The Sixers are conducting interviews this week in hopes of finding a new general manager and will reportedly talk to four more candidates for the vacant position.
Shams Charania of The Athletic reported on Thursday that the team plans to interview internal front-office executives Elton Brand, Marc Eversley, Ned Cohen, and Alex Rucker next week.
Last week, the Sixers made an announcement that they promoted all four team executives to different positions within the basketball operations department. Brand, who is the GM of the Sixers’ NBA G-League affiliate (Delaware Blue Coats), was named the Vice President of Basketball Operations.
Cohen, however, used to be the team’s VP of basketball operations, but will now serve as the Assistant GM. He joined the Sixers in May 2016, after working 12 years in the NBA league office.
Eversley is going into his third season with the Sixers and was named to the role of senior VP of player personnel. Before taking a role with Philadelphia, he spent time with both the Toronto Raptors and Washington Wizards.
Under his new title, Eversley will be responsible for trying to acquire and retain elite NBA players, along with overseeing player personnel and talent evaluation.
Last but not least, Rucker was given the title of senior VP of analytics and strategy and has been with the organization since 2016.
It does not come as a surprise to see the Sixers interview all four guys, especially since they’ve all played an integral role in the team’s moves this offseason. However, Brand and Cohen seem like the best candidates just based on experience.
The Sixers have seen Brand’s talent evaluation up close for over a year with Delaware, while Cohen has been involved with the league for many years and done Brand’s job already.
As previously mentioned, the Sixers are reportedly interviewing external candidates Larry Harris, Justin Vanik, and Gersson Rosas this week.
Sixers managing partner Josh Harris spoke with ESPN recently about their mindset heading into these interviews for the GM vacancy.
“For us, we need someone to add real value, which includes looking at young, up-and-coming basketball executives and non-traditional candidates.”
“We’re going to have a pretty selective list,” Harris explained. “This is not going to be a huge tournament. We’re going to talk to some people who aren’t sitting GMs who could add value to our situation.”
The key thing to take from Harris’ statements is that the Sixers are looking for someone who is going to add real value. All of these candidates should fill that checkbox based on their experiences and backgrounds.
With that being said, the Sixers will not rush this process as Harris also mentioned that they are fine with keeping the current front-office situation together for the 2018-19 season. Philadelphia has this collaborative decision-making process going on in the front office with head coach Brett Brown serving as the team’s interim GM.
However, having that type of mindset, reportedly ended up hurting the Sixers in their GM search.
According to Keith Pompey of Philly.com, the Sixers interviewed former Cleveland Cavaliers general manager David Griffin this summer, but felt like he was not the right person for the job due to their current front-office structure.
Pompey also added in his report that the Sixers do not want a GM who will have the final say.
It should be interesting to see how this ultimately plays out for the Sixers as they are toeing a thin line. While it is nice to have multiple parties involved in various player personnel decisions, you need someone who will make the final call. That person cannot be the head coach.
