Cavaliers general manager Mike Gansey and Phoenix Mercury GM Nick U’ren are among the potential candidates to watch as the Sixers seek a replacement for Daryl Morey in their front office, reports Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link).
A longtime Cavaliers staffer who initially joined the team as a basketball operations seasonal assistant in 2011, Gansey has worked his way through Cleveland’s front office over the last decade-and-a-half. He spent three years as the team’s director of G League operations and two as the general manager of the G League team, known at the time as the Canton Charge. Gansey was named the NBAGL’s Executive of the Year in 2017 and earned a promotion to Cavaliers assistant GM later that year.
Gansey was later elevated to a GM role in 2022 during the same offseason that Koby Altman was promoted from GM to president of basketball operations. The veteran executive has since been connected to multiple rival teams’ front office searches, most recently interviewing with the Bulls before they hired Bryson Graham.
U’ren, meanwhile, spent five years in Phoenix with the Suns and Mercury from 2009-14, working in various video room roles. He was hired by the Warriors in 2014 and won four titles with the team over the next nine years while working under Bob Myers. He held multiple positions during that time, including manager of advance scouting, special assistant to the head coach, and director of basketball operations.
U’Ren returned to Phoenix as the Mercury’s general manager after the 2023 WNBA season. After going 9-31 in ’23, the Mercury won 19 games in 2024, then went 27-17 and made the WNBA Finals in 2025.
Stein previously linked 76ers consultant Neil Olshey and Thunder executive Vince Rozman, a former Sixers employee, to Philadelphia’s front office vacancy, while noting that assistant GM Jameer Nelson could be in line for an expanded role.
Morey’s successor in Philadelphia is expected to run the front office on a day-to-day basis and will have “a lot of authority,” though Myers, who is now the president of sports for Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, acknowledged last week that he’ll be involved with the Sixers’ “high-level decision making.”