Another member of the New Orleans Pelicans front office is headed elsewhere.
GM Bryson Graham has been hired by the Atlanta Hawks as Senior VP of Basketball Operations, according to a report from Shams Charania of ESPN. He'll join new Hawks GM Onsi Saleh, which serves as the lead role in Atlanta's organization.
Graham spent just one year as Pelicans GM after being elevated to replace Trajan Langdon, who departed a year earlier to become President of Basketball Ops for the Detroit Pistons. It's unclear whether the Pelicans attempted to retain Graham after the firing of executive VP David Griffin in April and following the team's worst season (21-61) since rebranding to the Pelicans. NBA Hall of Famer and Louisiana native Joe Dumars has been hired in that role to forge a new direction for New Orleans' NBA franchise.
Former VP of Basketball Operations and Player Development Swin Cash has also departed this offseason.
The departures set the stage for an interesting offseason of reorganization within a team that failed to build on its upward trajectory after increasing its win total in three consecutive seasons, topping out at 48 wins in 2023-'24. Dumars is expected to retain Zion Williamson and build around the injury-plagued forward, who also finds himself embroiled in off-court issues surrounding a civil lawsuit and rape allegations. Williamson's team has called the lawsuit an extortion attempt and said it intends to countersue for defamation.
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The issues of the prior season can be in large part attributed to injuries, with Williamson and newly acquired PG Dejounte Murray playing in just 30 and 31 games, respectively games. Trey Murphy, Herb Jones and Brandon Ingram also missed significant time due to injuries, with Ingram shipped off to the Raptors in a deadline deal.
The team is also expected to retain head coach Willie Green, who is heading into its fifth season. The Pelicans finished with the third-worst record in the NBA but faced bad lottery luck and will pick No. 7 overall in the NBA draft later this month.