Philadelphia 76ers: Grading Elton Brand’s full first year as GM

It’s been around a year since the Philadelphia 76ers hired one of their former players to take over the role of general manager.

Sept. 20th, 2019 marked a full year that the Philadelphia 76ers front office has operated under general manager (GM) Elton Brand. With a year passed and the new season just lingering around the corner, it seems only appropriated that all of the moves that Brand made in his first year as GM should be graded.

Brand was hired after the infamous end of former president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo. Prior to his hiring, Brand was a seasoned veteran who played for 16 seasons in the NBA, including a handful of those with the Sixers. After he retired from the NBA, he soon found his way into the Sixers front office and then became the GM of Philly’s G-League affiliate, the then Delaware 87ers. The 76ers G-League affiliate was since rebranded as the Delaware Blue Coats.

It should be noted, changes to the coaching staff, front office and G-League assignments won’t be included in this grades. Transactions will be broken up by which months they occurred in with exception to the draft and trades that happened as a result of the draft. The grading begins from September, 2018 to September, 2019.

September, 2018

Signed Emeka Okafor: Grade C+

The move was to bolster to the training camp roster, so in that regard this move was a solid one. Okafor was familar with the Sixers due to the fact he played with the Delaware 87ers the previous season. The 76ers had suspect depth at the center spot entering the year, so having him in training camp roster made sense.