Philadelphia 76ers

No surprise: Colangelo was the one behind Elton Brand signing

Published Jan. 6, 2016 5:43 p.m. ET

Brett Pollakoff

When the Sixers brought in Jerry Colangelo early on in the team's third straight disastrous season, the reasons behind the front office move should have been crystal clear.

The Process wasn't working in its current iteration, and there were deep issues facing the organization that needed to be immediately addressed.

A glaring one was a lack of veteran leadership to guide the young players on the roster in their professional endeavors, so it's not surprising to hear that Colangelo was the one pushing the most for the addition of Elton Brand, a move that became official earlier this week.

"I think Jerry Colangelo was the one who pushed this forward the most. I think that with Jerry's connections with Mike Krzyzewski and David Falk, and our desire to bring in more senior voices in the program, we had considered it a lot," head coach Brett Brown said, via Phillymag.com. "I give Jerry a lot of credit for this one."

Brown also received some assistance from Colangelo, in the form of adding Mike D'Antoni to the bench as an associate head coach. The moves have paid off thus far, with Philadelphia going 3-3 over its last six games after winning just once in 31 tries to begin the regular season.