if anybody wants to question him, but he feels confident in his abilities to lead the team into the future.
“I think my unique insight into relationships with the players, what the needs are, what this organization needs, and how I’ve grown over the years, I will be one of the people,” he added. “We’re going to try and bolster our talent in the front office. We’re going to bolster our talent with coaching and we’re just going to get all-around better. With the unique situation, I’ve been put in over these last few years, positions me to lead this going forward.”
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