Pelicans GM SHAKEUP: Bryson Graham Exits | Joe Dumars’ New Vision for New Orleans

Pelicans GM SHAKEUP: Bryson Graham Exits | Joe Dumars’ New Vision for New Orleans

there’s a big shakeup coming to the Pelicans front office I’ll tell you why losing general manager Bryson Graham is a big deal but why the Pelicans will be okay going forward It’s the Tuesday episode of Locked On Pelicans Let’s go You are Locked On Pelicans your daily New Orleans Pelicans podcast part of the Locked On Network your team every day Welcome to another edition of Locked On Pelicans the daily podcast covering your favorite team the New Orleans Pelicans and NBA Part of the Locked On Podcast Network your team every day available wherever you get your podcast and available on YouTube I’m your host Pelicans Insider credential member of the media Jake Madison Nola Jake on Twitter here with you on this Tuesday and we’ve got some big news that broke in the middle of the day on Monday and that is a big shakeup to the Pelicans front office here and that is them losing Bryson Graham to the Atlanta Hawks He is making that move from New Orleans to Atlanta We’ll break down what it means for the Pelicans in the short term and long term Look at Bryson Graham’s role and why he was important to this team and how they just move forward from here Today’s episode of Locked On Pelicans is brought to you by Monarch Money Take control of your finances with Monarch Use code locked on NBA Monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year And of course thank you for making Locked on Pelicans your first listen today and every day We’re here Monday through Friday The number one Pelicans podcast covering everything you want to know about this Pelicans team So please subscribe wherever you get your podcast and join over 11,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well And become an everydayer That means you listen Monday through Friday to the Locked On Pelicans podcast If you’re an everydayer let me know in the comments down below We got a lot to talk about this week about two uh basically just two weeks to the NBA draft I’m looking forward to it A whole two-day event now So let’s get into this Sham Shirani of ESPN broke the big news and that is Bryson Graham is joining the Atlanta Hawks in their new restructured revamped front office leaving the New Orleans Pelicans Bryson Graham has been the general manager the past year He was replacing um replacing Tan Langden who left to go take the top lead decision-making job over in Detroit Look Bryson Graham there’s no way to put this other than this is a loss for the team Bryson Graham has been here since 2010 He has worked his way up from video intern He started as a front office intern then moved to player development director moved to basketball operations associate then video coordinator then scouting coordinator then director of scouting then the assistant general manager and then to being the actual general manager of the team basically second in command to David Griffin That’s an incredible rise over a 15-year period 14-year period whatever you want to look at it with you know you don’t make it that far and through multiple regimes whether it’s ownership or two front offices in Dell Dempse and then David Griffin unless you’re good at what you do Just as simple as that You don’t make it that far unless you’re as good uh you know or good at what you do Especially with bigger regime changes in there like this one right This is where you know you have someone new come in They want to usually kind of make some big changes clean some house like we’re seeing with Joe Dumar And more on that here in a second And by doing that he survived the transition from Dell Demps to David Griffin That says a lot about the work that he’s doing for people to recognize that about him And in general he’s been a big voice when it comes to drafting and scouting with all of that He was a driving force behind Trey Murphy behind Herb Jones Jose Alvarado and some of the other picks on this team Dyson Daniels even though he’s having success elsewhere You know that’s someone you want in the building usually And now he’s going to be leaving And we don’t know exactly the exit here Was this Joe Jumar’s pushing him out Was this just a better opportunity for him I’m not entirely sure but it’s probably a little column A little bit of column B or just maybe seeing the writing on the wall and looking for an opportunity elsewhere so that he could land on his feet So that’s what it is right now You know a couple of things from this here And one of this is you know I don’t want to say this means Joe Dumar is quite like consolidating power right Because he’s in charge He has all of the power in the first place This is maybe more Joe Dumar’s remaking everything in his vision with the people that he wants doing those sorts of things And Bryson Graham maybe as good as he is just isn’t his guy and he wants to bring in somebody else And he’s already brought in some of those people Troy Weaver being added to senior vice president of basketball operations right And you know from everything I had heard he was basically second in command So you in a sense in terms of the work not entitled let’s say had a demotion for Bryson Graham and Troy Weaver is a guy that’s very involved in the scouting very hands-on with all of that and the draft process You know this could be good or bad You know we got to give this regime let’s call it this group time to see and execute on their vision you know we’ve kind of talked about you know some of the process in getting these people here and some of the questions about that but they’re here So we just kind of look at it going forward and I hope everybody succeeds Troy Weaver you know it could go either way It feels like you know when you look at the success of the Detroit Pistons this past year he had his fingerprints over a lot of the team Not entirely right It was Trejan Langden who brought in Joe um not Joe Dumar Tan Langden brought in Tobias Harris They’ve added important veterans to under Trajan Langden Dennis Shruder being one I think uh Beasley was under was he under did Langden add him I can’t remember But a lot of the drafted guys were Troy Weaver Now had issues with the coach there Monty Williams and maybe that more had to do with ownership So maybe Troy Weaver was handicapped a little bit But I will say this about it So like you could give him the benefit of the doubt and be like “Yeah you know what I think he’s going to do good here.” And I buy it I’ve talked to a lot of people around and affiliated with Detroit and the Pistons and they let’s put it mildly are not Troy Weaver fans but that again might just be more reacting to the actual record of the team which yeah no was not good during his tenure there at all including a historic losing streak just not this past season the season before I guess right now So that’s worth keeping in mind So losing a guy in Bryson Graham who has shown success in terms of players and losing that voice losing that mind isn’t a great thing when you bring in someone like Weaver who has a lead decision maker has a much more questionable track record Now Weaver has done a good job where he’s been elsewhere you know before that with Oklahoma City and making some really great decisions there really kind of impacting the Russell Westbrook decision to draft him you know the past year weaver spent with the Wizards And before you go go like yeah you always want to hire people from the the Pistons and Wizards It’s with the Wizards for one year You know them being bad had less to do with Weaver than like other things having to do with that team and before him So the Pelicans you know in one sense might just be fine but this is Joe Dumar’s just you know bringing in his people the people he wants to work with you know and putting the people he wants in the positions he wants them in to start to execute his vision And I think that is worth keeping an open mind over and let’s see how it all plays out Give them time and we hope for success because look they’re going to try and win we’ll have a early idea of whether you know what what they’re doing here and whether it’s working or not But I want to get into this idea While I do think losing Bryson Graham is a loss it’s not like you’ve lost everything that he contributed And that’s an important thing So let’s get into kind of some of the scouting stuff and what this means going forward And also I’m going to ask you this question Ponder it over the break here Is continuity with this team actually an important thing I’m not so sure Let’s talk about that coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans Today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans is brought to you by Door Dash NBA fans you know what time it is The NBA Finals and that means big performances and even bigger rewards So Door Dash is bringing the heat with a slam dunk deal for Dash Pass members during the 2025 NBA playoffs It’s called They Swoosh You Score or anytime a player drops 50 or more points in a playoff game Dash Pass members score a free threepiece crispy tender 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want to know about this Pelicans team So please subscribe wherever you get your podcast and join over 11,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well Become an everyday that means you listen Monday through Friday and make for your second listen here the Locked on NBA Big Board Show NBA draft expert Raphael Barlo reacts to every workout interview and rumor leading up to the NBA draft Find Lockdown NBA big board on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast part of the Lockdown podcast network your team every day So we just reacted to Bryson Graham leaving It’s a loss Like it’s a loss There’s no getting around that You just want smart people in the building Simple as that And Bryson Graham was definitely doing that And it looked like he was going to be safe at one point you know at the Joe Dumar’s introductory press conference you know in what you would call like the green room I guess or something like that where Dumar’s and his family was You know you had the like lead people with the Pelicans and organization in there And then you also had Bryson Graham in that room Willie Green wasn’t even in there He’s kind of outside all that Bryson Graham was in there like with Dumars and his family that seemed to indicate in some capacity that he was maybe going to be safe but maybe the you know in a sense demotion led him to seeking things elsewhere where you just want to feel valued and that’s a that’s an important thing all around We’ll actually get to that a little bit later in the show here So this means the Pelicans this off season have lost you know their three top decision makers in David Griffin Bryson Graham Swin Cash a year after losing their number two guy in Tan Langden too Is that concerning that you’ve made like those type of sweeping across the board changes you know right before the draft is two weeks away Can you afford to lose someone like that two weeks before the draft So let me let me put this let’s kind of look at what it means going forward right One thing that I think is important is while Bryson Graham is good in my opinion good at his job and someone you want to keep you know a lot of the work that he’s done is not just vanished It’s not gone right All the data is still here scouting reports things and all that still with the team You know the files that they put together of all that stuff all of that is still here right You know they fired most of the scouting staff earlier in you know when when Dumar came in It’s not like you lose all of the work It’s not like they’re just storing the stuff in their mind and when they’re gone you don’t have access to it They’re filling out reports They’re doing things you know it’s probably getting put in some sort of like CRM or something I don’t exactly know what it is or binders and stuff like that You still have all of that Now while the person who makes those decisions and write those reports is important to be able to you know talk about it and how they arrived at certain conclusions and things like that a lot of like the raw data and all of that is not gone And that’s I think an important thing to keep in mind here If anything you’re kind of adding to some of this Right now you bring in Troy Weaver who was not like out of basketball and not doing things working with the Wizards Right now he might not have direct access to files the materials all that but he knows the players he scouted and he brings that in So now you’re still combining that with what you have from Bryson Graham New scouts will come in will have been scouting and they’re going to bring in loads of information too So in a way maybe you’re doubling up on it in some capacity if that makes sense So it’s not like all the work is gone A lot of that is still all of that is still going to be here You actually saw I think it was the Nixon Raptors get into like a legal almost like pillow fight over you know people taking proprietary information and files It’s like they’re scouting reports Everyone kind of has this stuff right So you haven’t just lost that So the timing of this right before the draft and stuff doesn’t particularly concern me And I don’t think that this is you know where New Orleans is like going to be you know stuck and in a bad spot with the draft two weeks away They’ve been finalizing their board with input from Bryson Graham and everybody and you’re going to be able to at least have all of that and still be able to rely on it It hasn’t vanished to thin air You know I think another thing you could look at under Joe Dumar’s here is there is now maybe a lack of people with institutional knowledge of this franchise and you don’t have that anymore Bryson Graham had been here for 15 years about had as much institutional knowledge especially in a front office capacity as you could have So you lose that And is that a good or bad thing You know on the surface saying it like that doesn’t sound good right But then you look at the team and the lack of success they’ve had and how they’ve been doing things right And is that something to worry about or not right Like maybe you just need fresh changes We’ve kind of all agreed I think for the most part that this franchise needed a breath of fresh air whatever that kind of air was And well you’re you’re getting it here you know while Bryson Graham might have been is good at his just not might have been is good at his job Let me be clear on that You know losing people that have been associated with this team where they’ve been losing Now it’s not Bryson Graham’s fault everyone got injured So let’s be clear And that same for David Griffin and others right But maybe you just need to completely clean house and do things in a different way than you were doing before And I think that can be an important thing you know we decry the lack of continuity but also do you want continuity from a 21 win season or do you want to do something differently right And I think that’s also worth keeping in mind So that’s why when I see this move and my initial reaction was like oh that’s not good that he’s leaving You know you kind of go to like okay it’s just kind of completing this process of this is going to be a different Pelicans organization This is going to be a bit of a different era for this team at least in terms of the front office right Because look you still have Willie Green here Ownership and the players are largely maybe going to be the same At least when it comes to the players ownership will be So you have all of that still So there is some continuity here But if you weren’t winning and you didn’t like the moves that the Pelicans were making even if a good person is leaving well then maybe that’s a good thing and exactly the type of approach Joe Dumar and this team needed to make if he was brought in to really shake things up well he’s really shaking things up and you’re probably pretty happy about that at this point in time So that institutional knowledge of a team that has not been succeeding maybe is a good thing in a sense That’s not something that maybe I’m overly worried about this team losing when it comes to it right Like now there’s you know potentially a long-term impact on this right you know if Bryson Graham is as good as I’m saying and all of that you know you have his stuff for this year but you won’t have it next year you’re gonna you’re going to miss a lot of that in the future and that’s important when it comes to it You know now if this current regime succeeds no one will particularly care But if they don’t you could be looking at this as uh you know a mistake by the team to let this sort of thing happen because Bryson Graham is someone who is well respected all around the league and within the building too has a lot of respect from basically everyone associated with the teams So that institutional knowledge maybe it’s less more important less important than just having good people in there But I don’t know if this team needs to keep and retain a lot of the institutional knowledge that they’ve had before because what has that knowledge particularly gotten you And maybe it means it’s time for significantly bigger changes in the way they operate in the way that they approach and you don’t want it to kind of be well this is how we’ve always done things So that in a sense is why you know in the open of the show I was like you know it’s a big deal but they’re going to kind of be fine going forward too because we don’t want a repeat of what we’ve seen before We want them to be better and they have not been there There’s potential there but this team hasn’t been able to rise to that reach their ceiling so far And so if you want to do that maybe you just simply need to do things differently than you were before Look there’s no reason in bringing in Joe Dumars and doing exactly everything the same You may as well have kept David Griffin and kept the same approach then right And at least you knew what you were getting with David Griffin Here with Joe Dumar we don’t exactly know what we’re getting just yet We’ll find out I think sooner than you might think but it will take some time to evaluate it And one thing that’s going to be different is how people are being treated It sounds like this is this is interesting here and something that they really are focusing on I’ll explain what that is That’s coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked On Pelicans Today’s episode of Locked On Pelicans is brought to you by Monarch Money You ever check your bank account and wonder where did all my money go Between dining app online shopping entertainment it’s very easy to lose track And that’s where Monarch Money comes in It’s your personal CFO giving you full visibility and control over your finances And Monarch Money isn’t just a budgeting app It’s a complete financial command center You can track all your accounts investments and spending in one place So you stop just managing your money and you start building wealth So instead of juggling multiple apps just use Monarch Money to check your finances track spending and even playing long-term goals Are you saving for a house saving for a car Are you just trying to build some emergency funds for when things inevitably happen in real life You’re going to be able to do that with Monarch Money They’re going to help you achieve those goals that might have been out of reach before So take control of your finances with Monarch Money Use code locked on MBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year That’s monarchoney.com code lockedmbnba for half off your first year And thank you for making Locked on Pelicans your first listen today and every day We’re here Monday through Friday the number one Pelicans podcast covering everything you want to know about this Pelicans team So please subscribe wherever you get your podcast and join over 11,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well And become an everydayer That means you listen Monday through Friday to the Locked On Pelicans podcast And if you’re an everydayer let me know in the comments down below Let me know what you think about the about Bryce I don’t want to call it Bryson Graham firing because it’s not He’s leaving about Bryson Graham leaving and we don’t have the specific details about it just yet Let me know what you think about that in the comments down below for your second listen Saints may be getting a new quarterback new receiver all of that being covered over at the Locked On Saints podcast with host Ross Jackson part of the Lockdown Podcast Network your team every day Make Locked On Saints your second listen today Ross and I are actually friends Um he came over along with Theo Mitchell by the way in arena host of the Pelicans to watch game two of the NBA Finals and my buddy Charles as well That was a lot of fun Um so we actually hang out If you see us out say hi We’re out pretty often right now It’s the summer What else do you do in New Orleans You stay inside because it’s so hot outside Okay let’s slightly switch gears but it’s kind of in the same vein of doing things differently Joe Dumar in an interview with nola.com Times Piku and Rod Walker of the advocate there had a there’s an interesting quote that I thought was was interesting when it’s about Joe Dumar and the approach he’s taking to what he wants to do and how he wants this team to be and he goes quote taking care of the players taking care of their families the way you do business the way you travel everything people have to feel good about coming into the building Dumar said that’s an interesting quote is that implying that people weren’t happy that the players weren’t getting taken care of the families weren’t getting taken care of all of those things you know under David Griffin words family and all that were used a lot And then he Dummer comes in it’s and I’m taking this quote out of context too so keep that in mind You know that I think is a little bit interesting to see You know when you look at what makes a team attractive to free agents to players to agents right It’s how do you take care of their people And there’s a couple of teams around the league that are really known for like basically rolling out the red carpet OKC is one of them And that’s why they’re able to get guys like Isaiah Hartinstein why teams players want to play for them in a small market because of those other things that have nothing to do but do impact on court performance You know the Miami Heat are another team that’s kind of known for that and taking care of families as well along with the Golden State Warriors There’s a couple others too You know the Pelicans would be smart particularly in small markets to emulate that sort of thing You know when you look where you can get a competitive edge do that Look you’re not a big market team or you know a team in general that has this insane track record of winning where players are just going to flock to you because well I can win a ring there or I you know or anything like that And if that’s the case you need to find ways to make your team your franchise more attractive Now we went through the NFL survey that players did with the Saints and I think there’s some things that are applicable from that to the Pelicans here because look it’s the same ownership group and they share some you know not share facilities but they’re kind of in the same general area when it comes to all of that You know that stuff matters And in general the Saints graded out really well The only thing that was like really negative was one the head coach that’s been changed and the other was like the dining facility for him and that just went through a complete renovation So the Pelicans are going to be able to have access to all of that stuff as well And for you know Pelicans and things it’s on a much smaller scale given it’s an NBA team not an NFL team So the Pelicans could have some pretty good infrastructure for this sort of thing But what can you do for the families What can you do for the agents just taking care of people in a way that they haven’t maybe been doing before And I think that’s something that this team really would be wise to invest in And under Joe Dumar he seems to be taking that approach You know with Joe Dumar one of the big things that I’ve been getting from him is that you know he cares a lot more about the non like physical playing attributes about people basically like are you mentally tough Are you a tough team in general He very much cares about that That has less to do with how high you jump has less to do with how well you shoot or how many threes you take or your style of play or anything like that You know he’s focused on this idea of family taking care of people right not how how hard you practice even though that’s probably part of it but like doing all the things that you would just call like doing right by people and looking for those type of attributes he’s talked a lot about I want to get to know the person the the you know as as a whole and all of that that’s an important thing I think right and if he’s looking to understand that from players shouldn’t the players be looking to understand that from him and one way that he can really show that is through these type of let’s call them ancillary things for a lack of a better term the way you travel Let’s make this comfortable for people Let’s make sure they’re well taken care of You know are you handling arrangements and making things easy for family members who are coming to visit or even for players to move down here Is there like I don’t know if it’s like a concierge service or what but those are the type of things that I think can really try and help elevate a franchise or at least make them more attractive And in a small market where you’re lacking some of those edges those advantages build that in Build that in I’m not saying it’s going to make you land LeBron James in free agency or things like that but is it going to hurt you No It requires ownership getting some more money and spending but it seems like Joe Dumar’s that’s going to be the approach And you know when he was hired they probably had talks about that sort of thing of you’re gonna need to spend you know Gail Benson has been willing to spend when it seems like it’s the right thing to do and hopefully this is one of those times because it does seem like this could really help the Pelicans So I like this approach from Joe Dumars and the way that he’s looking at things and trying to improve the things that he can improve pretty quickly Other things are going to take time This is something you could start putting in you know day one day two the first month or so of his tenure here Let me know what you think in the comments down below on YouTube That’s going to do it for this episode of Locked On Pelicans More on the draft tomorrow I’m trying to line up a guest or two for later in the week as well Got a whole lot to talk about News basically feels like every day around this Pelicans team So as always I’m your host JakeMadison Nola Jake on Twitter This is the Lockdown Pelicans podcast part of the Lockdown Podcast Network Your team every day We’ll be back with y’all tomorrow So see y’all next time

Front office shakeup rocks New Orleans Pelicans as GM Bryson Graham departs. What does this mean for the team’s future and upcoming NBA draft?

Jake Madison breaks down the implications of Graham’s move to the Atlanta Hawks, exploring how it reshapes the Pelicans’ front office structure. The discussion covers Joe Dumars’ role in rebuilding the organization, the balance between institutional knowledge and fresh perspectives, and potential impacts on draft strategy. Madison analyzes the timing of these changes and their significance for the team’s direction.

Tune in for an insider’s take on the Pelicans’ evolving front office and what it could mean for the team’s performance next season.

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