The firing of New Orleans Pelicans general manager Dell Demps came at a surprising time, shocking many outside of the organization who would've expected a move of this magnitude to take place before the trade deadline instead of now.
Yet insiders have drawn their own conclusions based on their observations of Demps' nine-year tenure.
ESPN Insider Bobby Marks noted that the move was made in account of what transpired recently after the Pelicans failed to move Anthony Davis, as Demps went happily idle through the last hours of the trade deadline, content with moving Nikola Mirotic and keep his franchise star home:
“My critique of what transpired in NOP is that HC Alvin Gentry was left to clean up the AD trade drama before and after games. Thought that the front office should have addressed the situation with the media/fans and been more transparent. Instead, this snowballed for a week.”
Gentry was asked repeatedly about the reasons and consequences of keeping Davis through the deadline, and the coach had no knowledge of the reasons of inner workings of what took place at the deadline, recently deflecting that to the front office.
Former ESPN Pelicans beat writer Justin Verrier, now of The Ringer, had a more stark perception of why Demps lost his job on Friday:
“The criticism I heard, constantly, of Dell Demps when I was in NO was that he preached accountability but never practiced it himself. This was a pretty damning example of a problem that plagued his entire tenure.”
These two are not the first to criticize Demps or his body of work, as former commissioner David Stern went on the record to say he was a “lousy general manager” and largely a reason why he wouldn't allow a Chris Paul trade to the Los Angeles Lakers, given that the pieces in return were not sufficient in his eyes.
The Pelicans find themselves in a similar situation now, as the ramifications from this impending trade will be felt a decade after the fact, depending on the pieces they receive in return.
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