Getty Daryl Morey attends the 2019NBA Awards.
Their second-round ouster notwithstanding, the Philadelphia 76ers had an incredibly successful season in 2020-21. After finishing in the middle of the Eastern Conference playoff table during the previous year and getting swept out of the bubble in Round 1, the Sixers logged the East’s best record last season and finished one win shy of a conference finals berth.
Along the way, Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons were the runners-up in the NBA MVP and DPOY voting, respectively, and Doc Rivers got some love for COY as well.
They’re not the only ones who received recognition for the turnaround, though. When a team has that kind of year, executives and assistants get some of the shine, too. Some even find themselves becoming candidates for big jobs with other clubs around the Association.
To that end, one of the Sixers’ top front office personnel just got namechecked as a possible future GM.
B/R: Dinwiddie Could Be a Factor in Future GM Openings
For his latest offseason exercise, Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer consulted with more than two dozen front office personnel league-wide. His objective: to identify people who could be in the mix for gigs at the head of NBA front offices.
One name that was mentioned as a result of the outlet’s probe was that of Sixers vice president of basketball operations Peter Dinwiddie.
Wrote Fischer:
“Before joining Philadelphia last season, Dinwiddie spent years as a backbone of the Indiana Pacers front office, and he was a finalist for top jobs in Memphis (before Zach Kleiman assumed control of the Grizzlies front office) and Milwaukee (before the Bucks landed on Horst). ‘He’s not necessarily a basketball guy, but creative, well-respected, super smart, great guy. Agents respect him highly,’ said one former Pacers colleague.”
Fischer further noted that Dinwiddie had “interviewed well in the past.”
Dinwiddie was hired by the Sixers in October of 2020, just a few, short weeks before Morey signed on as team president. He had been with the Pacers for 14 years before making the move to Philly, starting out in sales and rising through the ranks to the point that he became Indy’s senior VP of basketball operations in 2017.
He is a noted capologist.
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Gupta Also Mentioned as a Possible Future GM
Dinwiddie wasn’t the only exec with Sixers ties to receive a mention here.
Sachin Gupta, who was schooled in the ways of analytics by Morey and former Sixers president Sam Hinkie, is also said to have garnered interest around the league. Before joining an NBA front office, Gupta notably invented ESPN’s NBA Trade Machine. He later spent several years as a special advisor to Morey in Houston before becoming a right hand to Hinkie in Philly.
More recently, Gupta served as assistant GM of the Detroit Pistons before transitioning into his current role as VP of basketball ops for the Minnesota Timberwolves.
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