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The Philadelphia 76ers, one of the most promising in the NBA as a whole, have decided to promote Elton Brand as general manager of the team, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Brand had joined the Sixers front office a little over two years ago, just out of the court, for a time to lead the G-League team and most recently as vice-president of the basketball operations.
Now he's leading the show for a team of 51 wins with championship aspirations. It's a whole new world for him and the Sixers.
Woj reports that the Sixers have also promoted Alex Rucker, a former raptor analysis genius, who will now be the executive vice president of basketball operations. Ned Cohen, considered a rising star throughout the league, remains the Deputy Director General. Marc Eversley, once considered with Cohen as one of the top internal candidates for the position of General Manager, remains Senior Vice President of Player Personnel.
Have trouble understanding these titles and the organization chart? Join the club.
What is clear is that Brand was chosen to occupy the position of general manager with respect to Cohen and Eversley and that Rucker is under Brand and that coach Brett Brown, Acting Director General of the Bryan Colangelo's family in the front office. It's a bit of a mess.
But it is also a waste that upsets the current stasis of the Apple basket as little as possible. One of the risks faced by the Sixers in recruiting outside the franchise for a Colangelo replacement was to appeal to someone without strong relationships and no confidence with the front office personalities. Bringing in a new voice could destroy what Philadelphia had created – a collaborative, talented decision-making body. By promoting internally, you avoid that.
What you risk doing is sowing hurtful feelings when the former NBA star skips the candidates who were (in some way) superior to Brand before that decision. We know little about the personality of these executives and their personal relationships. Human nature suggests, however, that ambitious people like to be promoted to greater positions of power. Brand jumped at least on Cohen and Eversley here.
The other risk is Brand's lack of direct experience. He played basketball two and a half years ago. He was leading a League G team a year ago. Now he is the presumptive voice of power over Joel Embiid's workload, the timeline of Markelle Fultz, and any great exchange that builds on Philadelphia's key strengths for a quick infusion of talent.
The brand is intelligent and clearly inspires confidence in those who use it. But it's a heady climb for anyone.
Put it all together and Brand is both safe and risky. We have no idea how this will happen.
You can reverse the situation by noting of course that everything would have been a risk. The last general manager of the Sixers has immolated himself spectacularly in the period leading up to the biggest off-season of the last decade for the franchise. He, Colangelo, did this two years after the former general manager, Sam Hinkie, was essentially expelled with some pressure from the league office because his supply plan (signed by the owner!) Was also successful and controversial.
The management situation of the Sixers has been incredibly strange for years. There was no easy win to get it back on track once the senior executives the Sixers had chased out refused to get on board. Elevating Brand is a risk, but then no matter what would have been a risk.
As long as Brand, Eversley, Brown, Cohen and Rucker can work together in a friendly manner and as Brand learns quickly and gains comfort as a decision maker, and as long as the property does not interfere with daily operations, it could work. There is good evidence of collaboration between the main offices and the non-traditional main actors that are working well. Consider the warriors, who have entrusted Bob Myers – a former agent – with the responsibility of taking part in decision-making.
Imitating warriors is a tricky business because of their unique benefits (especially the one named Stephen Curry), but there is a precedent. There is also a precedent for a tremendous extinction. The future will probably be played somewhere in between.
And then, if there is a huge front-office extinction, the Sixers and their group of experts have great experience in handling them.
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