- Rob Hennigan
The Thunder announced today via a release that they have restructured the front office to compensate for the departure of Rich Cho.
Troy Weaver was promoted to VP/Assistant General Manager, Rob Hennigan to Assistant General Manager/Player Personnel, Paul Rivers to Director of Minor League Operations and Basketball Technology and Brandon Barnett to Director of Minor League Scouting and Manager of Minor League Operations. The team added Michael Winger as Assistant General Manager/Legal and Administration and David Vanterpool as Pro Scout.
“We are pleased to continue to promote from within our organization while also bringing in new people who will enhance and compliment our current staff” said Presti. “The promotions for Troy, Rob, Paul and Brandon are well deserved. They are selfless workers who are extremely committed to our organization.” Presti added, “We are fortunate to have the opportunity to also add people such as Michael and David to our team; both will enhance our organization and help us grow in a positive direction.”
Weaver, who enters his third season with the Thunder organization, spent the previous two seasons as Assistant General Manager focusing on roster development and day-to-day basketball operations. Weaver joined the Thunder after spending four seasons in the Utah Jazz front office. The Maryland native began his career as a coach and spent nine seasons as a collegiate coach with Syracuse University, University of New Mexico and University of Pittsburgh before moving to the NBA.
Hennigan spent the previous two seasons as the Thunder’s Director, of College/International Player Personnel where he focused on NBA Draft preparation and assisted on the day-to-day operations of the Thunder’s front office. Prior to joining the Thunder, from 2004-2001, Hennigan spent four seasons with the San Antonio Spurs working his way from basketball operations intern to Director of Basketball Operations.
Winger joins the Thunder from the Cleveland Cavaliers where he served as Director of Basketball Operations & Team Counsel. He enjoyed five seasons with the Cavaliers in various front office capacities, working on all matters within basketball operations. Winger will focus on player contract negotiations and drafting, salary cap management, as well as other basketball legal and administrative duties.
Rivers enters his fourth season with the Thunder. He served as the Director of Basketball Administration and Technology for the past three seasons. Rivers joined the Thunder after serving as a video coordinator with the Detroit Pistons (2005-07) and the San Antonio Spurs (2004-05). He spent two years working for head Coach Tom Izzo as a member of Michigan State University’s basketball program. Rivers will oversee the operations for the Thunder’s Minor League affiliate in Tulsa.
Barnett joined the Thunder in 2008 as the team’s Manager of Minor League Operations and oversees the day-to-day operations of the Tulsa 66ers. Prior to joining the Thunder, Barnett spent two seasons at the NBA league office in New York. Barnett will oversee Minor League Scouting Operations in his new role.
Vanterpool joins the Thunder from CSKA in Moscow, Russia where he was most recently an assistant coach for the European power. Vanterpool enjoyed a 14-year playing career in the US and Europe, most recently with CSKA where he helped lead the team to the Russian Championship and the Russian Cup in both 2005-06 and 2006-07. He was a member of the 2006 Euroleague Championship team. The 6-4 guard, who played 27 games with the Washington Wizards during the 2000-01 season, also played professionally in Italy and China. Vanterpool will focus on Professional Scouting in the United States and Overseas.
" Most NBA owners leave the business operations to a team president or top executive. But there is no Thunder president because Bennett holds the position, if not the title. From selecting team colors to selling sponsorships, Bennett has been personally involved in virtually all of his team’s major business decisions since moving to Oklahoma City in early July. He lets general manager Sam Presti run the basketball operations, but Bennett gets involved in any major personnel decisions. Danny Barth is the team’s executive vice president and chief administrative officer.
“I think I am a pretty good chairman, but not a good CEO,” Bennett said. “My sense is to devote myself to [the Thunder] and once the renovations are through at the Ford Center, then at some point I will remove myself from the day-to-day operations of the business.” "
from fall 2008
http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/60377
Barth is co-titled Chief Administrative Officer. That is fairly comparable to President, especially in the absence of an official President. Ultimately it is between them and Bennett.
Barth was still referred to in a Seattle paper as Interim President in summer of 2008. His linkedin profile says past Interim President. http://www.linkedin.com/pub/danny-barth/7/36/582
I guess it went away after the move to OKC.
Wilkens was briefly President. After that mess I guess Clay didn't feel it was right or necessary.
Bennett as Chairman is ultimately the top guy.
Presti next raise would probably be to President of Basketball Operations. The extension press releases I found all say Presti Executive VP.
Clay named Barth "interim President" originally and announced a search for a President http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:2y33PHmSBOYJ:seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2003333402_websoniceo31.html+sonics+president+barth&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&lr=lang_en&client=firefox-a
but I guess they didn't named one. He and Presti appear to have title parity for their halves of the operation.
@Crow
That's a lot of people with a lot of fancy titles. Still, I wonder who is the President?
Correction: I guess Minor was an assistant coach for the 66ers. Not sure if he still is.
23 teams did it at least once.
Sidenote: Over the last 10 years an average of 8.5 teams won 50+ in a season. 10 teams did it at least 4 times in the period. Dallas and San Antonio were perfect at 10 for 10, Lakers and Pistons next at 7. This is an early level for judging elite organizations.
"Presti, who was named General Manager on June 7, 2007, has rebuilt a Thunder roster that has made steady improvement over the last three seasons. Presti was promoted to Executive Vice President and General Manager prior to the 2009-10 season."
http://www.insidehoops.com/blog/?p=6285
Looks like they might have a total of 9 VPs of different levels, counting all of the business side and now Weaver.
http://www.nba.com/thunder/executives.html
The official website may not be fully up to date but Barth is listed as Executive Vice President & Chief Administrative Officer, Presti at least was Executive Vice President & General Manager.
Hmm, maybe it's Danny Barth.
Ok, just looked at the team site, and Presti is the Executive VP and GM, so nevermind.
But the question still remains, who is the president? Is that Bennett?
@Joe
Presti's official title is President of Basketball Operations and General Manager.
I notice from the press release that Weaver is VP/Assistant GM.
I don't know all the ins and outs of the Thunder's structure, but Sam Presti has the title of GM, not team President, or even Vice President as far as I know. So, isn't a President or Vice President a more prominent and powerful title than GM?
In most other organizations, the President is the boss.
Some pro coaching experience too.
Ran across an article that said Greg Minor was a scout for the Thunder. Not in the team directory anymore but that might not be conclusive.
Bob Thornton is listed. 6'10 with 8 years NBA playing experience and overseas too. I assume he does or will do some of the leg work with big men evaluation.
It is possible some team will see Weaver's involvement in recruiting Carmelo to Syracuse as a significant thing and try to get him next summer if Melo is still headed toward being available via free agency by then.
If Vanterpool works hard, plays the front office game right he could be where Weaver is in 5 years. The climate is so much more favorable these days.
I've been impressed by the OKC front office. It takes a lot of work, and relationships around the league, to pick up a lottery pick and the 31st pick (a coveted position in the draft because of the unguaranteed contract). They added 4 frontcourt players, seemingly the guys they'd targeted all along, and acquired all of them by draft-day trade. That's an accomplishment.
I'm interested in the Vanterpool hiring and the Trakh hiring. Both have coaching experience outside of the US. I like Vanterpool's comments about Tepic, the Partisan player, in the interview, he talks like a scout.
The Presti mixtape to sell Popovich on Tony Parker might have been pivotal for the selection but it is was also very helpful for the public reputation of Presti. How much of a role Pop and RJ played in that story get out (it usually doesn't for subordinates) initially I can't say but they certainly rolled with it after it was out there. Maybe to help him since he was so young. Most of the praise or the praise that matters will be in the private reference check conversations.
Presti and other team will also evaluate how well each front office guy handles operational responsibilities but
I am most interested in his player judgments.
With Troy Weaver I'd be curious about the guys he has advocated hardest for and the team got, the guys they got he wasn't as strongly for as other front office members and who he was in favor of instead. Was he a big part of choosing Green, Westbrook, Harden, White, Mullens, Pleiss, Kyle Weaver, Livingston, L Williams, etc. over the alternatives and who were the other seriously considered candidates? Who did he and Presti have the most different views on and who "looks" more right now or will in the end?
Can't know this for Weaver, Cho, Branch, Hennigan, Rivers since they never allowed to talk publicly and Presti never gives others individual public credit for discrete organizational choices so impossible to evaluate their fitness for higher office. I am not saying this is wrong, just that is that way. Impression of these guys are based on the titles on their resume and the upward trajectory.
Some may be stronger than others in higher level jobs where the quality of player judgments becomes most important.
Vanterpool sounds like a Spurs style choice to get into the organization. Here is one article on him. http://www.heinnews.com/heinnews/interview-of-the-week-feb-12-cska-moscow-assistant-coach-david-vanterpool/
@Greg
ah.. the caption.
Who is the guy in the picture?
And maybe it's already been mentioned here, but I saw on the bottom line of NBAtv that Iggy said Durant will one day be the all-time leader in points.
Weaver will be a GM within the next few years.