The Atlanta Hawks shuffled around their front office structure after being eliminated from the playoffs in the first round by the Wizards. Coach Mike Budenholzer relinquished his role as vice president of basketball operations to focus on coaching, while general manager Wes Wilcox took a smaller role as an advisor to ownership.
That leaves the Hawks needing to fill their biggest front office roles with just over a month until the NBA Draft and free agency soon after. The Hawks have been connected to some experienced general managers like David Griffin from the Cavs and Joe Dumars, along with other front office personnel around the league, but the latest report from The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski links the Hawks to a pair of former players and current TV analysts.
ESPN’s Chauncey Billups and Turner’s Brent Barry are both named as two candidates the Hawks plan on speaking with for their opening by Woj.
Neither Billups nor Barry have any experience in an NBA front office, but are two of the sharpest basketball analysts on television. Their inclusion in the Hawks process shows that Atlanta plans on turning over as many stones as possible to find their next GM, with a huge offseason coming up.
Atlanta will look to re-sign Paul Millsap this offseason, but, whether he stays or goes, the Hawks will have significant decisions to make about re-signing Tim Hardaway Jr. and whether to try and move Dwight Howard after his poor postseason.
Billups or Barry wouldn’t be the first former players to jump from the TV set to the front office, but both would be thrown into a trial by fire if they were to land the Hawks gig as this offseason is a fork in the road for Atlanta and what happens with Millsap and others will determine whether they continue on their current path for the next four years or if they have to start thinking about a rebuild.
