Atlanta has an opening for a new front office leader, and according to one report, Sixers‘ current GM Elton Brand is expected to be among the candidates considered for the position.
For the second straight season, the Atlanta Hawks made the NBA’s Play-In tournament but failed to secure a playoff spot. As the franchise made several roster changes at that time, to usher in a new generation of Hawks basketball, they have now made a change to the front office after firing General Manager Landry Fields.
The Hawks quickly replaced Fields by promoting Onsi Saleh to the position, but the organization still lacks a President of Basketball Operations, which is where Elton Brand steps into the conversation.
According to NBA Insiders Marc Stein and Jake Fischer, Brand will be included in the initial pool of candidates who will be evaluated for the opportunity.
Brand, who spent the majority of the latter half of his playing career with the Sixers, has been a member of the front office since 2016, when he was hired as a player development consultant. Brand would later be promoted to the General Manager of the Delaware Blue Coats before being promoted again to the Sixers’ General Manager role.
Despite hiring Daryl Morey as President of Basketball Operations in 2020, Brand has repeatedly been referred to as a core member of the organization’s front office and is highly respected across the league, frequently considered among the top available front office positions.
As for any connection to Atlanta, Brand did spend two seasons as a Hawk towards the end of his career, playing 109 games with the organization. While that may not be enough inherently to convince him to leave his longtime home in Greater Philadelphia, the promotion to President of Basketball Operations is surely an enticing opportunity, one that Brand would likely welcome and that would weaken the Sixers’ front office.
