Joe

Dumars

Two days after firing lead executive David Griffin, the Pelicans officially hired his replacement. Dumars served as Detroit’s president of basketball operations for 14 years and, most recently, was the NBA’s executive vice president and head of basketball operations. He’ll have some key questions to answer this offseason, most notably Willie Green’s future as head coach and whether or not Zion Williamson is equipped to remain a key figure in the Pelicans’ rebuild. While Zion has shown flashes of excellence, the inability to stay healthy has been an issue for New Orleans.

Dumars, who took over for Vlade Divac in an interim role following Divac’s resignation, aided owner Vivek Ranadive in the search for a new general manager. With Rockets assistant GM Monte McNair being hired Wednesday night, Dumars will move into a new role within the organization. He’ll continue to report to Ranadive, but he’ll now be helping with strategy across the franchise’s entire portfolio of activities and not just basketball.

Thus far, the Kings have requested interviews with Timberwolves executive vice president Sachin Gupta, Heat assistant general manager Adam Simon, Nuggets GM Calvin Booth, Pelicans GM Trajan Langdon, Rockets assistant GM Monte McNair and former Hawks GM Wes Wilcox. Hopefully, for the sake of Kings fans, they’ll have their new GM in place in time for the 2020 NBA Draft.

Dumars is serving in an interim role following Vlade Divac’s decision to step down, and there was the thought that he would be a candidate for a long-term position. Not so according to The Athletic, which reports that while Dumars will likely interview candidates alongside owner Vivek Ranadive he isn’t interested in serving full-time. Also of note is that the Kings’ next head of basketball operations will be answering to Ranadive. There’s no specific timeline for a new hire, so Dumars and assistant GM Ken Catanella may be the ones calling the shots come draft time and free agency in October.

Prior to joining Mike Woodson’s staff in New York, Walker was an assistant in Detroit for three seasons. Walker would be the fifth candidate to interview for the position, following J.B. Bickerstaff, Nate McMillan, Mike Budenholzer and Lindsey Hunter.

Cheeks was reported to be on the Pistons radar and now he’ll get an interview. At this point, there is no clear frontrunner to land the job.

Despite the presence of Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond as the perceived frontline of the future, Dumars won’t be afraid to add another big body into the mix. Dumars did acknowledge the team has a “preference for a swingman,” but who Detroit selects will be based at least partially off of how the draft goes before the Pistons pick. “Our preference is to look at the perimeter with this particular pick,” he said. “But by no means are we locked into that where that’s all we’re going to take, no matter what.”

Jackson agreed to help the Pistons on their search for a new coach as a favor to Pistons owner Tom Gores, who is a personal friend of Jackson’s. The Pistons have reportedly interviewed Nate McMillan and Rockets assistant J.B. Bickerstaff for the opening. Detroit is also interested in Maurice Cheeks, Lindsey Hunter, Mike Budenholzer, Brian Shaw and Darrell Walker.

Griffin’s presentation and coaching philosophy was “impressive,” according to the source, but this is the first we’ve heard of the Pistons having interest in Griffin. The Pistons are expected to choose between Nate McMillan and Maurice Cheeks for their next head coach, but it looks like Griffin is a late entrant into the mix.

Karl’s name is making all the rounds after he and the Nuggets parted ways earlier Thursday. The Pistons were reportedly nearing a decision between Mo Cheeks and Nate McMillan over the weekend and there’s been nothing to suggest there’s a third candidate to consider. Blakely didn’t say what “close” means, but it’s safe to assume the Pistons should have a new coach by next week at the latest.