Elton Brand's Resume

[VDT]

Ok.

Maybe EB should be given a chance to run this team then.

If he was dumb enough to take the fall for Horford and Tobias contracts, then he is not the person I want for the job anyway.

He didnt take any credit when he traded role players for Butler and role players and picks that would be drafted for players we’ll never care about for Tobias Harris. Then found a steal with Thybulle. That also for me is dumb because people may think it is not himself who was responsible for those moves since he is just a GM and not the president of basketball operations.

Butler was making the entire organisation looking like a clown show. They had to trade him no matter what. Sixers happened to be in a different conference and had the best package.

Harris was a bad trade.

Brand's entire tenure was a complete failure. Even if he was just a puppet and not incompetent that's not an excuse. No competent GM would accept that role.

[sixerguy]

If Steven A Smith’s rant on the Nets hiring Steve Nash is an indicator, Elton Brand’s job is safe. Firing a black GM during BLM in a league where there are so few black GMs ain’t gonna happen folks. Get used to him.


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

[BullyKing]

If Steven A Smith’s rant on the Nets hiring Steve Nash is an indicator, Elton Brand’s job is safe. Firing a black GM during BLM in a league where there are so few black GMs ain’t gonna happen folks. Get used to him.


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

Let's try to keep these things out of the discussion. Brand is employed because this franchise is a joke, not because of his skin color.

[sixers hoops]

Ok.

Maybe EB should be given a chance to run this team then.

If he was dumb enough to take the fall for Horford and Tobias contracts, then he is not the person I want for the job anyway.

He didnt take any credit when he traded role players for Butler and role players and picks that would be drafted for players we’ll never care about for Tobias Harris. Then found a steal with Thybulle. That also for me is dumb because people may think it is not himself who was responsible for those moves since he is just a GM and not the president of basketball operations.

I thought the Butler trade was good, but the Harris trade sucked. I wouldn’t want credit for that. I thought the Thybulle pick was good, but he telegraphed it so bad that he had to give away a good pick to move up to get him. Horrible rookie mistake.

[Arsenal]

If he was dumb enough to take the fall for Horford and Tobias contracts, then he is not the person I want for the job anyway.

He didnt take any credit when he traded role players for Butler and role players and picks that would be drafted for players we’ll never care about for Tobias Harris. Then found a steal with Thybulle. That also for me is dumb because people may think it is not himself who was responsible for those moves since he is just a GM and not the president of basketball operations.

I thought the Butler trade was good, but the Harris trade sucked. I wouldn’t want credit for that. I thought the Thybulle pick was good, but he telegraphed it so bad that he had to give away a good pick to move up to get him. Horrible rookie mistake.

I basically agree, except that the Butler trade was not good when you consider it ended up being a rental. If we actually kept the star player who we traded for then yes the trade was fine. Since we traded for the guy without the conviction to keep him, it was a bad move.

That move was the impetus for the entire chain of RUSH THE PROCESS stupid move after stupid move.

[Stanford]

I thought the Butler trade was good, but the Harris trade sucked.

I think the Butler trade was good. But what was the plan? Butler has been a malcontent everywhere and has issues with coaches and aloof teammates. The personality and on-court fit issues should have been predicted. Was the plan to go all-in on one season?

[Mik317]

The Butler trade while not bad by any means was simply a continuation of previous misteps. Its goes back to the Fultz trade, then "star hunting" for Bron, then we made the bench worse by wasting said time...thus the team got off to a slow start and the FO panicked to fix that.

Every single move this franchise has made has been in a rush to get beyond stigma of the process, each of the GMS trying to also get beyond that, a lack of vision and potentially overestimation of our core stars. The team was never given a chance to simply grow and learn from their mistakes and due to a flukey run was thrust-ed into contention by any means.

Sadly, they might have to continue scramble moving to get out of this as standing put probably doesn't help this time lol...

which makes keeping Brand and crew in charge is questionable as they are in save my job(s) mode...which is dangerous

[SouthJersey]

Joe Dumars went straight to President of Basketball Ops a year after he retired

Yeah I forgot all about this, probably because it was 20 years ago and it been forever since Detroit has been good. Hopefully Brand can pick coaches as good as Dumars did.

[PhillyPhilly]

Masai Ujiri was a pro player in Europe then retired and became a youth coach in Nigeria..then went with one of his young players to a draft tryout in Orlando where he met with a scouting director who introduced him to Doc Rivers and GM Gary Brokaw...he was offered an unpaid scouting job and took it. Then he met a Denver executive who introduced him to their GM Kiki Vandeweghe who offered him a job as an international scout. Then guess what? Raptors gm BRYAN COLLANGELO hired him for Toronto as director of global scouting before he became assistant GM. After that he was hired as Denver's GM and the rest is history.

Elton was obviously a player in the league for many years, including being a Sixer...he then retired and become a player development consultant for this ball-club before becoming GM for the blue coats. He did that for a year and then became the sixers GM. In a world where Steve Kerr can be a TV personality and then become the Warriors head coach..or Steve Nash can have no coaching experience whatsoever and then become the Nets head coach....at least Elton had an full year of GM experience before getting the job. Brett was an average coach but you can't put that on Elton because Elton didn't hire him.

Thus far EB has had ONE draft and ONE offseason since he was hired. Has everything gone rosey? Of course not..he's made some very good moves (Butler trade) and did Ok in the draft too. The Horford deal is not good and I'm a fan of Harris so I'm not seeing that as negative tbh. The key thing now though is he has much more power to pick his own head coach and build a roster to his liking...only then can he be fully judged imo.

My Chiefs GM Brett Veach, widely known as the man who discovered Pat Mahomes, had a terrible first draft and failed to give Andy Reid better defensive personnel. We ended up losing in OT to the Pats in the AFC championship game because our defense couldn't get a stop despite facing three 3rd and 10s in a row. The next season Brett didn't panic..he dusted himself off, had a brilliant draft, signed some key defensive free agents and then became the youngest GM in league history to win a superbowl...so the moral of the story is BE PATIENT.

[PhillyPhilly]

The Butler trade while not bad by any means was simply a continuation of previous misteps. Its goes back to the Fultz trade, then "star hunting" for Bron, then we made the bench worse by wasting said time...thus the team got off to a slow start and the FO panicked to fix that.

Every single move this franchise has made has been in a rush to get beyond stigma of the process, each of the GMS trying to also get beyond that, a lack of vision and potentially overestimation of our core stars. The team was never given a chance to simply grow and learn from their mistakes and due to a flukey run was thrust-ed into contention by any means.

Sadly, they might have to continue scramble moving to get out of this as standing put probably doesn't help this time lol...

which makes keeping Brand and crew in charge is questionable as they are in save my job(s) mode...which is dangerous

The Butler trade was the best trade he's made thus far...Dario and Cov for Jimmy? It was an absolute steal. Not retaining him was not Elton's fault...however at least we got Richardson out of it.

[SouthJersey]

Masai Ujiri was a pro player in Europe then retired and became a youth coach in Nigeria..then went with one of his young players to a draft tryout in Orlando where he met with a scouting director who introduced him to Doc Rivers and GM Gary Brokaw...he was offered an unpaid scouting job and took it. Then he met a Denver executive who introduced him to their GM Kiki Vandeweghe who offered him a job as an international scout. Then guess what? Raptors gm BRYAN COLLANGELO hired him for Toronto as director of global scouting before he became assistant GM. After that he was hired as Denver's GM and the rest is history.

Elton was obviously a player in the league for many years, including being a Sixer...he then retired and become a player development consultant for this ball-club before becoming GM for the blue coats. He did that for a year and then became the sixers GM. In a world where Steve Kerr can be a TV personality and then become the Warriors head coach..or Steve Nash can have no coaching experience whatsoever and then become the Nets head coach....at least Elton had an full year of GM experience before getting the job. Brett was an average coach but you can't put that on Elton because Elton didn't hire him.

Thus far EB has had ONE draft and ONE offseason since he was hired. Has everything gone rosey? Of course not..he's made some very good moves (Butler trade) and did Ok in the draft too. The Horford deal is not good and I'm a fan of Harris so I'm not seeing that as negative tbh. The key thing now though is he has much more power to pick his own head coach and build a roster to his liking...only then can he be fully judged imo.

My Chiefs GM Brett Veach, widely known as the man who discovered Pat Mahomes, had a terrible first draft and failed to give Andy Reid better defensive personnel. We ended up losing in OT to the Pats in the AFC championship game because our defense couldn't get a stop despite facing three 3rd and 10s in a row. The next season Brett didn't panic..he dusted himself off, had a brilliant draft, signed some key defensive free agents and then became the youngest GM in league history to win a superbowl...so the moral of the story is BE PATIENT.

Steve Kerr was a national announcer for a year before becoming part of Suns ownership, doing consulting for 3 years and then becoming their GM. Masai Ujiri spent like 10 years in NBA front offices learning before becoming a GM. Football is football and has 7 rounds of a draft to improve, no need to compare the NFL and NBA. Brand has alot less experience then these guys, but hey, maybe it's just growing pains.

[76ciology]

I thought the Butler trade was good, but the Harris trade sucked.

I think the Butler trade was good. But what was the plan? Butler has been a malcontent everywhere and has issues with coaches and aloof teammates. The personality and on-court fit issues should have been predicted. Was the plan to go all-in on one season?

I’m not elton brand so here’s my guess..

First of all, you can’t predict chemistry or emotions. Maybe Jimmy was the guy the FO was expecting to inspire Biid and Ben. The “veteran leadership” they needed. And Jimmy certainly was. I’ve never seen a guy on our team that Biid looked up to.

That said, I think as a GM when you can trade for a first tier star or borderline superstar guard for a bunch of role players who will never be a third tier star, you pull that trigger. So from risk vs reward standpoint, this made sense.

Then Jimmy is the archetype player we need. Other attempts that failed were Fultz and Zhaire. Last season we tried to find it with JRich and Burks.

You can’t also look at it in a vacuum. It’s an arms race. If you don’t trade for Jimmy, Celtics may also be able to acquire him and just makes your team worse by the competition getting better.

It was all OK, if you can remember. Ben was playing point. Jimmy was passive. Jimmy was playing the EXACT role of Robert Covington

Guys were saying Jimmy always play passive when he is new to a team. But Jimmy got fed up because he find our offense (tailored for Ben) was a gimmick. He asks for more pick and rolls for Brett and that started the chaos.

We look at Biid and Ben as stars with 90 something rating with the NBA2K in our minds but these guys have big egos. They look at themselves bigger than they are. And at this point, neither of them are willing to step down.

It’s like when you are a harvard grad and you are asked to work at McDonalds before you can work at a high position Google. You’ll feel disrespected because you are overqualified and you fear that your temporary role will be permanent because of association.

As a completely exaggerated example, think of what Kendall Jenner will think of him? Jordan Clarkson or Kyle Kuzma suddenly becomes a higher echelon player

Will Ben Simmons get endorsements and increase his chance to get a shoe line from Nike when he’d be playing like Daniel Theis on offense? And honestly, Klutch Sports will not allow it.

These guys feel the pain and knows the injuries, they know they are one freak injury away from calling it a career. They can’t wait for their opportunity to come. Specially when they are crowned prince from day one.

[76ciology]

Rush the process because..

Salary cap space window is about to close.

Assets accumulated during the process are all declining in value.

Think about the value of guys like Noel, Okafor, Kings pick and Lakers pick. All of these have incredibly high value at the start then look at their value right now.

Imagine how bad Biid’s endurance will be 2-3 seasons from now.

Thus, rush the process.

[Sixerscan]

I thought the Butler trade was good, but the Harris trade sucked.

I think the Butler trade was good. But what was the plan? Butler has been a malcontent everywhere and has issues with coaches and aloof teammates. The personality and on-court fit issues should have been predicted. Was the plan to go all-in on one season?

Right, if what happened here was that Jimmy is just kind of crazy and decided after the season he was going to Miami no matter what that's one thing, nothing you can do about that. But you can absolutely predict that Jimmy was going to butt heads with people and especially someone like Simmons and that he was going to have issues with not being on the ball. It's nothing short of an organizational failure to not plan for that and only make the trade if you're comfortable with dealing with all that, especially for a team whose GM is a former player.

You can make an argument that the performance in the post season last year was like a 90% outcome when you made the trade. I'm just sort of confused as to what they thought was going to happen when they made the trade in the first place? It seems like everything happened just as expected (or better!) and the Sixers just got cold feet.

[kriss73]

Honestly the Bulter trade was something between Harris and the Twolves' owner.
I remember to have read some comments about this.

Brand was only the errand boy in my opionion.

[Sixerscan]

Honestly the Bulter trade was something between Harris and the Twolves' owner.
I remember to have read some comments about this.

Brand was only the errand boy in my opionion.

Forgot about that. Yeah that would explain a lot/is not good.

[Arsenal]

I thought the Butler trade was good, but the Harris trade sucked.

I think the Butler trade was good. But what was the plan? Butler has been a malcontent everywhere and has issues with coaches and aloof teammates. The personality and on-court fit issues should have been predicted. Was the plan to go all-in on one season?

Right, if what happened here was that Jimmy is just kind of crazy and decided after the season he was going to Miami no matter what that's one thing, nothing you can do about that. But you can absolutely predict that Jimmy was going to butt heads with people and especially someone like Simmons and that he was going to have issues with not being on the ball. It's nothing short of an organizational failure to not plan for that and only make the trade if you're comfortable with dealing with all that, especially for a team whose GM is a former player.

You can make an argument that the performance in the post season last year was like a 90% outcome when you made the trade. I'm just sort of confused as to what they thought was going to happen when they made the trade in the first place? It seems like everything happened just as expected (or better!) and the Sixers just got cold feet.

One major factor in our catastrophic 2019 summer that people continue to overlook is MONEY.

Running it back would have cost $10M+ more in salary, likely pushing us into the luxury tax.

Doing the moves they did allowed Josh Harris to save ~ $15M cash this past season by avoiding the tax. Plus BIG MONEY savings in future years with lower payroll, starting the clock on the repeater tax one year later, etc.

The most likely explanation for why Jimmy Butler is not here is because Josh Harris CHEAPED OUT.

[Sixerscan]

I think the Butler trade was good. But what was the plan? Butler has been a malcontent everywhere and has issues with coaches and aloof teammates. The personality and on-court fit issues should have been predicted. Was the plan to go all-in on one season?

Right, if what happened here was that Jimmy is just kind of crazy and decided after the season he was going to Miami no matter what that's one thing, nothing you can do about that. But you can absolutely predict that Jimmy was going to butt heads with people and especially someone like Simmons and that he was going to have issues with not being on the ball. It's nothing short of an organizational failure to not plan for that and only make the trade if you're comfortable with dealing with all that, especially for a team whose GM is a former player.

You can make an argument that the performance in the post season last year was like a 90% outcome when you made the trade. I'm just sort of confused as to what they thought was going to happen when they made the trade in the first place? It seems like everything happened just as expected (or better!) and the Sixers just got cold feet.

One major factor in our catastrophic 2019 summer that people continue to overlook is MONEY.

Running it back would have cost $10M+ more in salary, likely pushing us into the luxury tax.

Doing the moves they did allowed Josh Harris to save ~ $15M cash this past season by avoiding the tax. Plus BIG MONEY savings in future years with lower payroll, starting the clock on the repeater tax one year later, etc.

The most likely explanation for why Jimmy Butler is not here is because Josh Harris CHEAPED OUT.

Well similar to my above point they knew about what the luxury tax was going to be, if this was an issue just don't trade for Harris and let Chandler and so on expire or trade them for someone more cost controlled like Warren or something. Or don't trade two cost controlled role players for Butler.

The overwhelming majority of the league doesn't pay the tax/does whatever they can to avoid paying the tax. Like I know you love crying about them being cheap but they have the 6th highest payroll this year. It's just a reality of this being a business and not a fantasy league. But if you're a team that doesn't want to pay the tax, then maybe don't make moves burning cost controlled assets that are obviously going to take you into the tax, and then get cold feet. That was the weirdest part of all this, the seeming indecision and getting blindsided by things they should have already known and been prepared for.

It's very unusual to trade real assets for a max free agent to be mid season, and the Sixers did it twice in one season. It's extremely difficult to completely change everything to accommodate a guy like that in-season. And it seems even more weird to do if you're not 100% into signing the guy long term (when you'll have an off season and a camp to get them more into the team). It does all speak to it all being driven by Harris who isn't a basketball person and maybe doesn't get something like that.

[Arsenal]

Right, if what happened here was that Jimmy is just kind of crazy and decided after the season he was going to Miami no matter what that's one thing, nothing you can do about that. But you can absolutely predict that Jimmy was going to butt heads with people and especially someone like Simmons and that he was going to have issues with not being on the ball. It's nothing short of an organizational failure to not plan for that and only make the trade if you're comfortable with dealing with all that, especially for a team whose GM is a former player.

You can make an argument that the performance in the post season last year was like a 90% outcome when you made the trade. I'm just sort of confused as to what they thought was going to happen when they made the trade in the first place? It seems like everything happened just as expected (or better!) and the Sixers just got cold feet.

One major factor in our catastrophic 2019 summer that people continue to overlook is MONEY.

Running it back would have cost $10M+ more in salary, likely pushing us into the luxury tax.

Doing the moves they did allowed Josh Harris to save ~ $15M cash this past season by avoiding the tax. Plus BIG MONEY savings in future years with lower payroll, starting the clock on the repeater tax one year later, etc.

The most likely explanation for why Jimmy Butler is not here is because Josh Harris CHEAPED OUT.

Well similar to my above point they knew about what the luxury tax was going to be, if this was an issue just don't trade for Harris and let Chandler and so on expire or trade them for someone more cost controlled like Warren or something. Or don't trade two cost controlled role players for Butler.

The overwhelming majority of the league doesn't pay the tax/does whatever they can to avoid paying the tax. Like I know you love crying about them being cheap but they have the 6th highest payroll this year. It's just a reality of this being a business and not a fantasy league. But if you're a team that doesn't want to pay the tax, then maybe don't make moves burning cost controlled assets that are obviously going to take you into the tax, and then get cold feet. That was the weirdest part of all this, the seeming indecision and getting blindsided by things they should have already known and been prepared for.

It's very unusual to trade real assets for a max free agent to be mid season, and the Sixers did it twice in one season. It's extremely difficult to completely change everything to accommodate a guy like that in-season. And it seems even more weird to do if you're not 100% into signing the guy long term (when you'll have an off season and a camp to get them more into the team). It does all speak to it all being driven by Harris who isn't a basketball person and maybe doesn't get something like that.

We had arguably the most talented team in the league last year and all the key players PUBLICLY said they wanted to run it back. Apparently the coach in the end agreed to run it back.

Then a headscratching series of moves ensue resulting in: 1) a much worse team, and 2) a much lower payroll.

6th highest payroll means JACK if you're trying to be an actual contender. The teams that win are usually 1st, 2nd, 3rd in payroll. 6th means NOTHING.

So no I'm not just "crying" that they are cheap. THEY ARE CHEAP. There is almost a decade worth of evidence to prove it.

[Sixerscan]

One major factor in our catastrophic 2019 summer that people continue to overlook is MONEY.

Running it back would have cost $10M+ more in salary, likely pushing us into the luxury tax.

Doing the moves they did allowed Josh Harris to save ~ $15M cash this past season by avoiding the tax. Plus BIG MONEY savings in future years with lower payroll, starting the clock on the repeater tax one year later, etc.

The most likely explanation for why Jimmy Butler is not here is because Josh Harris CHEAPED OUT.

Well similar to my above point they knew about what the luxury tax was going to be, if this was an issue just don't trade for Harris and let Chandler and so on expire or trade them for someone more cost controlled like Warren or something. Or don't trade two cost controlled role players for Butler.

The overwhelming majority of the league doesn't pay the tax/does whatever they can to avoid paying the tax. Like I know you love crying about them being cheap but they have the 6th highest payroll this year. It's just a reality of this being a business and not a fantasy league. But if you're a team that doesn't want to pay the tax, then maybe don't make moves burning cost controlled assets that are obviously going to take you into the tax, and then get cold feet. That was the weirdest part of all this, the seeming indecision and getting blindsided by things they should have already known and been prepared for.

It's very unusual to trade real assets for a max free agent to be mid season, and the Sixers did it twice in one season. It's extremely difficult to completely change everything to accommodate a guy like that in-season. And it seems even more weird to do if you're not 100% into signing the guy long term (when you'll have an off season and a camp to get them more into the team). It does all speak to it all being driven by Harris who isn't a basketball person and maybe doesn't get something like that.

We had arguably the most talented team in the league last year and all the key players PUBLICLY said they wanted to run it back. Apparently the coach in the end agreed to run it back.

Then a headscratching series of moves ensue resulting in: 1) a much worse team, and 2) a much lower payroll.

6th highest payroll means JACK if you're trying to be an actual contender. The teams that win are usually 1st, 2nd, 3rd in payroll. 6th means NOTHING.

So no I'm not just "crying" that they are cheap. THEY ARE CHEAP. There is almost a decade worth of evidence to prove it.

Well 6 of the 8 teams left have a lower salary than the Sixers. Heat are paying less than $2 million more, Clippers a few hundred thousand.

But regardless my point is, if you want to be “cheap” that’s one thing. But don’t give away all of your controllable assets for guys you don’t have the budget to keep around long term. A “cheap” team shouldn’t be putting itself in a position where they have to spend a record amount of contracts in a single offseason.