Tag: peter dinwiddie

Daryl Morey credits Elton Brand, rest of Sixers staff for draft night success

Philadelphia 76ers president Daryl Morey gives the credit to Elton Brand and his staff for the team’s big draft night on Wednesday.

Daryl Morey was brought in to be the President of Basketball Operations for the Philadelphia 76ers to try and turn this team around following a tough 2019-20 season. However, no one man can do it by himself. He has to have good staff around him in order to succeed.

Morey walked into a situation in Philadelphia where they needed to fix a lot of issues. They had to move off of Al Horford’s contract, they had to bring in some shooters to space the floor for Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid to operate, and they needed flexibility.

They achieved those goals on draft night on Wednesday.

“Extremely happy,” said Morey. “It’s important that the guys fit and the guys are here for multiple years. We’re big on developing and building through the draft. We have two young superstars in their prime and we want to put around them guys they can build with.”

Morey had some help from general manager Elton Brand as well as the other new additions to the front office, Peter Dinwiddie and Prosper Karangwa. It has been a wild offseason for the team so far with a front office overhaul in an abbreviated offseason. They all came together fairly quickly so they can make the moves they had to make in this 2020 draft to improve the team and they came away with great fits in Tyrese Maxey, Isaiah Joe, and Paul Reed along with the two big trades.

“I think it was great synergy,” Morey added. “Elton Brand and his team of Peter and Prosper [who] just joined, it was such a great team effort. Obviously, tons of prep goes into this to be ready for any scenario that comes up. We’re excited about the picks and the fit with the roster. You can’t say enough about Tyrese, Isaiah, and Paul. We’re thrilled with their selections.”

Morey was successful during his time with the Houston Rockets due to the fact that he had a good staff around him. He used those other guys in the building and he delegated responsibilities to them in order to keep them engaged.

Now, there are more Rockets executives around the league taking on bigger roles and Morey wants to do the same in Philadelphia.

“That’s a big priority for me,” he explained. “I think you see why there’s now five or six account executives from Houston on other teams, it’s because I push a lot of responsibility on them. If you got a good team, it’s really important to use them, make them excited and engaged. A big part of Elton and I working together and why he was excited for me to join is so I can learn from him and hopefully, he picks up some stuff from me. My goal will be in not too many years is there is a ton of 76ers executives around the league and I think it can really happen.”

The big thing Morey emphasized after the draft was that he did not want to come in and pretend that he knew all of the answers. He wasn’t in Philadelphia and he did not watch their games every night. Obviously, he was focused more on the Rockets and he referred more to Brand and the rest of the staff.

“One big thing that was important to me was to not come in and think I know,” he stated. “Honestly, if you watch a roster every day, every game, which I didn’t and Elton did, and Vince Rozman did along with their team, I listened a lot when I got here. I tried to just overlay some of the approach and technique, but if I came in and said ‘I have the answer’.”

The fact that a guy who has had the success that Morey has had can come in here and realize that he does not know this roster and willingly admit that is something that the team can build with. That shows leadership and it shows that he trusts his staff. This is a good start to the Morey era in Philadelphia. [lawrence-related id=39264,39261,39258]

Sixers hire Peter Dinwiddie, Prosper Karangwa, reassign Alex Rucker

The Philadelphia 76ers have brought in executives Peter Dinwiddie and Prosper Karangwa and they have reassigned Alex Rucker.

The changes that general manager Elton Brand promised after the Philadelphia 76ers were swept in Round 1 of the playoffs have come to fruition. The Sixers on Friday made some sweeping changes to their front office that should have a hand in their future basketball decisions.

The big hire is that the Sixers have brought on Peter Dinwiddie from the Indiana Pacers as the new Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations. He will replace Alex Rucker who previously served in the role within the organization. Rucker will remain with the franchise, but he will be reassigned to a new role.

The other hire is Prosper Karangwa as the team’s Vice President of Player Personnel. Both Dinwiddie and Karangwa have previous experience in the NBA and they could prove to be nice additions to the front office.

Dinwiddie comes over from the Indiana Pacers where he served in various capacities since 2006, most recently serving as its Vice President of Basketball Operations. Karangwa most recently served as the Director of Scouting for the Orlando Magic as their resumes prove to be the “basketball minds” that Brand was looking for after a very disappointing season on the floor.

Two experienced execs joining front office to ‘work with’ Elton Brand

The latest move might not necessarily indicate that there’s a lot of confidence in Elton Brand’s GM abilities.

The day after Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey abruptly stepped down from his post after 13 years, it appears that Elton Brand may have some company in the front office in Philadelphia.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer’s veteran scribe Keith Pompey, longtime executives Peter Dinwiddie and Prosper Karangwa will be joining the franchise to work with Brand in the front office.

Under normal circumstances, the presence of some experienced basketball minds changing addresses wouldn’t necessarily be earth-shattering news, however, there is a perception that Brand is on thin ice in Philadelphia. There are some who believe that many of his moves haven’t panned out and, whether true or not, Morey’s suddenly becoming a free agent will lead to speculation as to whether the franchise would be in better hands with him at the helm.

For those who wish to take the more cynical view of Brand’s future prospects, the additions of Dinwiddie and Karangwa could give the impression that Brand needed more experience around to ensure that there is an appropriate amount of foresight before Philadelphia made any franchise-altering moves, such as, say, trading Joel Embiid to the Warriors.

Coming off a humbling first-round sweep at the hands of their division rival Boston Celtics, the Sixers parted ways with Brett Brown and backed up the Brinks truck for Doc Rivers. It’s probably fair to say that all eyes will be on Brand.

At least now, he’s not alone. He’ll have Dinwiddie and Karangwa flanking him.

From the outside, however, it doesn’t exactly indicate that there is a tremendous amount of confidence in those currently employed in Philadelphia. Those obviously include Brand.