The Atlanta Hawks are shaking up their front office.
According to The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski—and as also reported by ESPN.com’s Jeff Goodman and Marc J. Spears—Wes Wilcox is out as general manager and head coach Mike Budenholzer will forfeit his president duties while staying on as head coach:
In a restructuring of the front office, the Atlanta Hawks are beginning a search for a new president of basketball operations/general manager to oversee the franchise, league sources told The Vertical.
Coach Mike Budenholzer will relinquish his president of basketball operations duties, and GM Wes Wilcox will transition into another significant front-office position, league sources told The Vertical.
Majority owner Tony Ressler is starting a search to hire a new executive at the top of the Hawks masthead. Minority owner Grant Hill will be a significant part of the search process too, but Hill has yet to show any inclination to take on full-time basketball operations duties, league sources told The Vertical.
Both Budenholzer and Wilcox were kind of thrust into their current front-office roles following the departure of then-GM Danny Ferry in 2015. The results since have not been great. The Hawks continue to be a playoff contender, but they’ve saddled themselves with a ton of salary, including the final two years of the unhappy Dwight Howard’s deal.
It’s unclear how this move will impact Atlanta moving forward. If the franchise was looking for a full-scale rebuild, a total purging would have likely taken place. That Budenholzer, and even Wilcox, are sticking with the team suggests the Hawks are still interested in competing, and therefore still interested in re-signing key free agents Paul Millsap (player option) and Tim Hardaway Jr. (restricted).
Though, at this point, if you’re the 32-year-old Millsap, you have to ask yourself: Do I want to be part of what’s happening here?
Strap in, Hawks fans. It should be a very turbulent summer.
