No squinting required just yet.
Mike Gansey has left his first imprint as president of basketball operations for the Philadelphia 76ers, selecting Alabama guard Labaron Philon Jr. at No. 22 overall in the 2026 draft. At least, as much of an imprint as he could. As someone who was hired just a few weeks before the draft, Gansey gave a lot of credit to Jameer Nelson, Prosper Karangwa and Kevin Owens for their scouting.
“Obviously, I got this job [in] early June, so they were doing all the heavy lifting
at the combine, all of May. Even when I got here, I tried to like, fit in a little bit,” said Gansey. “They had a process, they were going through it, obviously, I had my input in there, but they did an incredible job.”
Much like his level of involvement, Gansey’s explanation of his process for the Philon pick felt refreshingly honest.
“It was a combination. He was the highest guy on our board at 22 and we had him higher than that,” Gansey said, explaining the decision between best player available vs. fit. “You look at our roster, we need help at every position, one through five. Obviously we have the Big 4, but we need guys outside of them, and I think he fits.”
It certainly helps that Gansey didn’t acquire that Big 4 of Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Paul George and Joel Embiid, and thus doesn’t feel as tied to their success. Still, it feels like a nice change of pace to hear the front office say that there’s still a lot of work to be done.
“You look at our depth chart, we kind of ned help at every position. Labaron, we had high on our board, and he just happened to be a point guard,” said Gansey. “If we had the same guy as high on the board that was a wing or a big we would have taken him.”
Even the way Gansey aggressively talked about trading back into the second round felt like a notable change from previous regimes. That’s not to say that front offices of the past weren’t exhaustive in their roster construction, but it’s nice to hear Gansey talk about the bottom of the roster too.
“We’ll obviously look at who’s still left on the board, obviously we don’t have a pick now but where we can get in? Who do we want to target? Is it three guys? Is it five guys? Is it six guys?” he said. “And then [it’s] trying to be aggressive. We’re always going to make calls and try to turn over every stone and see what’s out there. We have roster spots, we have playing time.”
Since he admitted the team is not a championship-caliber team at his opening press conference, Gansey has been frank about where this roster is and how much more they need to add. Leveling with the fanbase as opposed to asking them to see his vision is what’s needed to rebuild the trust between them and the organization.
Of course, Gansey isn’t going to give it all away in a press conference. He was carefully non-committal when addressing how the Philon pick impacts the free agency status of Quentin Grimes and Kelly Oubre Jr.
“This doesn’t change it. Obviously, I wasn’t here with Quentin, but I’ve heard a lot great things and we’ve been in contact with his representation as well as Kelly’s,” Gansey said. “They’re two guys we hopefully bring back, but you never know with free agency.”
Of course, this is a lot of talk Gansey will have to back up. The decision to trade back into the second round or not will be the first step. Either way, the desire to build an identity for this team paired with a no-stone-unturned approach is the type of new messaging from the front office that was sorely needed. Now it’s time to see how much success on the court will follow that.
