After their request to interview Milwaukee Bucks general manager Jon Horst was denied, the Detroit Pistons quickly changed course in their search for a president of basketball operations.<\/p>\n
Looking to fill the role for the first time since 2018, the Pistons have homed in on four executives that could get their organization on the right track, as \u201cTrajan Langdon, Scott Perry, Dennis Lindsey and John Hammond have impressed in interviews<\/a> and are front-runners to meet with Pistons owner Tom Gores,\u201d per Yahoo Sports\u2019 Vincent Goodwill and Jake Fischer. Detroit, who is sifting through their candidates using a third party, \u201chopes to fill the position before next month\u2019s NBA Draft.\u201d<\/p>\n Whoever the team hires is expected to \u201cmake decisions or at least strong recommendations\u201d on general manager Troy Weaver and head coach Monty Williams.<\/p>\n Both have failed to live up to expectations in their role. However, in regard to Weaver, many of Detroit\u2019s current problems can be attributed to him. As the lead decision-maker, Weaver\u2019s the one primarily responsible for putting together a young core whose awkward fit undermines their potential<\/a>.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, the decision to hire Williams was Gores\u2019 call. Weaver\u2019s choice, former UConn head coach Kevin Ollie, would have been much better. He was no world-beater but in 28 games, the Nets went 11-17 with Ollie as interim head coach. For comparison, the Pistons went 14-68 under Williams, the worst record in franchise history.<\/p>\n With that said, Detroit using a search firm to find their finalists was wise. Nonetheless, there\u2019s going to be questions about who Gores chooses simply because of his track record with personnel hires. Again, Gores hired both Weaver and Williams.<\/p>\n To that point, if anyone is at fault for the state of the franchise<\/a>, it\u2019s him.<\/p>\n Of the four executives considered to be frontrunners for the Pistons\u2019 opening, Langdon appears to be the best fit.<\/p>\n To start, Detroit\u2019s vice chairman (Arn Tellem) was Langdon\u2019s agent during his playing days. That type of familiarity bodes well for the front office\u2019s chemistry and communication both immediately after his hire and for the foreseeable future. That said, because of Langdon\u2019s background, he\u2019s also able to understand players in a way that other executives might not. His experience is a useful tool for scouting and contract negotiations.<\/p>\n In addition, Langdon\u2019s rise through the ranks speaks volumes about his competence.<\/p>\n After his playing career, he joined the San Antonio Spurs as a scout, holding the position from 2012-2015. In 2015, he joined his former team \u2014the Cleveland Cavaliers \u2014as director of player administration and basketball operations. Then, in 2016, the Brooklyn Nets hired him as an assistant general manager; he was named the general manager of their G League affiliate. Just three years later and Langdon was promoted again, landing a general manager role with the New Orleans Pelicans.<\/p>\n He helped transform both the Nets and Pelicans into perennial playoff contenders.<\/p>\n Among the Pistons\u2019 favorites, only Lindsey is missing ties to Detroit.<\/p>\n Formerly a general manager of the Utah Jazz, Lindsey\u2019s teams had five consecutive playoff appearances (2017\u20132021). He\u2019s also responsible for drafting Donovan Mitchell<\/a> and Rudy Gobert<\/a>, trading for Mike Conley<\/a>, and hiring Quin Snyder.<\/p>\n However, he also comes with baggage. In 2021, Lindsey was accused of making racist remarks<\/a> towards a former Jazz player, Elijah Millsap<\/a>. Though the NBA couldn\u2019t corroborate the Millsap\u2019s claims, Lindsey stepped down from his role as executive vice president but stayed on as an advisory role. In 2023, he joined the Dallas Mavericks in a similar capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After their request to interview Milwaukee Bucks general manager Jon Horst was denied, the Detroit Pistons quickly changed course in their search for a president of basketball operations. Pistons\u2019 Frontrunners for Renewed President Role, Revealed Looking to fill the role for the first time since 2018, the Pistons have homed in on four executives that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":77983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1608,15,62,33,12,3,17,24],"tags":[49242,1024,4557,1123,1729,49241,49102],"class_list":["post-77980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pistons","category-basketball","category-bucks","category-nba","category-pelicans","category-knicks","category-news","category-magic","category-jazz","tag-dennis-lindsey","tag-john-hammond","tag-nba-offseason","tag-scott-perry","tag-tom-gores","tag-trajan-langdon","tag-troy-weaver"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}President Langdon?<\/h3>\n
Too Much Baggage?<\/h3>\n