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NBA Rumors: Hawks to name Mike Budenholzer team president

By Stanford Crissey

Feb 2, 2015; New Orleans, LA, USA; Atlanta Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer against the New Orleans Pelicans during the first quarter of a game at the Smoothie King Center. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 2, 2015; New Orleans, LA, USA; Atlanta Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer against the New Orleans Pelicans during the first quarter of a game at the Smoothie King Center. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Atlanta Hawks plan to name head coach Mike Budenholzer as team president; Danny Ferry will be bought out.

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After a year of uncertainty, it appears that the Atlanta Hawks‘ front office hierarchy has finally been solidified. Yahoo! Sports reports that the team plans to name head coach Mike Budenholzer as team president and promote assistant GM Wes Wilcox to general manager. Former GM Danny Ferry’s contract will be bought out.

The decision to part ways with Ferry is not a surprising one, as Ferry has been on an indefinite leave since September, when recordings of him making racially insulting remarks about Miami Heat forward Luol Deng were leaked to the public. Fallout from the same scandal led owner Bruce Levensen to sell the team in April.

Despite the team’s 60-win season, the best in franchise history, it was unlikely that Ferry would return. The team he built was very successful, escaping the rut of being a mid-tier playoff team while shedding some large contracts, but the team decided that keeping Ferry wasn’t worth the potential PR headache, not to mention the possibility that some free agents might shun Atlanta were Ferry still in charge.

In his absence, the power vacuum was filled by Budenholzer and Wilcox, so this shakeup is really just a reinforcement of what had already become the status quo in Atlanta.

What is interesting is the decision to elevate Budenholzer above Wilcox in the team’s hierarchy. Despite just having two years at the helm, Budenholzer becomes just the fifth NBA head coach to be put in charge of personnel in addition to head coaching duties, joining Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs, Doc Rivers of the Los Angeles Clippers, Stan Van Gundy of the Detroit Pistons and Flip Saunders of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The difference here is that each of those coaches has a decade or more of success, and earned the right to ask for personnel control. Despite being this year’s Coach of the Year, Budenholzer, 45, has no experience in that area, and it will be interesting to see what he does with this kind of power. Will he go full Chip Kelly on us? Or will he stick to the Hawks’ plan? It’s always a risk when a team gives a coach larger decision-making power. Usually, the coach ends up reminding us that there’s a reason those are two different jobs.

As for Ferry, while he may take a year or so off, expect to see him back in a front office role in the NBA soon enough. He’s too good at his job to be away for long.

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