Earlier this week, former Cleveland Cavaliers general manager David Griffin was named the betting favorite to replace Magic Johnson as the Los Angeles Lakers President of Basketball Operations.
As it turns out, Griffin will be a President of Basketball Operations this year -- just not for the Lakers.
According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, the New Orleans Pelicans are finalizing a deal to name Griffin as their new President of Basketball Operations. Earlier this year, the Pelicans fired longtime general manager Dell Demps, leaving a vacancy at their top basketball decision-making position.
It appears that void will be filled by Griffin, who served as the Cavs' general manager from 2014-17. In that span, he helped build a championship-winning roster around LeBron James, orchestrating trades to acquire key pieces to Cleveland's roster, including Kevin Love, J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert, Timofey Mozgov, Channing Frye and Kyle Korver, in addition to signing free agent forward Richard Jefferson.
In three seasons with Griffin in charge of the roster, the Cavs compiled a 161-85 regular-season record and advanced to three straight NBA Finals. In 2016, Cleveland beat the Golden State Warriors in seven games to win its first NBA championship in franchise history.
As opposed to competing for a championship right away as he did when he was named the Cavs' general manager in 2014, it appears that Griffin will be overseeing a rebuild in New Orleans. One of the 45-year-old executive's first orders of business with the Pelicans will likely be dealing franchise player Anthony Davis, who requested a trade from the team earlier this year.
