PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Give Mike Gansey a pinch of credit for his acknowledgment of the most obvious part of the condition of the franchise as he takes over — kind of, sort of — the 76ers.
“It’s not a championship caliber team right now,” Gansey said.
Gansey is already at work as Philadelphia’s latest president of basketball operations, trying to find ways to raise the team to a championship level, while deeply hindered by near-untradeable, unwanted contracts
tied to aging and unreliable Joel Embiid and Paul George.
Can the Sixers still expect to win a title with Embiid and George on the roster while also trying to build around Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe as the long-term centerpieces for any kind of championship future?
Gansey had few hard solutions — “I just got here,” he noted — at his first press conference Monday at the 76ers’ complex in New Jersey. He certainly can’t solve all that ails the Sixers on Day 1. Those obstacles include closing the gap on the soaring New York Knicks, and getting into the NBA Finals, a task that seems unlikely to be accomplished with Embiid and George on the roster.
The 43-year-old Gansey, a Northeast Ohio native, who played collegiately at West Virginia, was hired last week to replace Daryl Morey. Morey was fired last month after the 76ers were eliminated in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The 76ers were easily ousted by the New York Knicks to end Morey’s sixth season in charge, and the organization quickly decided that someone else would lead the basketball operations department.
Enter Gansey.
Gansey joined the Cavaliers in 2011 and had worked as their general manager since 2022 and will lead a bit of revamped front office. Jameer Nelson, the 2004 AP Player of the Year at nearby Saint Joseph’s, was promoted to general manager and replaced former Sixer Elton Brand.
They will report to former Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers, president of sports for Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, which owns the 76ers.
Myers has his own questions about the franchise.
“We have to become great at something, right?” he asked.
Which raises a more pressing question.
Gansey called Myers a “cheat code” to help him in the front office of a franchise that hasn’t advanced past the second round in the East since 2001 or won an NBA title since 1983.
“It’s just like every front office; you’ve got him, he’s an extension of ownership with Josh (Harrs) essentially,” Gansey said. “Any recommendations, any ideas, we’re going to go through them. We’re going to be in alignment throughout the whole organization, Nick Nurse included.”
Gansey said getting Nelson as his GM was a “bit of a sticking point” before he took the job and championed inheriting Nurse for at least one more season on the bench.
Myers said his main goal is to “just be supportive for Mike and the whole staff.”
Uh huh.
Myers was with Golden State for 12 seasons, getting promoted quickly to general manager and eventually being given the title of president as well. The Warriors won four NBA titles in his time there.
When it comes time to make a final decision on a major trade or signing a free agent, it strains all credibility to suggest Myers won’t have a major, major say in making the call.
How does this franchise ever win a championship as long as it’s tethered to an aging, fragile and overpriced anchor in Embiid? The 32-year-old Embiid's three-year, $187 million extension kicks in this season while George is owed more than $110 million over the final two years of his free-agent deal.
Gansey was evasive on Embiid's future — much like he was when a similar question was posed that asked about his part in bringing a washed James Harden to Cleveland — but noted he already had “good conversations” with the two-time NBA scoring champion.
“With him and the roster we have,” Gansey said, “that’s who we have. We’ve got to get those guys on the floor. We’ve got to create an identity. Just get them to play basketball.”
Embiid has played only 96 of 246 regular-season games over the last three seasons.
“We’ve got to find an identity,” Myers said. “I mean, that’s maybe a harsh thing to say. But look at the numbers. We were not elite offensively or defensively. If you’re going to win at the highest level, you’ve got to be great at something.”
The only way to get great, Myers said, is to have a team's best players on the court.
Or, player.
Embiid.
“The good news is this,” Myers said. “There’s no scheduled surgeries this summer. There’s no injury going into the offseason. In the past, there has been that. This is an opportunity to get better, not to play catch-up for Joel, but to actually get better and build on last year. And with that, the hope's that he can be on the floor a lot more.”
The 76ers have the 22nd pick of the June 23 draft, a recent strong suit of the franchise after years of high-profile misses that curtailed the path toward contention.
“We’ve got to hit on that,” Gansey said.
“I want fountains not drains.” — Gansey’s way of saying he wanted high-character players with a desire to play in Philadelphia.
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