Should Bryan Colangelo Hire a General Manager?

Bryan Colangelo’s recent struggles from a managerial standpoint show he should hire a Philadelphia 76ers general manager underneath him.

Philadelphia 76ers President and General Manager Bryan Colangelo has always been known as the type of executive that handles things like player deals, trades, free agency, and the draft. But with the recent failures he has had regarding making trades of significant value, and waiting to long and overvaluing his players, perhaps he should think about hiring a general manager underneath him to take off some of the stress.

There’s a few reasons that this would make sense, and some reasons for it to not make sense. Ultimately, the need for power that Colangelo has, and the perception from the public it would have if he gave up some of his executive power would be reasons for Colangelo to not hire anyone underneath him. Still, a shakeup in the current structure seems warranted, and would take some pressure off of the one-man circus that is Bryan Colangelo moving forward.

If he were to hire someone else, the hire would need to be clear that Colangelo is not relinquishing any power to the person hired, but rather, sharing responsibilities.

As it stands, the executive powers are held solely by Bryan Colangelo. That’s why you will often see him referred to as “President of Basketball Operations” as well as “General Manager.” He holds the title of both, and plays the role of both within the Sixers organization.

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As far as what those roles mean, it’s hard to define within the Sixers organization since there is no fine line created between two different people. Since the power is vested in one person, we can’t really say what Colangelo does when he’s president and what he does when he’s manager. It’s one uniform job to the organization right now.

The definitions around the league of the two positions are arbitrary as well. This thread from /r/nba on Reddit basically boiled down the “president vs general manager” debate as: It varies from team to team, and sometimes is not clear.

With the Sixers, though, here’s how things likely would work between a president and a general manager, if there were two people (note that this is speculation, and the inside workings of the Sixers organization could very well vary greatly from this):

President

Heads up press conferences and explains roster moves and team announcements to the press (once in a while).
Handles day-to-day operations of team from a business perspective (overseeing things like ticket sales and public relations, likely working close with the advertising and sales team).
Works as one would assume an executive of a large company would. In plenty of meetings and less concerned about the little things and things that have to do with other teams. View is broad and concerned about the future of the team from a money-making side.
Has final say and still oversees all roster moves, especially when it comes to free agency, the NBA Draft, and larger trades.

General manager

Talks to the press regularly about happenings within the organization and with the roster.
Manages hiring and firing of coaching staff.
Manages free agency in the summer.
Heads up the NBA Draft efforts of the team.
Orchestrates possible trades with other teams around the NBA.
Negotiates contracts with players that team wishes to keep around.
Is removed from the money-making side of things, and isn’t concerned about the financial well-being of the Sixers as an organization. Wants to keep team successful and see to it that they are primed for success over the next several years.

The pros

The benefits to having one person in each of these positions are clear. For one, you don’t have one person with too much on their plate. That’s a huge bonus with a team that is as intricate as the Sixers.

Additionally, it separates the motivation for making win-now moves that sacrifice the long-term success of the Sixers prematurely because the general manager is not caught up in the money-making side of the business.

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Finally, it solves the issue as well of Bryan Colangelo seemingly not having time to talk to the media. He has said from the start that he will speak to the media often, and has not done that. With a general manager not as caught up in business aspects like a president would be, they should be able to speak to the media often.

The cons

Still, there are some downfalls. For instance, Colangelo has been, since he has made his name as an executive in the NBA, an executive that has tackled things like free agency, the draft, and player signings. He has acted as more of a general manager than a president most of the time, even though he has often held the roles of both.

That said, I don’t think Colangelo fits in as a president. If the team were to do a two-headed approach, then I think they would be more likely to bring in a president over Colangelo as the GM, which would be an even more of an apparent demotion for Colangelo.

If this were to happen, the ownership would have to lose faith in Colangelo’s ability to run both positions, something I don’t see majority owner Josh Harris doing anytime soon.

Where does Scott O’Neil fit into all of this?

Scott O’Neil, the team’s current CEO, does a lot of the things that a team president might be expected to do. One might even explain the makeup of the Sixers executive team as Colangelo holding the President and General Manager title in name, but doing manager duties, and O’Neil serving as the “president” with the title of CEO.

Again, very confusing.

The way it comes off to me, O’Neil handles a lot of the business side of things, and doesn’t intervene with matters that have to do with player contracts, roster building, and the things Colangelo handles. Sure, the two talk and their plans may coincide at some instances, but that’s beside the point.

O’Neil rarely talks to the media because a lot of what he deals with is of a business nature. If the team were to hire a second person in the president or general manager role, it would render O’Neil somewhat useless, despite his intelligence on all things business.

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It should happen, but it won’t.

In all reality, Colangelo clearly is not doing the best he could be at being a general manager. One of the most frustrating things is that he seems to be okay with that, and he seems to think his shortcomings as a GM are justified.

During his Friday press conference, he said that Noel was, “already basically an RFA when I came in,” (quote transcribed from CSNPhilly.com‘s stream of the press conference) which is far from the truth. When Colangelo came in, Noel had a year before he became a restricted free agent. There was time to get a good deal done, and Colangelo couldn’t do it.

Maybe it’s time to recognize that the team is not reaching their full potential with Colangelo doing the work of two people.