Philadelphia made a huge change to the front office this offseason, parting ways with Daryl Morey and hiring Mike Gansey as the new President of Basketball Operations. So far, so very good on that front, as Gansey’s tenure has begun with the trade for Jaylen Brown and LeBron James joining the organization on a veteran’s minimum contract in free agency.
Don’t expect this next bit of news to make quite the same immediate impact, but the Sixers are reportedly bringing another new face into the front office. Per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, Philadelphia is hiring Tommy Balcetis as the new Head of Basketball Intelligence, Analytics and Innovation.
Balcetis was previously a member of the Denver Nuggets‘ executive team, working there from 2013 through 2025, eventually as an assistant general manager. Lithuanian-born, Balcetis moved to New Hampshire as a teenager and later attended Harvard for college. He had his first NBA-related position in the NBA’s London office in 2012, which led to him meeting Tim Connelly during a Basketball Without Borders event in Moscow. Balcetis was contacted by Connelly a year later to build out the Nuggets’ analytics department when the latter moved from New Orleans to the top job in Denver.
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During his time with Denver, Balcetis is most notably credited with an analysis that identified Aaron Gordon as one of the league’s top defenders against opposing alphas. Denver ended up trading with Orlando for Gordon, who in a supercharged role player position was an instrumental piece in the Nuggets’ 2023 championship. Since leaving the Nuggets when his contract expired in 2025, Balcetis had been working for Zalgiris Kaunas in Lithuania in a similar head of innovations role.
The Sixers have a championship-caliber core in place with Brown, James, Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, and VJ Edgecombe. The front office’s challenge will be to find the right pieces on the outskirts of the roster that could serve as a small missing piece to supplement the team’s starting five. With Philadelphia now approaching the first apron, possible moves could include a veteran signing at a prorated salary in December, or some sort of two-way player acquisition. Hopefully Balcetis’ experience and expertise will assist Gansey and the organization in making the right moves down the road in their pursuit of the Larry O’Brien trophy.
