After relieving Dell Demps of his duties as General Manager, the New Orleans Pelicans have several options to look into as a replacement.
The drama of the New Orleans Pelicans’ 2018-2019 season continues as the team decided to part ways with their General Manager, Dell Demps, yesterday. This comes in the wake of Demps being unable to secure a sufficient trade package in return for star player Anthony Davis before the NBA trade deadline, but this move was rumored to be in the works well before that happened anyway.
While the Pelicans already named Danny Ferry as the interim GM effective immediately, the brass in New Orleans will begin trying to figure out who to hire as the permanent replacement for Dell Demps right away.
An NBA General Manager has several responsibilities, including the overseeing of many day-to-day team operations. Typically, they are also in charge of negotiating contracts with players and free agents, making trades, drafting rookies, and so on. Clearly, it is a crucially important thing for an organization to have a good GM, so the New Orleans Pelicans will move swiftly to bring in someone they think is up to the task of managing the ongoing Anthony Davis Saga and building for the future.
With that said, let’s take a look at 5 candidates that the New Orleans Pelicans could look to hire in place of Dell Demps.
Danny Ferry
This option makes sense because the New Orleans Pelicans have already named Danny Ferry as the interim General Manager of the team until they decide who to hire next. Ferry has previously been the GM of both the Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers.
His stint with the Hawks specifically is widely regarded as being a success, as he was able to bring in All-Star forward Paul Millsap to add to their core of Jeff Teague and Al Horford. He also scored on drafting point guard Dennis Schroder with the 17th pick in 2013.
Ferry stepped away from the Hawks in 2014 due to some controversy, but the team he built that season wound up finishing in first place in the Eastern Conference and made it to the Conference Finals before falling to the LeBron James-led Cavaliers. Danny Ferry’s role as GM was crucial in setting the Hawks up for so much success that particular season.
Ferry has even been a Special Adviser to Dell Demps since 2016, so he knows the Pelicans organization well and could make a lot of sense as the full-time General Manager if offered the opportunity.
Tommy Sheppard
Sheppard is currently the Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations for the Washington Wizards. He’s been around the league for over two decades and is very well-liked in his circles. He’s worked as a scout and a Director of Team Services with other teams before his current role with the Wizards, so he’s been a great asset to his organizations and is very good at finding helpful talent for his teams.
In fact, he was instrumental in getting Washington to acquire guys like John Wall, Bradley Beal, and Otto Porter. And while the Wizards seem to be in a current state of upheaval, it’s obvious that Sheppard did his best to take the Wizards from the cellar to several promising playoff appearances in recent memory. He’s proven he is capable of rebuilding a roster, and the New Orleans Pelicans could benefit greatly from his experience and eye for talent.
It’s a good sign that in the last couple of years, other teams have tried to lure him away from the Wizards as well. The Brooklyn Nets considered hiring him to be their General Manager, and he was in the running for President of Basketball Operations for the Atlanta Hawks as well. Could Sheppard finally get his long overdue promotion in New Orleans?
Trajan Langdon
If anyone has built a more robust basketball-related career than Trajan Langdon by the age of 42, I don’t know of them. Langdon played college ball for Duke where he was a second-team All-American, was drafted by the Cavaliers where he spent three seasons, and played overseas in Italy, Turkey, and Russia where he earned honors such as Russian League Player of the Year and the EuroLeague All-Decade Team. Heck, he was even drafted by the San Diego Padres to play professional baseball out of college as well, but declined that offer for basketball.
Clearly, Langdon has enough experience to have a great, well-rounded view of the game, and after he retired from his playing career, he quickly stepped into a role as a Scout with the San Antonio Spurs. After a few successful years in that position, he was hired as an Assistant General Manager with the Brooklyn Nets.
Brooklyn’s very quick turnaround in the last couple of seasons has been impressive, and you can be sure that Langdon’s addition to the front office helped expedite their rebuild greatly. While he’s never had actual experience as a full-time General Manager, he’s showing he could be worth taking a chance on if your team is looking for a rapid rebuild.
Mike Zarren
The current Assistant General Manager of the Boston Celtics, Mike Zarren, is a name that’s already being linked to this new opening with the Pelicans.
Two names to quickly emerge in league circles as likely targets in the Pelicans’ GM search — albeit two candidates who have both been selective in the extreme in considering offers — are former Cavs and Suns GM David Griffin and longtime Celtics executive Mike Zarren
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) February 15, 2019
Zarren has had interest from many other teams in recent years, including the Philadelphia 76ers when they were hiring in 2013. He’s known for being a lifelong, diehard Celtics fan, so having a front office job with Boston might be a situation too perfect for him to walk away from. Still, working directly next to noted asset-hoarding mastermind Danny Ainge has surely set Zarren up for success in a GM role if he chooses to step into one.
He’s a brainy dude with degrees from Harvard and the University of Chicago, but opted to start with the Celtics as an unpaid intern and worked his way all the way up to Assistant GM internally thanks to his great knowledge of the salary cap and prowess for business.
Drawing Zarren away from Boston could be a challenge, but it also could serve another benefit in paving the way for great relations between the Celtics and Pelicans this offseason as the two teams will surely engage in Anthony Davis trade talks.
David Griffin
Adrian Wojnarowski reported that David Griffin is another name that many people are already starting to kick around for the Pellie’s GM opening. Another guy with over 20 years of front office experience, Griffin was with the Phoenix Suns for 17 years before joining the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2010, eventually becoming their General Manager in 2014.
Between 2014 and 2017, the Cavaliers acquired LeBron James and Kevin Love, made the NBA Finals three times, and won one championship. It can be argued that Griffin kind of lucked into a situation that was built for success thanks to LeBron James’ hell-bent desire to bring a title to his home state, but Griffin still had to help construct a roster around James that was able to defeat a Golden State Warriors team that had just beaten the all-time record for most wins in a season.
A championship pedigree on the résumé of a General Manager is an impressive thing, regardless of the situation, so David Griffin could prove to be the most well-established and successful GM that the New Orleans Pelicans might consider.
The next few months for the New Orleans Pelicans will be full of rumors and intrigue as the team fields more offers for Anthony Davis and looks to hire a new General Manager to replace Dell Demps. Stay tuned to Pelican Debrief as we wait to get a clearer picture of the future of the organization.