Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
‘Not a departure from a process’
Bryan Colangelo officially on board as final piece of 76ers’ front-office shakeup
PHILADELPHIA >> The Process is apparently alive and well, if you are to believe the 76ers’ newest president of basketball operations.
“I want to be very clear. This is not a departure from a process,” said Bryan Colangelo, who majority owner Josh Harris introduced Sunday in an afternoon press conference at Wells Fargo Center.
Colangelo said he does not expect widespread changes to the Sixers’ approach toward turning around a beleaguered franchise. (After all, as Harris put it, regurgitating a goto line of his, “There are no shortcuts to the top, only shortcuts to the middle.”) The Sixers, Colangelo said, will fill in the gaps of the roster using analytics and sport science, in conjunction with traditional basketball wisdom.
The 50-year-old Colangelo has been handed the reins to the Sixers’ future less than four days after his predecessor, general manager Sam Hinkie, walked away from the team when Harris was poised to again marginalize Hinkie’s frontoffice power.
Colangelo joins the Sixers just as his father, Jerry Colangelo, steps down as chairman of basketball ops. The elder Colangelo will transition into an advisory capacity for the Sixers.
Twice named NBA executive of the year, Bryan Colangelo had been unemployed since 2013. He started in the league with the Phoenix Suns, a franchise founded and owned by his father, and later spent 11 seasons as their general manager. From 2006-2013, he worked as president and general manager of the Toronto Raptors.
With the Sixers’ litany of available draft picks and salary cap space, Colangelo called his new gig “the best job in basketball.”
“This is moving forward with everything that has already been established, everything that is in place, and we’re going to be measured in our continued building of this organization,” he said. “With that, I’d just like to say that I’m excited and thrilled to be here. I think this is a wonderful opportunity, not just for me, but for everyone in this room, everyone in this city. It’s going to be an exciting process going forward. There’s a lot to aim for.”
That being said, Colangelo warned that he expects roster turnover during what he called “a summer of change.” With as many as four first-round choices in June’s draft, and close to $60 million in available salary cap space, Colangelo will assess who stays and who goes.
Clouding Colangelo’s introduction was Harris, who – despite his best attempts – could not avoid stumbling over himself.
He said the Sixers first considered hiring Colangelo back in January, less than a month after Jerry Colangelo had been hired. That’s a peculiar timeline, given that while Harris said the team interviewed “some, not many” candidates, the Sixers apparently have been telling seasonticket holders that the club had spoken with 70 candidates for the job.
“Bryan was head-andshoulders above every candidate,” said Harris, assuring that Jerry Colangelo recused himself from the interview process.
Later, Harris admitted that he could not see how Hinkie might have felt threatened by the hire of Jerry Colangelo, or what was (at the time) the proposed addition of Bryan Colangelo to a complementary role to his. Asked whether he pushed Hinkie out the door, Harris said, “It’s hard for me to speak for Sam. I think you should speak to Sam about that.
“We all agreed (that adding front-office executives) was a good thing. We couldn’t agree on how to do that, and specifically who the person was, so Sam decided to leave,” Harris added.
The owner also jabbed Hinkie for his decision to send a 13-page resignation letter Wednesday to the team’s ownership group. Harris called it “an unorthodox way” to call it quits, and said he had no idea how the letter ended up in the hands of national media.
Colangelo carried himself with poise and spoke responsibly in what had to be an awkward introduction to Philadelphia media. He appeared to say all of the right things — suggesting that Sixers coach Brett Brown “deserves a chance to see this through,” for example, and even mentioning that he’d spoken with Hinkie a night earlier and told Hinkie he regretted that the two would not work together within the Sixers’ front office.
Colangelo’s track record is spotty. He deserves credit for assembling the building blocks of Toronto’s Eastern Conference-contending team, having drafted DeMar DeRozan, Jonas Valanciunas, and Terrence Ross, and having traded for Kyle Lowry. But he also was behind the wheel when the Raptors regrettably squandered the No. 1 overall pick on bust Italian import Andrea Bargnani.
The Sixers will delve deeply into the free-agency waters, Colangelo said. And he plans to speak with Brown and the coaching staff to better assess the Sixers’ roster.
“You can only have so many developing players on your roster at a time, so there may be some decision to defer some of those to a future date, or may be a decision to package some of those things to acquire players that make sense and fit our strategy,” Colangelo said. “… It’s about putting a basketball team together.
“We’re really changing our focus toward winning. It’s part of a shift in culture, a mindset. I think Brett is excited about shifting that. … There’s going to be a much-greater likelihood that we win basketball games.”
With Hinkie out of the way, the task of accomplishing those benchmarks falls squarely on Colangelo. And precisely no one else.
Comeback forces OT, but Bucks finish it off in OT
PHILADELPHIA >> A bit of history: Heading into Game 80 of the 76ers’ defeat-heavy season, Ish Smith had dunked only seven times. Sunday, in the fourth quarter alone, the point guard threw down two.
The last of those righthanded jams from Smith gave the Sixers a sniff of hope, albeit a fleeting one.
Smith’s dunk awarded the Sixers their first lead of the game. They erased a sizable deficit and sent their meeting with Milwaukee to overtime, before falling to the Bucks, 109-108.
“What seems to really represent our season,” said Sixers coach Brett Brown, “is to get down by 18, with a team that’s got 10 wins, and still find enough motivation to throw punches and get back in it.”
The Bucks (33-47) scored six of the first eight points of the extra session, and fended off a furious push from the Sixers in the final seconds. Khris Middleton’s 36 points on 24 attempts and Jabari Parker’s 15 points led Milwaukee.
The Sixers (10-70) had three looks at the basket in the final seven seconds of overtime, and couldn’t get any of them to fall. They clanged two off the rim and had another swatted by Giannis Antetokuonmpo.
“In those situations, you just get to the spots you want to get to, rise up, and shoot it,” Smith said. “If I had to do it again, I’d give a little hesitation, because I had just shot one. … But you live with it.”
The Sixers closed out the home portion of their schedule with seven wins in 41 tries. They complete the third season of their lengthy rebuild with games Tuesday in Toronto and Wednesday in Chicago. Nerlens Noel logged 18 points and 13 rebounds for the Sixers, who are winless in four overtime tries. They picked up a team-best 22 points and eight assists from Smith.
...while Harris said the team interviewed “some, not many” candidates, the Sixers apparently have been telling season-ticket holders that the club had spoken with 70 candidates for the job.