On Monday morning, the Philadelphia 76ers introduced Mike Gansey as their new president of basketball operations.He read through a prepared statement briskly. He took questions from the media, ranging from the status of the best players on the team to their status as a team within the confines of the Eastern Conference. He appeared confident and engaging, and yet determined about what he wants the organization to look like.“We want fountains within the building,” Gansey said several times. “Not drains.”Gansey’s job will be challenging yet intriguing. He will inherit a cupboard that isn’t bare by any means, but a roster that presents significant financial challenges. The next month will be critical, but the patience required over the next few years will be critical as well.What does this all mean? We try to pinpoint some of the most difficult initial questions of the Gansey era that need to be answered.How will they navigate Joel Embiid and Paul George?The Sixers were mostly united in their thoughts on their best player at the news conference. They spoke of Embiid still being a dominant force. Gansey said he has had multiple conversations with Embiid, and that Embiid is a part of the 76ers. Even if Philadelphia wanted to trade Embiid, his contract extension would make that a difficult thing to do. Embiid proving he is still one of the best offensive players in the league when healthy makes that even more difficult. In essence, you aren’t going to extract a lot of value in a trade, and his value may even be negative in trade terms, which means you would have to attach assets to move his contract. Doing that for a person still playing at his level may not be the greatest piece of business ever.So, the focus when talking about Embiid on Monday centered around his availability. Gansey and Myers both spoke about the importance of Embiid being on the floor. It’s clear Myers wasn’t happy with the inconsistency of the lineups this past season, and Embiid and George were obviously at the top of that. When they both played, the 76ers were 24-14 on the season, which is pretty good. If you multiply that out to even 60 games this past season, Philadelphia probably has a better seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, and maybe the 76ers avoid the New York Knicks a little longer.The onus on Philadelphia and Embiid is keeping him on the floor as much as possible. With the current structure of the roster, that’s the pathway to it working at a high level.How will they approach the next month?The NBA Draft is two weeks away. Free agency is three weeks away. It can’t be said more plainly how critical a time this will be for the 76ers.“It’s extremely important for us,” Myers said. “This will be the time that we will be able to change our roster.”Gansey, Nelson and Myers will have a lot to look at. The 76ers have the 22nd pick in the first round. They have the non-taxpayer midlevel exception to work with in free agency, which could come out to as much as $15 million. They will have to figure out whether they want to be a trade team, or whether it makes sense for them to go that route. And they will have to do it against the backdrop of a league that could see some good players changing teams within that window.That’s a lot for a team changing leadership at the very top of the front office, which is why Myers said he ideally wanted someone in place before the draft. Gansey said on Monday that a focus for the Sixers will be adding as much depth as possible. The 76ers are top-heavy, even if they have four guys at the top. They need more guys who are playable in a postseason scenario. By the time they were eliminated in the second round, they had around seven guys who were credibly able to get onto the floor with the Knicks. That’s not enough. These days, a good playoff team has at least nine playable guys.Philadelphia clearly has some work to do.How do they become “good enough?”This was probably the most eloquent Gansey and Myers were on Monday. And the most forthcoming. Introductory news conferences often can turn into jargon. Gansey and Myers were steadfast in saying the Sixers are not where they need to be. The question is, how do they get better? How can the front office turn a 45-win roster into a 50-win roster? How can a seventh seed become a fifth seed or even a top-four seed?A lot of eggs are clearly in the VJ Edgecombe basket. He’s probably Philadelphia’s best hope for taking a significant leap, because he has the highest ceiling on the roster. If he takes what was a wonderful rookie season and goes to a different level, that will go a long way towards improvement for the 76ers. It’s important for Gansey to figure out what archetype best goes with the top of the roster. There are multiple areas that can be pointed at.You can argue Embiid needs an athletic and rebounding power forward next to him. You can argue Edgecombe and Tyrese Maxey need a dynamic third guard to supplement them. You can argue George could use more shooting around him. The good news for Gansey is he can pick any of these lanes and not be wrong. The bad news is that it goes to show just how far the 76ers are from being true title contenders, and that there are multiple leaks that need to be plugged.What will happen with their free agents?What makes the job initially challenging for Gansey is that the roster has multiple important players from its core hitting unrestricted free agency. Kelly Oubre Jr., Quentin Grimes and Andre Drummond all played solid roles and contributed in varying degrees to Philadelphia’s success. Grimes and Oubre Jr. hold positional importance, and were two of Philly’s better perimeter defenders. Drummond remade himself as a 3-point shooter, and he is still one of the best rebounders in basketball.All three have significant faults, but all three have significant strengths as well. The question is whether they fit with the roster Gansey wants to put together, and how Gansey sees the 76ers in future seasons.What will Gansey and Nelson working together look like?For over a year, Jameer Nelson has been tagged as a rising star within the Sixers’ organization. As an executive, his promotion to general manager and Gansey’s No. 2, had been an expected outcome. On Monday, Nelson talked about how surreal it felt for him to come from Chester, to starring at Saint Joseph’s, to playing over a decade in the NBA, to cutting his teeth with the Sixers, to now being an important voice in the front office.Gansey said one of the sticking points for him taking the job was being able to retain Nelson. The two played against each other at the college level, and are now working side by side in leading the Sixers. As Nelson said Monday, he knows what the 76ers mean to Philadelphia as a city, and he knows the desperation of a city wanting a champion.With the structure of the front office set at the top, Gansey will evaluate the remainder of the organization while also leading the Sixers into what is an important offseason. The real work, indeed, is just beginning.