Days after New Orleans Pélicans has dismissed David GriffinThe team officially welcomed Joe Dumars as an executive vice-president of basketball operations.
In a statement Released on Wednesday, the governor of the Gayle Benson team announced that it was “delighted” to welcome Dumars to the front office, praising its “solid leadership qualities” and “an unrivaled perspective”. Dumars, who was born and grew up near Shreveport, there, talked about the opportunity to return to his country of origin.
“As a native of Louisiana, this is really a complete moment of circle,” said Dumars in the press release. “I can't wait to be part of the Pelicans organization and to build a team that proudly represents our fans on the field and in our community.”
“There are a lot of talents on this list. My vision is to build a disciplined team that is built on tenacity, intelligent decision -making and a state of mind without excuses,” added Dumars. “I am proud to have grown in Louisiana and to know how passionate, resistant and difficult we are as a community. Our fans deserve a team that represents this spirit, and these characteristics will be the basis of the culture of our team.
The NBA renowned temple led the pistons, with whom he spent his whole player career from 2000 to 4, winning an NBA championship in 2004. Since then, Dumars has been executive of the Sacramento Kings and was appointed executive vice-president and head of basketball operations for the NBA in 2022.
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The Pelicans announced on Monday the dismissal of Griffin, saying in a declaration It was time for a “new approach” in New Orleans.
Griffin joined the franchise before the 2019-20 NBA season. His first months with the team changed the management of the franchise. A month after hiring Griffin, the team won the N ° 1 Global choice in the draft of the NBA 2019.
Just before the draft, Griffin exchanged an anthony Davis dissatisfied with the Los Angeles Lakers for a certain number of players, including Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram, and the overall choice n ° 4 of the draft of the 2019 NBA. With the upper choice, the Pelicans took Duke Big Man Zion Williamson. After exchanging the fourth choice, the Pélicans took Jaxson Hayes to No. 8 in total.
These decisions came to define Griffin's mandate with the franchise. Davis has set up excellent figures with the Lakers and helped win a bubble title in 2020 before being exchanged at Dallas Mavericks on this year's commercial deadline. Hayes failed to become a starter consistent with the Pélicans and left the team after four seasons. He is now a laker.
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When he is in good health, Williamson played as a global choice n ° 1. During his career, he has an average of 24.7 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.
The injuries have once again limited Williamson this season. He did not play in just 30 games due to the problems of the hamstrings and the back.
While the Pelicans started slowly under griffin – 97-129 in its first three years – New Orleans found its stride in time. The Pelicans finished just above 0.500 in 2022-2023 before going 49-33 last season and winning the seeded n ° 8 in the eliminatory series of the West Conference. The team failed to get out of the first round of the playoffs, however, falling to Oklahoma City of seeded.
With things that improved, the team could not capitalize this season. The Pelicans crashed at 21-61, leading to Griffin shooting. He compiled a record of 209-263 in six seasons with the franchise.
