Myers Says Sixers Must ‘find An Identity' Under New Front Office Regime

Myers says Sixers must ‘find an identity' under new front office regime  originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Bob Myers was pleased Monday to watch Mike Gansey field his first questions as the Sixers’ president of basketball operations.

He was also candid about the fact that Gansey is taking control of a flawed team.

Myers, the president of sports for Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment, spoke minutes after Gansey’s introductory press conference and identified a broad problem with the Sixers. 

“We’ve got to find an identity,” Myers said. “We just don’t have one. That may be a harsh thing to say, but look at the numbers. We were not elite offensively or defensively. If you’re going to win at the highest level, you’ve got to be great at something. We have the capability. We have the players and some of the talent. But in order to see what we are, we’ve got to be on the court. You have to have a consistent product on the floor and then you find out. 

“And maybe that’s not good enough. Maybe it is. But we’ve got to figure out, ‘What are we? What can we stand on as a team?’ Some teams stand on both. Some teams are great offensively and defensively. But we’ve got to be great at one of them at least, and we’ve got to find out which one of them it is. And to get there, we’ve got to have guys on the court.”

The 2025-26 Sixers were indeed middling on both offense and defense. According to Cleaning the Glass, the team ranked 17th in offensive rating and 17th in defensive rating outside of garbage time. 

At times, the team hinted at a resilient, adaptable identity. The Sixers pulled off a historic comeback from a 3-1 deficit in their first-round playoff series with the Celtics and relied on star power.

However, Joel Embiid’s unending injury woes made it tricky for the Sixers to maintain any positive momentum. Their longest winning streak of the season was five games. The Sixers were 24-14 when Embiid played in the regular season and 21-23 without him. 

“You can’t consistently develop habits and you can’t really develop an identity with that many starting lineups,” Myers said, “with that much change. … (Head coach Nick Nurse) has great ideas. … We have to become great at something. But the good news is there’s talent. We have talent. We have to find something that we can stand on that you know when you’re playing the Sixers, you’re going to have a problem either going up against their offense or (their defense).”

Nurse had suggested at training camp that the Sixers would be a speedy, guard-centric group. His vision appeared to be Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe as heavy-minutes starters, Quentin Grimes and Jared McCain as offensive weapons off the bench, and less concern than the typical team about the defensive deficiencies that come with smaller lineups. 

That concept never fully materialized. Grimes had an inconsistent season and McCain got traded to the Thunder in February. On the bright side, Maxey earned his first All-NBA Team selection and Edgecombe finished third in Rookie of the Year voting. It’s easy to begin with the Maxey-Edgecombe duo when mapping out the Sixers’ future.

“We’ve got two really, really good young studs in Tyrese and VJ, and then we’ve got Joel and Paul (George),” Gansey said. “Those are the four we start with. And obviously, when they play, we’re pretty good. You can see how they worked against Boston in the playoffs. We’ve just got to dive into those four and get them on the floor together. … We’ve got to stay healthy. And then try to add some depth and get better in other areas.”

The Sixers have had a few somewhat stable stylistic traits in Nurse’s three seasons. 

They’ve valued winning the turnover battle and performed well in that area. The Sixers’ worst rank for offensive turnover percentage was 11th in the 2024-25 season. They’ve been a top-10 team in defensive turnover percentage every year.

For a variety of reasons, defensive rebounding has remained a glaring weakness. The Sixers have often ceded size at multiple positions and their turnover-hunting approach has tended to mean the team is a bit more vulnerable on the defensive glass. 

As Gansey and the Sixers’ front office think about depth options, there’s no question they’ll have rebounding and three-point shooting in mind. 

“I can give you a general answer and say that every team is like that, but we struggled in some of those areas,” Myers said. “So it’s acknowledging what you’re good at and what we need to work on. Clearly, the rebounding, especially defensive rebounding, is an area of concern and we need to get better. How can we get better? Is that personnel, is that technique, is that strategy? … Again, is this why we do it — because it’s not easy. It’s difficult. 

“These answers are not simple. You wake up in the middle of the night thinking about these things. And when you get fortunate enough to win, it’s all that work and toil that make it worth it. But there’s nothing more challenging than winning. You can’t buy championships. You have to go through it together. Each decision you make, each transaction you make is hopefully moving in that direction. But that’s why you do it. That’s what makes it fun.”