- The Sixers are expected to begin interviews for their GM opening on Tuesday, tweets Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. They have received permission to talk with Larry Harris (Warriors), Gersson Rosas (Rockets), and Justin Zanik (Jazz), and all three are set to interview the week. Mike Sielski of the Inquirer is criticizing the team for keeping the position open for so long after Bryan Colangelo’s departure in June.
The Sixers have been granted permission to interview three candidates for their open general manager position, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. According to Wojnarowski, Larry Harris (Warriors), Gersson Rosas (Rockets), and Justin Zanik (Jazz) are among Philadelphia’s potential targets. Team ownership intends to start meeting with candidates next week, league sources tell ESPN.
An assistant GM and director of player personnel for the Warriors, Harris previously spent nearly two decades with the Bucks, serving as Milwaukee’s general manager from 2003 to 2008. He headed to Golden State for the 2008/09 season, initially serving as an assistant coach before moving to the team’s front office.
Rosas has spent the better part of two decades with the Rockets and is currently the executive vice president of basketball operations for the team. A close associate of general manager Daryl Morey, Rosas had a brief stint as the Mavericks’ general manager in 2013 but returned to Houston shortly thereafter. He was reportedly considered for front office openings in Charlotte and Detroit earlier this year.
Zanik, who held an assistant general manager position with the Jazz until 2016, left to join the Bucks at that time. Milwaukee appeared to be grooming Zanik as the eventual replacement for general manager John Hammond, but the club passed over him last summer following an unusual GM search, opting to promote Jon Horst instead. Zanik left the franchise in the wake of that decision, returning to Utah in his old assistant GM role.
Following the dismissal of Bryan Colangelo in Philadelphia, the Sixers initially targeted big-name NBA GMs and presidents like Morey, but have since cast a wider net, focusing more on executives who would view the Philadelphia job as a promotion rather than a lateral move.
Team owner Josh Harris recently said that the 76ers want to make sure they find a perfect fit, and would be content leaving their interim structure in place if necessary. Head coach Brett Brown is currently serving as the club’s interim president of basketball operations, though he has plenty of help in the front office — Ned Cohen, Marc Eversley, and Elton Brand were among those receiving promotions this week.
The Sixers have signed Anthony Brown to their offseason roster, according to RealGM’s log of official NBA transactions. It’s a one-year, minimum-salary pact with an Exhibit 10 clause, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). Philadelphia now has 19 players under contract.
Brown, a second-round pick in 2015, spent his first two NBA seasons with the Lakers, Pelicans, and Magic before signing a two-way contract with the Timberwolves last summer. The 6’7″ forward only appeared in one game for Minnesota, but had a strong year in the G League, averaging 18.9 PPG, 4.8 RPG, and 3.6 APG with a .459/.402/.797 shooting line in 45 contests for the Iowa Wolves.
Brown’s two-way deal with the Timberwolves expired earlier this summer, and the club moved on by signing Jared Terrell and C.J. Williams to fill its two-way slots, leaving the former Stanford standout on the lookout for a new team.
While Brown appears set to attend training camp with the 76ers, there’s no clear path to a spot on Philadelphia’s 15-man regular season roster. The club currently has 14 players on guaranteed contracts, with T.J. McConnell and his non-guaranteed salary seemingly penciled in for the 15th and final spot.
- The Sixers should have spent more time this summer pursuing young up-and-comers in executive roles around the league, rather than focusing on ‘elite GMs,’ Derek Bodner of The Athletic argues. Philadelphia’s GM search has dragged on for 11 weeks and now it reportedly will focus on candidates further down in their current team’s organizational chart. The Sixers should have been vetting those types of candidates much earlier, Bodner adds.
A total of 28 trades have been completed by NBA teams since the 2017/18 season ended, including a pair of three-way deals. The Sixers have been involved in a quarter of those swaps, completing seven deals during the 2018 offseason. While Philadelphia has been the most active team on the trade market, the Hornets aren’t far behind, having finalized five deals of their own.
[RELATED: 2018 NBA Offseason Trades]
It’s a little ironic that the Sixers have completed the most trades of any NBA team this summer, since Philadelphia is the only club without a permanent head of basketball operations in place. Head coach Brett Brown has served as the interim president of basketball ops since Bryan Colangelo was fired in June, but if there was any uncertainty about the structure of the team’s front office, it certainly didn’t impact the 76ers’ ability to make deals.
None of the Sixers’ trades was a blockbuster, but a few of them will have a noticeable impact on the team’s 2018/19 roster. Wilson Chandler and Mike Muscala were acquired in separate deals, while Philadelphia’s most interesting move saw the club trade Mikal Bridges for Zhaire Smith and a future unprotected first-round pick.
As for the Hornets, they also fired their general manager earlier this season, replacing Rich Cho with Mitch Kupchak. Given the new-look front office and a team salary that was hovering close to the tax line, it’s not as surprising that the Hornets have been active on the trade market over the last couple months. Kupchak’s most noteworthy moves involved Timofey Mozgov — the Hornets sent Dwight Howard to Brooklyn for a package that included Mozgov, then flipped him to the Magic in a three-way trade involving Bismack Biyombo.
Here are a few other notable details related to this offseason’s trades so far:
Teams that have made the most trades:
- Philadelphia 76ers: 7
- Charlotte Hornets: 5
- Atlanta Hawks: 4
- Brooklyn Nets: 4
- Dallas Mavericks: 4
- Los Angeles Clippers: 4
- Oklahoma City Thunder: 4
- Orlando Magic: 4
- Denver Nuggets: 3
- Phoenix Suns: 3
Teams that haven’t made a trade:
- Golden State Warriors
- Indiana Pacers
- Miami Heat
- Milwaukee Bucks
- Minnesota Timberwolves
- New Orleans Pelicans
- New York Knicks
Players that have been traded multiple times:
- Timofey Mozgov: Nets to Hornets to Magic.
- Darrell Arthur: Nuggets to Nets to Suns.
- Dakari Johnson: Thunder to Magic to Grizzlies.
- Rodney Purvis: Magic to Thunder to Celtics (waived by Celtics).
- Hamidou Diallo (draft rights): Nets to Hornets to Thunder.
- Maarty Leunen (draft rights): Clippers to Mavericks to Rockets.
- Renaldas Seibutis (draft rights): Mavericks to Clippers to Cavaliers.
Future first-round picks that have been traded:
- Mavericks‘ 2019 first-round pick to Hawks (top-five protected).
- Nuggets‘ 2019 first-round pick to Nets (top-12 protected).
- Raptors‘ 2019 first-round pick to Spurs (top-20 protected).
- Heat‘s 2021 first-round pick to Sixers (from Suns; unprotected).
- Thunder‘s 2022 first-round pick to Hawks (top-14 protected).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
- In addition to announcing several front office promotions today, the Sixers also indicated that assistant coach Kevin Young has been promoted to the front of the team’s bench this season. Jim O’Brien, formerly an assistant on Brett Brown‘s staff, will now serve as a senior advisor to the head coach, per the club. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski first reported the changes.
11:40am: The Sixers have issued a press release officially announcing the promotions noted below.
11:17am: While the Sixers are identifying new general manager candidates to meet and interview, the team hasn’t ruled out the possibility of leaving its interim front office structure in place to start the 2018/19 season, managing partner Josh Harris tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
“We prefer to find an elite talent who can lead us, but we aren’t going to compromise,” Harris said.
Sixers head coach Brett Brown has served as the team’s interim head of basketball operations since Bryan Colangelo‘s ouster in June, but several members of Philadelphia’s front office besides Brown have been very involved in personnel decisions during the offseason.
Those key voices include Ned Cohen, Marc Eversley, and Elton Brand, all of whom are receiving promotions, Wojnarowski reports. Cohen will become an assistant general manager, Eversley will be the senior VP of player personnel, and Brand will be named the VP of basketball operations. Alex Rucker will also receive a promotion, according to Wojnarowski, who says Rucker will become the 76ers’ senior VP of analytics and strategy.
According to Wojnarowski, after initially targeting top general managers around the NBA – such as Daryl Morey of the Rockets – the Sixers have been gathering information on up-and-coming candidates in recent weeks. In other words, the new pool of contenders figures to include execs who would be more readily willing to make the move to Philadelphia.
Reports have indicated that the Sixers aren’t necessarily looking for a new general manager who will make all the final decisions on his own, but rather a candidate who is willing to collaborate with those existing voices in the front office on personnel moves. While Harris would love to find that executive as soon as possible and doesn’t want Brown to hang onto the head of basketball operations title for the long term, he tells Wojnarowski that the club is very comfortable with the current management group.
“I think we have one of the best, if not the best, situation in the NBA – particularly for the leader of a front office,” Harris said. “We have great young players, lots of cap space and stable ownership willing to invest and spend in the team. We’re going to be patient and try to find the right person. The next year is going to be incredibly important for us, and we have a real desire to find the right person now – but if not, we are incredibly comfortable with the existing staff and we’ll move forward from there.”
As an ambassador for the Sixers, Hall of Famer Julius Erving is as aware and in touch with the state of the franchise as anybody. Dr. J spoke to reporters at a recent appearance and gave his candidate thoughts on Philadelphia’s young players and aspirations entering the 2018/19 season.
Marc Narducci of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes that Erving believes the Sixers could fall anywhere from the first to the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference.
“The team is not complete,” Erving said. “I think the team has the core, which is very important to have, and now you have to get the tentacles, you have to get the role players and then you have to get the surprise guys that are better than you thought they were.”
Erving also weighed in on the Sixers’ two top young guns: Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. Simmons, the reigning Rooke of the Year, does not have much of a mid-range game at this point and Erving stressed the need for him to improve in that area.
“I always thought you work on the skills you are weak in and you work also to improve the skills where you are strong and then you just try to be a consistent force night in and night out,” he said. “So with Ben’s shooting, mid-range, long-range, I am sure he has put a lot of time in practicing that.”
Finally, Erving spoke glowingly of Embiid’s on-court potential but said the first-time All-Star needs to be a stronger leader.
“Joel is really a guy who has shown no weakness from a skill standpoint, offensively or defensively, so I think he just has to be more of a leader, maybe more of a vocal leader and probably in terms of night in and night out, doing things with matchups on the court that would allow him to be a consistent force,” Erving said.
Check out more Atlantic Division notes below
- The Nets‘ G League affiliate, the Long Island Nets, will have a new head coach as Will Weaver is slated to take the reins. Net Income of Net Daily highlighted the new coach and what he will face coaching the team.
- The Celtics are expected to enter the upcoming season as one of the favorites – if not the favorite – in the Eastern Conference. However, Drew Maresca of Basketball Insiders writes that Boston could have a much tougher season than expected. The Celtics will rely heavily on Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward, two players returning from serious leg injuries. Also, the chemistry and playing time split between Terry Rozier, Jayson Tatum and others will be key.
- The Sixers are looking for a GM who won’t demand the final say on personnel moves, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Appearing on a podcast with Chris Mannix of Yahoo Sports, Pompey said the organization wants to keep the group dynamic in the front office that it’s had since getting rid of Bryan Colangelo in June.
The Knicks‘ new head coach, David Fizdale, has yet to coach a single game with the team, but he’s optimistic about the direction the organization is going. Fizdale spoke with NBC New York’s Bruce Beck and spoke glowingly of his relationship with Kristaps Porzingis and the team’s talent acquisitions in the NBA Draft (via the New York Post).
“It’s already happening,” Fizdale said about the Knicks’ franchise rebirth. “Kristaps will come back healthy. He was already having a big-time season last year when he got knocked down. We had an awesome draft with Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson and Allonzo Trier — our two-way player. Scott [Perry] and these guys are sticking to an awesome plan, bringing in guys maybe that didn’t work out at a place before but are high draft picks. [With] good player development, good culture, they can turn into something they were expected to be. We’re doing it the right way.”
Fizdale was hired to replace Jeff Hornacek, who was relieved of his duties after the season. After a tumultuous exit from the Grizzlies last season, Fizdale himself is seeking a fresh start in New York.
Check out more Atlantic Division notes below:
- Former NBA player Jimmy Jackson spoke to Marc Berman of the New York Post ahead of Big3 Finals on Friday about the Knicks’ selection of Kevin Knox. Jackson spoke highly of Knox and compared to him to one budding NBA superstar. “He’s a bigger version of Devin Booker,’’ Jackson said. “He’s got all the same skills but he’s taller.”
- The Celtics originally held the first overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft but decided to trade down. Boston still got their target in Jayson Tatum, who joked that Danny Ainge‘s decision cost him some money due to the NBA’s rookie scale. “I joke with Danny all the time, he should’ve just took me No. 1,” Tatum said on The Bill Simmons Podcast at The Ringer. “I could’ve kept a few dollars of my paycheck. Tell (Ainge), ‘You owe me some money.'”
- Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer appeared on Chris Mannix’s podcast at Yahoo Sports and discussed the Sixers‘ search for a general manager (via NBC Sports). Pompey said that Philadelphia’s search is focused on a person who will not necessarily have the final say on personnel decisions, but instead be part of a group decision. Pompey named David Heller – who worked with former GM Sam Hinkie and is part of the ownership group – as one voice in those collaborative decisions. Pompey has previously indicated the Sixers hope to hire someone who will be able to work together with other front office members to make decisions.