President Michael Winger plans to make his first addition to the Wizards‘ new-look front office, hiring former Hawks president of basketball operations Travis Schlenk as senior vice president of player personnel, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
Josh Robbins of The Athletic confirms the news (via Twitter) through his own league sources.
While Schlenk is certainly a notable executive, Winger is still searching for a general manager to directly oversee the Wizards and their G League affiliate, the Capital City Go-Go, Wojnarowski adds. The new GM would report directly to Winger.
Formerly an assistant GM in Golden State, Schlenk was hired as Atlanta’s general manager in 2017 and was promoted to president of basketball ops in 2019. He had been the ninth longest-tenured head of basketball operations in the NBA before he moved into an advisory role in December.
Schlenk launched a rebuild when he initially joined the Hawks and oversaw three losing seasons before the team turned things around in 2020/21, making a run to the Eastern Conference Finals. They have been ousted from the first round of the playoffs each of the past two seasons.
During his tenure atop the team’s front office, Schlenk swung two major draft trades to land Trae Young (for Luka Doncic and a future pick) and De’Andre Hunter; drafted John Collins, Kevin Huerter, Cam Reddish, and Onyeka Okongwu; and acquired Dejounte Murray from San Antonio in a blockbuster deal this past summer.
Although the Hawks publicly announced Schlenk was transitioning to advisory role, subsequent reporting from Sam Amick of The Athletic indicated that he was no longer part of the operation in Atlanta and was free to leave for another team if he desired to. About five months later, he’s landing in D.C.
According to Amick, Schlenk expressed reservations about the price to acquire Murray (three first-round picks, including two unprotected, and a pick swap), and that played a factor in his exit from the franchise. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also reported that Schlenk’s relationship with Young had deteriorated after the point guard chartered a private flight home from Miami without telling anyone from the team during last year’s playoffs. Young was later fined.
When did he even leave the Hawks? I know Landry became the GM but thought he was still in the Front office in some capacity.
Months ago
Well, I wont hold my breath but, hopefully these guys can shape a roster that has talent on it into something competitive. Or probably better yet rebuild from the ground up as I have very little faith in the team while Beal is your main guy, talented though he may be.
Whose idea was it to trade Kevin Huerter?
Probably ownership pinching pennies.
Between that and increased meddling from Ressler’s son, it’s no wonder why Schlenk left.
Trae Young’s new home?
Lets break this section here down:
During his tenure atop the team’s front office, Schlenk swung two major draft trades to land Trae Young (for Luka Doncic and a future pick) and De’Andre Hunter; drafted John Collins, Kevin Huerter, Cam Reddish, and Onyeka Okongwu; and acquired Dejounte Murray from San Antonio in a blockbuster deal this past summer.
1.) Gave up Luka for Trae & Cam Reddish
2.) Drafted and signed to a max extension John Collins who has been in every trade rumor for the last 3 years, yet they can’t move him because of said extension
3.) Traded Kevin Huerter who just had a career year in Sacramento and only got back a heavily protected 1st rd pick and kept Hunter who is a wing that cannot shoot and cannot defend AKA not what anybody wants
4.) Went out and traded for Dejounte Murray for 3 picks and 1 swap just to end up being a barley .500 team
This is the guy Washington is excited about? Wiz have had a terrible couple weeks for the FO. They aren’t climbing out of their hole for quite some time
John Collins situation isn’t that bad but the rest holey snikeys