The Pelicans have dismissed head of basketball operations David Griffin, the team announced in a press release. Griffin was given the news this morning following a disappointing 21-61 season.
“After considerable thought and evaluation, I have decided to relieve David Griffin of his duties as executive vice president of basketball operations,” team governor Gayle Benson said. “This was a difficult decision, but one that I feel is necessary at this time to bring a fresh approach to our front office and build a culture that will deliver sustainable success, on and off the court.
“I am committed to hiring the right person to lead our basketball operations department and deliver an NBA Championship to our city. That is what our fans deserve. I am truly appreciative of David for his leadership and many contributions to the Pelicans organization and the New Orleans community over the last six years. We wish David and his wife, Meredith, and their family all the best moving forward.”
The move isn’t a surprise, as Griffin had been telling members of his staff to “brace for his exit” over the weekend, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link). There had been reports that Griffin’s job was in jeopardy and that the organization wanted a new direction in its front office.
Head coach Willie Green will remain in place for now, per Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link), as the Pelicans prepare to conduct a league-wide search for their next lead basketball operations executive. Green told reporters on Sunday that there haven’t been any discussions about his future with the team. His status will be determined after Griffin’s replacement is hired, tweets Will Guillory of The Athletic.
Fischer hears that Green could be a candidate to replace Mike Budenholzer if the Suns decide to make a coaching change (Twitter link). Those rumors stem from Green’s relationships with team owner Mat Ishbia and star Devin Booker, adds NBA insider Marc Stein (Twitter link).
Griffin spent six years with the Pelicans, compiling a 209-263 record with two playoff appearances. The team won the lottery shortly after he was hired in 2019 and drafted Zion Williamson with the No. 1 pick. Although that seemed like incredibly good fortune at the time, Williamson’s injury-plagued career ultimately played a huge role in getting Griffin fired.
Griffin also had a run of bad luck with injuries throughout this season. Dejounte Murray, who was his major offseason acquisition, broke his hand on opening night and suffered a season-ending Achilles tendon tear in late January. The trade that brought Murray from Atlanta began to look like a huge mistake as Dyson Daniels became a Defensive Player of the Year candidate with the Hawks. Meanwhile, New Orleans dropped near the bottom of the league as Herbert Jones, Brandon Ingram and Trey Murphy also missed significant time due to injuries.
The cumulative effect convinced ownership that a change had to be made.
“While our focus is a championship on the court,” Benson added, “we are also making sure that we do the same off the court, by continuing to prioritize the fan experience, and ensuring our games are easily accessible across our entire Gulf South region on multiple convenient platforms. In addition, we are working to determine the best path forward to transform the Smoothie King Center into the best arena in the NBA. We look forward to delivering on these priorities for our fans.”
About time.
GM is responsible for bad season
You don’t make injury excuse
You don’t
Would love to see how you fair with your top three stars/players out for the majority of the year.
You can only afford one injury prone star for a team.
You start Zion or Embiid in March for the season. You don’t start them in October.
Example
You signed 25 years old Brunson at 4 Years $104 million contract.
Brunson + Bridges = $43 million a year
Paul George = $54 million a year
George is $35 years old
But but but Embiid also didn’t really play much in October and he still was injured for most of the year…
24-58 is how the Sixers faired. 3 games better, and maybe Griffins keeps his job like Morey and Nurse. lol
I wish one of these owner statements would be honest and say “This was a super easy decision. I never liked the guy.”
I don’t think it was a contentious situation like Denver. Just time for a change. Griffin seems pretty well-liked.
You would’ve loved George Steinbrenner
That’s true, I guess I just miss George Steinbrenner.
Isn’t that more or less how Urban Meyer’s firing went?
Also true. If the person is a pud, or the owner is in permanent DGAF mode, you get some honesty lol.
Griffin is more of a draft guy. No way you win if too two salary’s don’t play. He did get something for soft Ingram. Zion I think is gone if they can find a taker. Maybe Charlotte will be stupid enough.
Finally!!! Should never have been the guy at NOLA in the first place.
Griff weekly call in with Bill Simmons in 3…2…1…
Ok not mad at that at all
I sat next to David Griffin at an NCAA tournament game three years ago. He was the NICEST guy. I was nerding out on basketball with him and asking him all sorts of questions and he was genuinely excited to talk about hoops with me. He has just done the CJ McCollum trade and was raving about how great of a clubhouse guy he was. He was also lamenting about how the team was so talented but just couldn’t stay healthy. That’s pretty much the story of his whole tenure which is a bummer.
He’s done relatively well wherever he’s been. It’s tough when players are injured and the only thing I would hold him accountable for is maintaining them if it becomes a trend, aka Ingram. Drafting Zion isn’t his fault. Any GM would’ve done that as well. He’ll land somewhere and do well.
The big mistake he made is the Daniels trade. I think that’s the only thing you can blame him for and fire him. We blame the GM too much for ownership level decisions. This team needs to decide either Zion is their guy and have him be reliable or they need to move on. Staying in limbo is ruining them.
> The big mistake he made is the Daniels trade. I think
> that’s the only thing you can blame him for and fire
> him.
Dejounte Murray was injured for almost the entire season. If available and playing at the expected level, that trade looks solid. Top 10 PG’s are harder to come by than “plus” on ball defenders.
Daniels is better than a healthy Murray
A top 10 PG is more valuable than a top 10 defender, especially when you don’t have a PG and you already have 2 excellent young players that play Daniels’s position.
There were several NBA teams making strong offers for Dejounte Murray last summer. Assuming he recovers from his injury, he’s still very valuable.
Have you seen Murray play? It’s easy to say that in hindsight, but Murray was drafted for his defense and has added his offensive repertoire as he grew in San Antonio. Putting him in the backcourt with Young was a mistake and took from him his best asset – the ball.
Long overdue. Should have been fired for that Zion extension alone.
Right ….
Giving a fat injury prone player who played 85 games in 3 seasons 200 million lol.
That could’ve very well been the instruction of the owner.
Flubbed on most of those picks, no team cohesion.
“Flubbed”? Griffin has arguably gotten better value for his picks over the last 4 years than any NBA GM. Yves Missi, Dyson Daniels, Herb Jones (2nd round), and Trey Murphy III are some of his solid picks of late.
Griffin made the correct decision to let go of injury-prone Lonzo Ball. The CJ McCollum trade was a win. The Dejounte Murray trade can’t be judged by the fact Murray was injured this entire season.
Changing a GM for the sake of change can sometimes be necessary. But Griffin had the misfortune of Zion Williamson (which I cannot blame him for) and the smallest budget in the league. He remains highly respected.
How was the CJ trade a win? lol
And Murray has made every team worse.
Murray has not made every team worse. That statement alone shows how little thought was placed into your statement. He made San Antonio better, can’t help being traded to Atlanta and not playing his natural position, and got injured when finally moving on.
He made them so much better that’s why they traded him at 25 lol.
He was playing out of position. Bad move Atlanta. They gave up 4 first rounders, one unprotected to acquire him, so yeah, talented as ?&’! but poor execution by Atlanta.
> He made them so much better that’s why they
> traded him at 25 lol.
DDC, time to take the “L”. Every one of your answers is worse than the last. Lol
Ever heard of Victor Wembanyama? The Spurs traded Murray as part of a rebuild for 3 first round picks. The Spurs wanted lose games for a good reason. It worked. Lol
His picks have been solid. And if one is going to point fingers at the Zion pick, well, then every other GM may as well get dinged, too – they’d have done the same.
Mistake move was resigning Zion, but that could’ve also been ownership telling him what to do.
Lack of cohesion is the big one for me, and I think we would’ve seen that play out even if most of the big names had stayed relatively healthy. Not saying they would’ve been bad, just that they might’ve unperformed relative to overall talent level.
He did pretty well in the draft, though, and honestly better than I thought he would. For that alone I think he deserves another shot somewhere else, particularly with a rebuilding organization.
Overdue. Griffin was the wrong hire in the first place. He’s smart and knowledgable about the league, including NBA player value. But the NOP FO job (post-AD) was a rebuilding situation, and, first and foremost, required a team builder. Griffin isn’t that. Certainly he had no history of it coming in, and, to the extent there was a thought he could evolve into one, his early performance eliminated it.
It would be somewhat ironic if Griffin is being fired for the Daniels trade, since, generally, his biggest strength as a FO chief has been that he avoids bad trades (at least so bad that they could lead to a firing), and few people thought this was a bad trade when made.
Each team can only afford one injury prone star. Whoever GM wants to acquire all injury prone stars needs to go
This season
Zion plays 30 games
Ingram 18 games
Murray 31 games
I want to get rid of 3 GMs
76ers
Suns
Pelicans
Murray is a great fit next to Zion but man, Daniels was not the guy to fork over for him.
Too early to say this was a “bad trade”. Daniels was better than expected, but Murray is a top 10-12 PG — which was, as usual, NO’s biggest deficiency this year.
Moreover, Dyson was expendable because he was behind Herb Jones and Trey Murphy III, which might still be the case today. Jones was 1st team All-Defense before he got injured and Murphy is a rising star.
No sir .. Dyson was just young and needed time. He is a serious 2way talent. Young guys get lost in messy teams. Knicks did this for years.
NO has been going in the opposite direction for yrs now. Better sign Joe Dumars. He will bring sanity there.
This is the reason Daryl Morey needs to go
Paul George has a defensive field goal percentage (DFG%) of 52.2%, meaning he’s allowed opponents to make 52.2% of their field goals when he’s guarding them, according to NBA.Com.
Paul George DFG% is 52.2% (worst for the wing players who makes $20 million or more).
If you make $20 million or more a year, you’ve got to play a bit of defense.
Poor signings over the years for sure. CJ hasn’t panned out. He’s overpaid and not a point guard.