The New Orleans Pelicans have chosen the front office they want to lead them into the next era. The very next day after the conclusion of their 2024-25 NBA season, the Pelicans made the decision to part ways with their longtime executive vice president of basketball operations, David Griffin.
They wasted no time replacing him either. The very next day after that, the team announced that they had chosen former Detroit Pistons general manager Joe Dumars to fill the seat. To echo his new employers, Dumars got busy himself to flesh out the rest of his staff. The first notable move he made was opting against an extension for Swin Cash, WNBA legend and the Pelicans' former senior vice president of basketball operations, and instead hiring a different former Pistons GM, Troy Weaver, to take on the mantle.
This offseason, pretty much everything rides on the lottery and the subsequent 2025 NBA Draft for the Pelicans. The direction of the team, Zion Williamson's future, whether or not they'll end up trading their pick — all of it depends on where New Orleans will land in the lottery and who will be available when it's their time to draft. It'll be the first real test for Joe Dumars and Troy Weaver. There's already a ton of pressure, and David Griffin's resume there only makes it more paramount that this new Pelicans' front office nails their first draft pick.
New Orleans's new front office has a terrible record in the draft compared to their previous regime
Not very many NBA executives are household names. Joe Dumars, however, has gained quite a bit of notoriety among the league's followers throughout his career. He became well known first as a two-way star on the wings for the "Bad Boy" Pistons, and then continued to bolster his resume by taking on a front office position for Detroit after he hung up his sneakers.
While he was the primary architect for the Pistons throughout the early 2000s, when they dominated the Eastern Conference and won the title in 2004, his career as an executive is more infamously known for his blights than his accomplishments. He may have been responsible for bringing talents like Chauncey Billups, Rasheed Wallace, and Rip Hamilton to the Motor City, but he also drafted Darko Milicic second overall in 2003 over Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh.
His record in the draft after that wasn't much better. Here's every player that the Pistons drafted and kept under Dumars after 2003:
2004 - Rickey Paulding (54)
2005 - Jason Maxiell (26), Amir Johnson (56), Alex Acker (60)
2006 - Will Blalock (60)
2007 - Rodney Stuckey (15), Arron Afflalo (27), Sammy Mejia (57)
2008 - Deron Washington (59)
2009 - Austin Daye (15), DaJuan Summers (35), Jonas Jerebko (39)
2010 - Greg Monroe (7), Terrico White (36)
2011 - Brandon Knight (8), Kyle Singler (33), Vernon Macklin (52)
2012 - Andre Drummond (9), Khris Middleton (39), Kim English (44)
2013 - Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (8), Tony Mitchell (37), Peyton Siva (56)
In Dumars's defense, the Pistons didn't exactly have a bunch of great picks to fumble after he drafted Darko Milicic. Also, he actually had quite a few hits with his later selections. Overall, though, he's going to have to do a lot better to win over Pelicans fans.
Troy Weaver would go on to take over the mantle as Detroit's general manager six years after Dumars stepped down. In his time presiding over the Pistons' personnel decisions, he racked up the following draft picks:
2020 - Killian Hayes (7)
2021 - Cade Cunningham (1), Isaiah Livers (42), Luka Garza (52)
2022 - Jaden Ivey (5)
2023 - Ausar Thompson (5)
Weaver's portfolio looks a lot better than Dumars, albeit with much less of a sample size. It's also important to note that Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, and Ausar Thompson all basically fell into his lap. Still, he didn't make any laughable blunders, which is an accomplishment in itself — as his boss Joe Dumars could tell him.
When stacked up against David Griffin's history, with his last pick another success story in Yves Missi, Joe Dumars and Troy Weaver have quite a giant shadow to try to outshine. Hopefully for the Pelicans and their faithful, they'll knock it out of the park on their first at-bat, with a little luck to aid them. No one will complain if Cooper Flagg falls into their laps.