And could Giannis Antetokounmpo’s agent find his way into the front office?
The search for a President of Basketball Operations has dragged on for longer than many expected. But within the last week, two more intriguing names have emerged on that front.
The latest from from Marc Stein and Jake L. Fischer on the Stein Line substack:
The Atlanta Hawks have interest in trying to hire Toronto’s Masai Ujiri as the new president of basketball operations, league sources tell The Stein Line.
It was not immediately clear, league sources say, what sort of shot Atlanta has at prizing Ujiri away from the league’s lone Canadian franchise, which won only championship in franchise history in 2018-19 after Ujiri boldly traded for Kawhi Leonard when the former San Antonio Spur had only one year left on his contract.
Leonard led the Raptors to the NBA championship in his solitary season north of the border and then joined the LA Clippers in free agency. Toronto has since missed the playoffs in four of the past five seasons, but Ujiri announced in mid-April that he remains determined to steer the Raptors to a second title.
Ujiri is believed to be entering the final season of his current Raptors contract.
“I feel like we just have to win another one and we will win another one here,” Ujiri said at his annual end-of-season news conference on April 15.
The Hawks announced on April 21 that they are searching for a new president of basketball operations to pair with highly regarded cap strategist Onsi Saleh, who was recently promoted to general manager when Atlanta simultaneously announced the dismissal of Landry Fields.
The Stein Line reported last week that the Hawks, before their interest in Ujiri emerged, pursued former Golden State Warriors executive Bob Myers with success and have likewise approached various top agents to gauge their interest in the job.
One agent to emerge as a potential candidate with the Hawks, league sources say, is Octagon’s Alex Saratsis, who represents Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Miami’s Bam Adebayo.
Saratsis’ possible involvement in the Hawks’ search would be a fascinating development that connects two of the major curiosities at the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago this week … with Antetokounmpo’s future, of course, atop the list. Saratsis co-represents Antetokounmpo with Octagon’s Georgios [sic] Panou and both agents are expected to soon meet with the Bucks to determine whether the two-time MVP will remain in Milwaukee after 12 seasons a Buck or seek a trade elsewhere.
Atlanta, remember, was initially the franchise that Antetokounmpo’s agents were working with during the 2013 NBA Draft to select him out of a second tier league in his native Greece.
Antetokounmpo visited Atlanta covertly before that draft, staying at then–general manager Danny Ferry’s home. There are Hawks officials to this day who believe Atlanta was poised to land Antetokounmpo with the 17th overall pick that year had former Hawks head coach Larry Drew not been fired that spring. Drew joined the Bucks soon after his Atlanta dismissal and revealed to Bucks officials, who held the No. 15 pick, that Atlanta was planning to draft the Greek phenom.
Ujiri’s first top level executive experience in the NBA was with the Denver Nuggets, where he executed a tricky but successful trade in sending Carmelo Anthony to New York for a host of players and picks. His work in three years there helped earn him the 2013 Executive of the Year award.
After moving to Toronto, he methodically built up a consistently winning Raptors team — that often struggled in the playoffs — but famously pushed his chips in for one year of Kawhi Leonard. However, the Raptors have only topped .500 once since that 2018-19 title-winning team.
Brad Rowland of Locked on Hawks weighed in with his own intel saying in part on a May 15th edition of his podcast, “the first time I heard buzz about this was that I heard [Ujiri] had interest in the Hawks’ side.”
Octagon’s Alex Saratsis name being dropped into the rumor mill come at an interesting timing, with Antetokounmpo reportedly looking to decide if his future is elsewhere in the NBA with the Bucks looking less and less likely to be truly contending in the near future.
Could this hire, should it happen, bring the two-time MVP’s interest towards Atlanta?