What Can Ned Cohen do With Philadelphia 76ers?

What can newly hired Ned Cohen do for the Philadelphia 76ers?

According to several reports on Thursday afternoon, newly hired President of the Philadelphia 76ers Bryan Colangelo has made his first significant moves as the leader of the team. Although the draft is still months away, as is free agency, Colangelo is clearly working to make his presence known, and working to get things going for this team.

Colangelo hired Marc Eversley as Vice President of Player Personnel and Ned Cohen as Associate Vice President and Chief of Staff.

Cohen has had some serious success in the NBA thus far. According to people who work closely with Ned, he’s an endless worker and will not cut corners with the team. Zach Lowe called him “brilliant,” and a source told Tom Moore that he has a “great reputation around the NBA.”

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Cohen most recently worked as Associate Vice President of the NBA (held this position since 2004) and had, “specific focus on competitive matters,” according to Brian Seltzer. He also contributed to NBA events such as the All-Star game. The All-Star game and weekend as a whole has been a major success for the league since 2004, and I am led to believe that Cohen is a smart individual who will have a lot of ideas for pushing the progress of the team forward. I think he will contribute positively in any manner that he possibly can.

Moving forward, however, it’s hard to tell exactly what type of role a “Chief of Staff” will play with the team.

Cohen will join the team in June, which leads many to believe he will be leading the team in its efforts in the draft. This is huge, because this year’s draft dictates a lot about the Sixers’ future. Jake Fischer pointed to the fact that Bryan Colangelo — who has just recently picked up his current job — has not been scouting draft talent all year, and Cohen could help form the Sixers’ draft plan.

Many expected Cohen to pick up a job as a general manager of a team, possibly with the Brooklyn Nets this offseason, so it was pretty significant for the Sixers to snag him.

Although Cohen didn’t pick up a position quite as prestigious as Colangelo did, I believe he may take over with the team as general manager, with Colangelo still above him as president of the team. He’s been around the NBA for over a decade, and likely has some solid connections that can add to Colangelo’s already large amount of connections.

The only thing I see stopping him from taking over completely as general manager is the fact that the Sixers also announced a promotion for Brandon Williams, who is the general manager of the Delaware 87ers. Williams has notable accomplishments with the 87ers, including signing NBA veteran Baron Davis to a deal this season.

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All in all, Ned may be a jack-of-all trades addition to the front office, but he’s certainly not a “master of none.” He is skilled in several areas, and Colangelo has already said that he will be able to “manage high-level issues.” He could take on a general manger type role, and he will definitely play a huge role in future team acquisitions.