After taking the bold step to axe team president Daryl Morey, the Philadelphia 76ers seem to not be finished implementing major changes to their front office structure. This time around, recent rumblings points to their current general manager, Elton Brand, vacating his post –– signaling that the franchise is not joking around up top.
As first broken by longtime NBA analyst Marc Stein (subscription required), there are suggestions from within the franchise that Brand, who has served as the team's GM for nearly eight years or since September 2018, will be offered a new role in the organization. Simply put, a role realignment is on the horizon, which means that the 76ers are going for a complete facelift in their panel of lead decision-makers.
This coming offseason will be yet another pivotal one for Philly. While landscape-altering changes are not expected given the intricate contract situations they are dealing with, the front office has the opportunity to go for a major roster turnover, at least on the margins. There is also the draft coming up, which will undoubtedly set the tone for the team this summer. For those reasons, installing a new GM becomes all the more intriguing.
The 76ers seem set to replace Elton Brand as general manager
Brand predated Daryl Morey, who only step foot in Philly in 2020. At that juncture, the former has already been serving as 76ers GM for a couple of years. Be that as it may, Morey's foray into the 76ers overshadowed him a lot as most decisions were credited to the longtime executive. Brand's MO was since described as being more predisposed to be "behind the scenes".
Make no mistake, though –– Brand is his own person. Even before Morey got hired by the 76ers, he had already made his mark with some bold moves. He orchestrated the trades that brought in Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris during the 2018-19 campaign, although he was also responsible for the frowned-upon decisions to extend Harris to that albatross deal and ink Al Horford to a multi-year deal.
Brand spent five years in Philly as a player and eight years as an executive, so he certainly carries a great deal of gravitas. As such, he is unlikely to get booted out, although his looming re-assignment is basically a way for the 76ers to say that they are moving on from the dynamic he has implemented.
All in all, it only makes sense for the 76ers to pursue a change in the GM position. After all, there is way too prominent of a nexus between Daryl Morey and Elton Brand, and with the former now gone, the best thing to do for the latter is to do the same, albeit in a more modulated manner.
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