CAMDEN, N.J. – On Monday morning, the doors of the Sixers’ practice facility opened – and the three people tasked with leading the organization into the future fielded questions.
It was an eventful day in Camden, as a month of speculation about how the Sixers would look in the aftermath of Daryl Morey’s ouster came to a head.
First, new President of Basketball Operations Mike Gansey was introduced. Then the person responsible for his hiring, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment President of Sports Bob Myers, talked about why Gansey was the right shot-caller moving forward. Then came Jameer Nelson, soon-to-be Sixers Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations, to discuss his anticipated promotion.
In this week’s 5 Sixers thoughts, a look at the noteworthy takeaways from a meaningful day:
“I just don’t look at it in two timelines”
The question on the minds of everyone interested in the future of the Sixers: will Gansey build the team with a focus on Joel Embiid, Paul George and the short-term goals that come with two decorated superstars, or will the attention turn to life after those players, centered around 25-year-old Tyrese Maxey and 20-year-old VJ Edgecombe.
Gansey rejected the premise of the question. He will work on both timelines – or, perhaps, he will work on no timeline. “I just got here,” he said at one point in his response to the big question. But time and time again throughout his 21 minutes at the podium, Gansey spoke to the importance of keeping both windows in mind.
“I don’t look at it as a timeline,” Gansey said. “We have those four, and we’ve got to maximize those four. Obviously VJ and Tyrese are younger, but Paul and Joel can still play at a high level. We were 24-14 when Joel played, and obviously in the playoffs coming back [against] Boston… We’ve got to rely on those four and obviously keep them on the floor and then just build around them.”
The glass-half-empty evaluation of this would be that if the Sixers are not specifically committed to short-term winning or long-term sustainability, neither will come to fruition. Optimists will suggest the right front office can chip away at both simultaneously. Myers, for what it’s worth, was involved in an infamous “two timelines” team-building approach with the Golden State Warriors which did not produce much in the form of bankable young talent, but did not stop the organization from capturing a fourth championship.
Nobody should read too much into the answers from a press conference in which Gansey deftly bobbed and weaved around saying anything too revealing about how he wants to lead this franchise. He was never going to, on his first day, abandon the team’s professed desire to compete for championships soon, or its goal to build a sustainable winner around Maxey and Edgecombe. But at no point did he drop any sorts of hints about which of those timelines might be more emphasized.
MORE: 2025-26 Sixers year-in-review
Fountains, not drains
Gansey’s answers about team-building, roster construction and pathways to improvement were mostly vague; he was much more expansive when talking about culture. On multiple occasions, he repeated a line about wanting “fountains, not drains,” and stressed the importance of everybody coming into work every day. With his family sitting in the front row to his right, he talked about how members of an NBA franchise see each other more than their own families. His son donned a Maxey jersey.
Gansey is resolute in fostering an environment which excites all of his new family members.
“I build relationships with everyone in the building, all the way from our star player to the janitor,” Gansey said. “I have an open-door policy. People [can] come to me [to ask] questions… It’s going to be a great environment to be in Philly. I’m big on having fountains, not drains in the building. I don’t want people sucking out the life of the building. I want people to get in the car in the morning, drive to the facility, like ‘I get to see my family.’ We’ve got to have a fun environment, and we are going to have a fun environment… We’re going to all be aligned, we’re all going to be collaborative, and we’re going to have a lot of fun working together.”
Empowerment of Nick Nurse, front-office holdovers
Back in 2011, Sixers head coach Nick Nurse was coaching the Select Team for the NBA G League, then known as the D League, in Las Vegas Summer League. Three players tied for a team-high 45 shot attempts across five games. One of those players: Mike Gansey.
“Nick actually made me look good,” said Gansey, an accomplished collegiate basketball player at St. Bonaventure’s and West Virginia who never played in the NBA. “He got me a nice deal in Spain the next year and ran a lot of ATOs for me.”
If there was one thing Gansey was truly emphatic in speaking about on Monday, it was Nurse. He repeatedly called him a “championship-level coach,” and as he fielded questions about how much influence Myers specifically would have in the Sixers’ decision-making process, he volunteered the notion that Nurse will have plenty of say there, too.
A major part of his job as general manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Gansey said, was working closely with head coach Kenny Atkinson. He used some version of the word “alignment” seven different times during the press conference, and many times it was in reference to Nurse specifically.
Moreover, Gansey raved about the current front-office structure in Philadelphia, from Nelson to assistant general manager Prosper Karangwa. Ned Cohen and Ariana Andonian, perhaps the two lieutenants of Morey’s without cemented futures, sat in the second row in front of Gansey as he spoke glowingly about the staff that currently exists. Time will tell whether or not Gansey makes any external hires, but it does not sound like the incumbent front office will be overhauled.
MORE: How Morey’s tenure reached its end after six chaotic seasons
“We’ve got to find an identity. We just don’t have one.”
“That’s maybe a harsh thing to say,” Myers said after uttering the phrase above, “but look at the numbers: we were not elite offensively or defensively.”
Myers was much more stern in discussing the state of the current Sixers on Monday than he was when he spoke to reporters last month. He was right to do so. Perhaps, after a second-round sweep at the hands of a New York Knicks team leading the Spurs in the 2026 NBA Finals, the new group of Sixers decision-makers was wise not to express optimism that the current iteration of this team is good enough to seriously compete.
“They got swept in the second round, so it’s not a championship-caliber team right now,” Gansey said, “but we’re going to work on this… We’ve got a great staff here and we’re going to do everything we can to get the best players in here to help us get to the mountaintop.”
Given the top-heavy makeup of the Sixers’ cap sheet – Gansey and Myers both acknowledged the challenges that come with accumulating depth behind three max players in today’s salary cap environment – it seems unlikely that major changes will come for a roster which was clearly insufficient relative to the best in the league. How then, with Nurse returning for a fourth season, will the Sixers reach that point? Myers believes it will start with identifying a specific identity.
“If you’re going to win at the highest level, you’ve got to be great at something,” Myers said. “We have the capabilities, I think, and we have the players and some of the talent. But in order to see what we are, we’ve got to be on the floor… We’ve got to figure out: what are we? What can we stand on as a team? Some teams stand on both… but we’ve got to be great at one of them, at least, and we’ve got to find out which one of those it is. And to get there we’ve got to have guys on the floor.”
Hometown hero
Within his remarks about the Sixers’ preexisting front office, Gansey said a “sticking point” for him as he discussed this job was wanting Nelson as his second-in-line executive. He has his wish – and Myers was happy to oblige, in part due to Nelson’s local roots. The veteran of 14 NBA seasons clarified on Monday that he is a Chester native, but joked that Philadelphia “adopted” him. He continually referred to himself as a “Sixers fan” throughout his availability Monday.
“I think it’s important that somebody from this community is in a leadership role with this team,” Myers said. “Not being from here, you can recognize the importance of connecting to the community and the families, and Jameer has that. And he has that equity. And he has that with our players, in the community.”
Nelson, who called it a “surreal moment” to be put in this position after climbing the organizational ladder for six years, credited Morey and Elton Brand for empowering him early on in his career as an executive. He always thought his post-playing career would come in the form of coaching, Nelson said, but he has come to learn there are many similarities between coaching and front-office work.
Most of all, Nelson is grateful for his post-playing career to have blossomed in Philadelphia. It mattered most to him that he was home with his family. His favorite players of all time, he said, are two former Sixers – Charles Barkley and Allen Iverson – plus local legend Kobe Bryant.
“In the past, I’ve had opportunities other places,” Nelson said. “I want to be part of the solution here.”
MORE: What should Gansey’s Plan A for 2026 offseason be?
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