The New Orleans Pelicans have named consultant Danny Ferry as their interim general manager in the wake of firing Dell Demps, the team announced Friday:
Gayle Benson:
“We will immediately begin the process of restructuring our basketball operations department. This will include a comprehensive, but confidential, search aided by outside consultants to identify a new leader of our basketball operations, directly reporting to me.”
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) February 15, 2019
Ferry joined the Pelicans as a special advisor to the general manager in June 2016. He has past experience as a general manager, as he served as the Cleveland Cavaliers' GM from 2005 through 2010 and also served as general manager of the Atlanta Hawks from 2012 through 2015. Ferry's tenure with the Hawks ended because of a racism scandal, though he was ultimately absolved of most of the wrongdoing.
His first front-office experience, however, came in 2003 when he served in the San Antonio Spurs' organization right after retiring from the Spurs as a player.
Ferry played in the NBA for 13 seasons, spending the first 10 years of his career with the Cavs before joining the Spurs for the 2000-01 campaign. He capped his career with an NBA title with San Antonio in 2003.
Ferry will be replacing Demps, who had served as Pelicans general manager since 2010.
New Orleans had a tremendous lack of success with Demps at the helm, making just three playoff appearances and winning its only playoff series under Demps' watch last year, when the Pelicans swept the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round.
The Pelicans — who were the Hornets when Demps first took over — never won 50 games under Demps and only tallied 40 wins three times in spite of the fact that Anthony Davis has been on the roster since the 2012-13 campaign.
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