The Sixers are set to begin the Mike Gansey era. On Friday night, the news broke that Gansey has been hired as the franchise’s president of basketball operations. So, how did he get here and what can be gleaned from his history?   Basketball fans of a certain age may remember Gansey from hi s time as an excellent college player. He got some NBA draft buzz after averaging 16.8 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.9 steals as a West Virginia senior. While it’s been two decades since Gansey’s college days, he has a player’s perspective on key ingredients for winning teams. Though Gansey never cracked the NBA, he played professionally for several seasons before joining the Cavaliers as a front office intern. The Cavs are essentially a hometown team for Gansey, who’s a native of Olmsted Falls, Ohio. Gansey’s first experience as a lead executive came with the Canton Charge in the D-League. Canton had two 31-19 seasons and a 29-21 campaign with Gansey as general manager. He was named the D-League’s Executive of the Year for the 2016-17 season. One of the Charge’s success stories during Gansey’s tenure was Quinn Cook. The undrafted guard won the 2015-16 D-League Rookie of the Year award, eventually broke through to the NBA and won two championships with the Warriors. Joe Harris is another recognizable NBA name who passed through Canton after being drafted by the Cavs with the 33rd overall pick in 2014. Two Gansey brothers teamed up for a season in the D-League. Steve Gansey, who’s about three years younger than Mike, was the Charge’s associate head coach for the 2014-15 season (under head coach Jordi Fernandez). He went on to serve as head coach of the Fort Wayne Mad Ants and College Park Skyhawks.  It’s typically tough to tell from the outside exactly who’s responsible for what in NBA front offices, but Gansey is known to have played a major role in the Cavs’ draft process.  Here are the Cavs’ first-round picks since 2017, when Gansey was promoted to assistant GM:  Collin Sexton — Eighth in 2018 Darius Garland — Fifth in 2019 Dylan Windler — 26th in 2019 Isaac Okoro — Fifth in 2020 Evan Mobley — Third in 2021 Ochai Agbaji — 14th in 2022 (Traded to the Jazz before the start of his rookie year) Jaylon Tyson — 20th in 2024  There’s a variety of players on that list. At a minimum, it’s safe to say Gansey is open to many types of prospects.  “I think we were just trying to get the best player available, whether it was an upside guy, an older guy,” he told reporters after the Cavs drafted Tyson. “We look at our roster and especially with this pick, 20, I don’t think there’s really expectations for him to play (immediately).  “Obviously, if he comes in, competes and can play, that would be great. But I think with our roster, we have good depth where we can bring him along slowly. With Tyson, he just checks so many boxes and you can kind of play him with any of our guys. … Just trying to get the best player available and we felt he was the guy there at 20.” As the playoff made abundantly clear, the Sixers do not currently have great depth. They’re set to pick 22nd on Gansey’s first draft night in charge. Gansey’s predecessor, Daryl Morey, also had a best player available approach and the Sixers made several strong picks, including Tyrese Maxey (No. 21 in 2020), Jared McCain (No. 16 in 2024) and VJ Edgecombe (No. 3 in 2025). Outside of the draft, the Cavs have executed plenty of significant moves with Koby Altman as president of basketball operations. Since Gansey’s promotion to GM in February of 2022, Cleveland has acquired Donovan Mitchell, Max Strus, De’Andre Hunter, Keon Ellis, Dennis Schröder and James Harden. Ty Jerome and Sam Merrill stand out as valuable role player signings in recent years.  With Gansey as the No. 2 in Cleveland’s front office, the Cavs were not remotely reluctant to shake things up. We’ll soon see what Gansey has in store with the Sixers.  ...read more read less