Danny Ferry was the GM of the Atlanta Hawks who hired Mike Budenholzer and brought in much of the Spursian style team that has the Hawks winning games and getting to the Eastern Conference Finals a year ago. But after reading a rather racist portion of a scouting report on potential free agent Luol Deng during a conference call with minority owners, he was pushed out and eventually resigned his position.
Now Ferry has a new job, as an advisor in New Orleans with Dell Demps, reports Marc Spears of The Undefeated at ESPN (with Marc Stein adding some detail).
The Pelicans have hired former Hawks general manager Danny Ferry in a special advisor role, sources told @TheUndefeated.
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) June 8, 2016
ESPN sources say that the Pelicans are hiring Danny Ferry at the urging of GM Dell Demps, who worked closely with Ferry in San Antonio.
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 8, 2016
This should be a good hire, another smart voice in the front office is a good thing. Ferry is a smart basketball mind who comes out of the Spurs front office system. He also royally screwed up with that report in Atlanta, although to add context that thrust him into the position of a pawn between battling ownership groups that were fighting for organizational power at the time (all sides have since sold their interest in the team). An investigation of the situation found no malice on Ferry’s part.
The Pelicans’ front office has a lot of work to do. They have a cornerstone piece in Anthony Davis, and they have a good coach with a distinct style in Alvin Gentry, but the rest of the pieces are questionable fits or often injured (except Ryan Anderson, and they may struggle to keep him as a free agent). The Hornets have a few seasons to put a contender together around Davis, or it’s going to be very hard to keep him after this contract is up.