CAMDEN, N.J. — New Philadelphia 76ers President of Basketball Operations Mike Gansey entered the team’s practice facility in Camden, NJ with his family beside him as he takes on a new challenge in his career. The former GM of the Cleveland Cavaliers will now be running his own basketball operations department as he looks to lead the Sixers to new heights.
After 14 years with the Cavaliers, Gansey is now ready to take on a new and much bigger role in Philadelphia than he had with Cleveland. It comes with new challenges, including figuring out what to do with the roster around Joel Embiid, Paul George, Tyrese Maxey, and VJ Edgecombe, but Gansey feels like he is ready for what comes next.
“I don’t like talking about myself, but I just feel like I can lead, you know?” said Gansey on Monday. “I can lead a group of people. There’s going to be alignment throughout the building. I’m going to be very collaborative with the head coach. I mean, me and Nick (Nurse) are going to be attached to the hip. Every decision we make, Nick’s gonna be involved, and obviously, up to ownership, and obviously, the group that we have and that we retained is really, really exciting, and we got really good players. Like, we got some young players, we got some vets that can really play, so I’m just excited to get this thing started.”
Alignment was a word tossed around a lot during Gansey’s presser. He and Nurse, along with Bob Myers, will be looking to get the Sixers over the hump and have enough to go deep into the playoffs. The Sixers have not reached the Eastern Conference finals since 2001 mostly due to the fact that Embiid and George have not been able to stay on the floor and help the Sixers get to where they want to go.
One has to wonder what comes next now for this group. Embiid, 32, can still play at a high level, but he is also missing a ton of time due to a variety of issues and a 3-year $193 million extension kicks in now. George, in a similar position with the games missed, has two years left on his deal at 36 years old. With the rise of Maxey, 25, and Edgecombe, 20, one has to wonder if this is a shift in timelines for Gansey and Co.
“I don’t look at it as a timeline,” Gansey said. “I just look at like we have those four and we 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 and 14 when Joel played, and obviously the playoffs coming back from Boston. Like, we gotta rely on those four, and obviously keep on the floor, and then just build around them.”
Mike Gansey is here #Sixerspic.twitter.com/VsuQnDWCFg
— Ky Carlin (@Ky_Carlin) June 8, 2026
To Gansey’s point, the Sixers were able to win games when they had their guys out there. Both players were big parts of the 3-1 comeback against the Celtics in Round 1. Unfortunately, Embiid and George have missed so much time in the past. It’s not feasible to really count on either guy to lead them to where they want to go in the coming season when considering Embiid hasn’t played in 40 games in a season since the 2022-23 season and George has played a combined 78 games in his first two seasons in Philadelphia.
“I just want to get the best out of them, you know?” Gansey stated. “Obviously, I haven’t had a lot of conversations with Joel and Paul yet, and Tyrese and VJ. We’ve connected, you know, obviously, everyone’s all over the world right now. My world’s spinning right now, so I just want to get to them and kind of see what they’re feeling too, you know? Get coach’s input, get their input, and see if we can get this thing together, but again, I just don’t look at it as two timelines. Like, there are four guys, they’re under contract, and we’ve got to do the best to get them to their best self, because I think every night at 7:00, we’ve got to get them to their best.”
An interesting offseason is set to begin for Gansey in year 1 in Philadelphia.
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: New president Mike Gansey addresses Joel Embiid, Sixers timelines
