Veteran NBA executive Joe Dumars is a “serious frontrunner” to become the Pelicans‘ new head of basketball operations, replacing David Griffin, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter links). New Orleans announced on Monday that Griffin has been relieved of his duties.
According to Charania, Dumars and the Pelicans are expected to engage in discussions about the job and could finalize a deal as soon as this week.
Dumars, who won a pair of championships and made six All-Star teams as a Pistons guard, spent his entire playing career in Detroit from 1985-99 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player in 2006.
Dumars remained in Detroit following his retirement, transitioning to a front office role and spending 14 years as the Pistons’ president of basketball operations in Detroit from 2000-14. He won an Executive of the Year award in 2003 and built the Pistons team that earned a championship in 2004.
After spending three decades with the Pistons as a player and executive, Dumars had a stint in the Kings’ front office too, holding a variety of roles in the organization from 2019-22. He joined Sacramento as a special advisor to then-GM Vlade Divac and became the Kings’ interim head of basketball operations when Divac was fired in 2020.
Dumars subsequently transitioned into a chief strategy officer role following the hiring of general manager Monte McNair and held that position for two years before joining the league office as the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball operations in 2022.
Dumars turned the Pistons into a perennial contender during the first half of his front office tenure in Detroit, making a series of savvy moves to compile a roster led by Chauncey Billups, Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, Richard Hamilton, and Tayshaun Prince. The club advanced to at least the Eastern Conference Finals for six straight years from 2003-08.
However, Dumars made his share of missteps while running the Pistons, most memorably drafting Darko Milicic with the No. 2 overall pick in 2003, right ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade. Detroit had a losing record in each of Dumars’ last six seasons at the helm and wasn’t set up for success following his exit.
Dumars is a Louisiana native who played his college ball at McNeese State.
Go get it Joe. Save them ……….. Excellent move
lol
Why nobody wants Bob Myers?
Result is everything
He is far better than Daryl Morey, James Jones and David Griffin
David Griffin is far better than Morey but Griffin has only one ring
Griffin mentioned that Morey got rid of Trevor Ariza when Rockets were a great team.
You’ve got to keep your talents when you have a great team.
I’m sure somehow this all makes sense to you. As if the conversation is hitting paper.
Ariza left Houston to sign a 1/15 deal with the Suns. Houston, or 28 other teams were not paying that type of money to a role player then. Morey did not get rid of him, TA chose to sign with PHX.
Lmao what is this 2004? Joe got exposed a long time ago.
What NO needs most. Is a winning culture. They have assets. Have a great pick coming. Joe has done this.
link to google.com
Exposed is a vague word. Can you detail what you mean? He has shown he can build a team. But, the NBA makes it difficult to maintain high levels of success. The Tik-Tok generation doesn’t understand that.
Letting Ben Wallace go.
Trading Billups for Iverson’s expiring contract because he thought Stuckey was the next Isiah.
Signing Charlie Villanueva and Ben Gordon
Signing Josh Smith
4 head coaches in 6 seasons
Dumars turned the Pistons into a perennial contender during the first half of his front office tenure in Detroit, making a series of savvy moves to compile a roster led by Chauncey Billups, Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, Richard Hamilton, and Tayshaun Prince. The club appeared in at least the Eastern Conference Finals for six straight years from 2003-08.
From the article 9 inches above^^^, you kinda left that part out tho Darren…..
Six eastern conference finals because the east was terrible and only one championship to show for it.
Well if the East was terrible they never had a shot in your Utopian eyes to begin with. You can keep moving the goalposts but nobodies dissin those Piston teams that were assembled, they were great teams and Joe had his fingerprints all over them
I agree with a lot of what you’re saying, but this part: “Six eastern conference finals because the east was terrible and only one championship to show for it.” is going too far.
That Pistons team was one of the all-time great defensive teams, and was one shot away from winning back to back championships. Against two super good teams in the finals too. The Shaq / Kobe Lakers and the Duncan / Parker / Ginobili Spurs.
And they DESTROYED that Lakers team in every way. 4 blowout wins, 1 miracle game saved by Kobe at the end just to avoid the sweep, and that directly lead to the end of Kobe and Shaq ever wanting to be teammates again.
Everything Dumars did to build that team was great (except for that damn Darko pick). The problem is he did absolutely nothing great in the 10 years after that. They just kept being such a good team for a few years after that because of how good that 2004 team was. And he made a lot of super bad moves as well (the Billups for Iverson trade, the Ben Gordon and Villanueva massive overpays, the Josh Smith signing, etc.)
He also hired a lot of bad coaches. Larry Brown took the Pistons to two straight Finals, and was fired for flirting with the Knicks job in the media. Flip Saunders did well, but he had the world to work with and was never able to replicate Brown’s playoff success. And then he followed Saunders with Michael Curry and John Kuester …
So, you criticizing Dumars for the fact that a very successful team got old. Wallace wanted to leave, but later re-signed. The other moves weren’t terrible.
Name one GM that didn’t make mistakes over 14 seasons. He still has a winning record.
Exposed for building a team that won a ring and went to 6 straight Eastern Conference Finals? You look silly.
He probably has a better reputation among those that didn’t follow the Pistons super closely than those that did. He made a lot of great moves to build that championship team, and then almost no good moves in the decade that followed.
He built up all the good will in the world in building that 2004 team, but it was very clear by the time he left that he was not the right guy to rebuild after that.
Very bad record in the draft and free agency too. And that’s not even mentioning the worst move of his career: Trading a prime Chauncey Billups for a way over the hill Iverson. That one move ended the Pistons run, and in the 6 years that followed it was clear he was nowhere close to ever making the Pistons good again.
Willie Green may go to suns, Zion will be traded according to reports.