Joe Dumars emerged early as a candidate to run the Atlanta Hawks front office as they reshuffle their organizational chart. Adrian Wojnarowski reports that Chauncey Billups has also caught the Hawks’ interest.
Atlanta is considering a number of candidates, including Griffin, Joe Dumars, Houston vice president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas, and New York Knicks director of player personnel Mark Hughes, sources said. Atlanta is also planning to discuss the GM opening with television analysts and former players Chauncey Billups and Brent Barry, league sources told The Vertical.
Billups has long indicated interest in working with a front office. Last year he was linked with a Denver Nuggets front office job, saying:
"If the right role was available -- and I've always made known, I haven't been quiet or private about it at all. I've always had a passion to run a team, to put together a team," he said. "That's always been a passion of mine. I think I could do a phenomenal job at that.
Even before his playing career was over, Billups was already looking in the direction of working in a front office.
Also, #Pistons have talked with Billups about front office job when he is done playing.
— NerdOnTw1tter (@Vincent_Ellis56) July 27, 2013
Since retiring after from the Pistons in 2014, Billups has worked with an analyst with ESPN. He signed a multiyear contract to stay on with the network just last week and will also be playing with the new three-on-three Big 3 league this summer.
Of course, Billups has been a Pistons legend. He earned the NBA Finals MVP, was five time All Star, winner of the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award in 2007-08, and the inaugural Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year award in 2012-13. It’d be terrific to see him get a chance to fulfill his goal of running a front office.
But his experience is also questionable. Rather than paying his dues and working his way up through a front office, Billups has instead gone the route of working for a television network. It’ll be tough competing for the job against someone with previous experience winning a NBA title as a general manager like Joe Dumars or one of the brightest GM prospects in the league, Gersson Rosas.
We’ll see how it goes for Mr. Big Shot.