During their long-winded General Manager search, the Sixers looked at several people with an advanced stats background, including Tom Penn, Mike Zarren, Sam Hinkie, and some fellow wearing underwear in his mother's basement. Eventually the Sixers settled on promoting from within and gave the GM job to Tony DiLeo, but that did not mean the Sixers had necessarily abandoned looking for an advanced stats person.
In fact, in an interview with Sonny Hill, Tony DiLeo stated he Sixers would be adding an advanced analytics person to their front office to aid in decision making.
"We're going to make some changes. We're going to try to upgrade our front office. Speaking of analytics, we're going to add an analytics person to the front office to study different statistical things, and come up with recommendations from a statistical and analytical side that will help me make decisions. We're going to add to our scouting staff to help me get more information."
This is obviously great news for the Philadelphia 76ers. After a turbulent young and exciting first year, it appears the Sixers Front Office is heading in the right direction. While not an advanced stat guy, Tony DiLeo has always appeared to be a very intelligent person, and the commitment to an advanced analytics person in an advisement role further solidifies that notion.
After public opinion of the Sixers new ownership group hit rock bottom with the re-signing of Spencer Hawes and the signing of Kwame Brown, the Sixers managed to land a superstar center and are now planning to use advanced statistics and analytics in Front Office decision making. What is happening here? Everything I know is a lie!