Every 12 months, since 1973, one NBA common supervisor or crew president has been named the league’s Executive of the Year. The award is definitely an honor but in addition shortsighted. It rewards the decision-maker who’s having a great 12 months and is vulnerable to recency bias, and it doesn’t essentially reward long-term savvy and even speedy success. Since 2009, when the NBA took over the method and topped the winner by polling league executives, its winner has come from the championship crew simply 4 instances.
Being an awesome government is difficult. It takes ability, smarts, guts and, sure, luck. Putting collectively one nice 12 months is tough; placing collectively a run of them is even tougher. Sometimes nice work is straightforward to identify — one huge transfer can swing a title — however it will also be a succession of transactions, grinding out small wins on the margins that internet out huge rewards over time.
While just one particular person sits atop the org chart, a entrance workplace builds a crew. It takes a village to win a championship, from scouting to technique to analytics to the form of alchemy it takes to assemble a title-winning roster.
With the 2024-25 season underway, The Athletic got down to discover out which groups do it finest. We canvassed 40 executives throughout the league — presidents, common managers, VPs and assistant GMs — to rank the NBA’s high entrance places of work. Each government ranked their high 5, and factors had been allotted the identical means they’re in NBA MVP voting: 10 factors for first place, seven factors for second place, 5 factors for third, three factors for fourth and one level for fifth. The solely rule: Execs couldn’t vote for their very own crew.
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Respondents had been granted anonymity for each their votes and conversations discussing them in alternate for his or her candor, and every had their very own standards. Ownership constraints and market measurement had been considered. Some valued the processes as a lot because the outcomes. Some valued near-term success, whereas others took the lengthy view.
Interestingly sufficient, successful huge was no assure of a excessive end in these rankings. The defending champion Boston Celtics landed within the high 5, however they didn’t end first. The entrance places of work of different current champions fared a lot worse.
But there was a runaway winner, and it wasn’t shut.
Total factors: 354 factors (29 first-place votes; 9 second-place votes; appeared on 39 ballots)
Governor: Clayton Bennett
General supervisor: Sam Presti
Head coach: Mark Daigneault
It’s one factor to be topped the winner of this inaugural front-office “competitors,” however this was a landslide victory for Presti and his workers. So, why all of the league-wide adulation for the job they do?
For starters, Presti — who realized underneath R.C. Buford and Gregg Popovich in San Antonio earlier than taking on this entrance workplace throughout the Seattle TremendousSonics days in 2007 — has lengthy since confirmed himself to be an elite hoops architect. Building these Kevin Durant–Russell Westbrook groups (with James Harden early on) by way of the draft again within the day established that a lot. And his lack of a championship, fairly clearly, was not seen by his friends as a disqualifier on this train.
But this newest Thunder creation is able to two issues which can be sometimes unattainable to perform on the identical time: Title rivalry and (excessive) flexibility for the long run. The grasp stroke that made all of it doable — the July 2019 commerce with the LA Clippers that introduced Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, 5 first-round picks and two first-round swaps to city in alternate for Paul George — set the stage for what may very well be a really future of success. The option to make Mark Daigneault the top coach in November 2020, when he was elevated from their G League crew after 5 years operating that program, has been successful.
Along the way in which, the Thunder have amassed a group of draft picks that’s unmatched in all of the Association (13 first-round picks by way of 2030 and 17 assured second-round picks in all). The timing of this explicit technique is sort of good, because the construction of the league’s newest collective bargaining settlement is such that the worth of draft picks are at an all-time excessive. As one rival government identified, Presti was as near that negotiating course of as anybody earlier than the CBA’s ratification in April 2023 and clearly knew prioritizing picks was paramount on this period.
“OKC, they’re so effectively positioned, Jesus Christ, for the following 5 years,” one assistant GM stated.
Even with this loaded assortment of expertise, in different phrases, they’ve the belongings to maintain including. Presti isn’t a one-man present, although, as he depends closely on a front-office group that additionally contains former Orlando Magic common supervisor Rob Hennigan, Jesse Gould (in his sixteenth season with the group) and Wynn Sullivan (in his thirteenth season with the Thunder).
Thunder GM Sam Presti (proper), right here with broadcaster Mike Breen, has constructed a entrance workplace that’s the envy of the NBA. (Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBAE by way of Getty Images)
2. Boston Celtics
Total factors: 250 factors (9 first-place votes; 19 second-place votes; appeared on 35 ballots)
Governor: Wyc Grousbeck
President of basketball operations: Brad Stevens
Head coach: Joe Mazzulla
Stevens has solely been in cost for 3 full seasons since he moved up from the sideline to switch Danny Ainge, however the remainder of the Celtics’ organizational infrastructure has been there roughly perpetually, together with vice chairman of basketball operations Mike Zarren and assistant common managers Austin Ainge and Dave Lewin. The Celtics could have constructed their crew on the elder Ainge’s 2013 swindle of the Brooklyn Nets that yielded the draft picks that turned Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, however it was Boston’s newer work to construct round these two underneath Stevens that received nice admiration.
Stevens-era trades for Kristaps Porziņģis, Al Horford, Derrick White and Jrue Holiday established a championship nucleus across the Brown-Tatum core with out breaking the financial institution when it comes to asset prices. Finding Sam Hauser on the post-draft scrap heap and Payton Pritchard on the finish of the primary spherical prolonged their expertise base. And when Ime Udoka was suspended after which let go, they pivoted rapidly to a high-potential inner candidate (Joe Mazzulla), though he hadn’t been a head coach earlier than, and hit that rent out of the park.
As a end result, the Celtics are the defending champions and effectively positioned to make one other run this spring. However, the crew is on the market, so potential possession change looms over the long run; the roster can be about to get extraordinarily costly if the Celtics hold everybody, so robust selections lie forward.
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Total factors: 114 factors (7 second-place votes; 10 third-place votes; appeared on 24 ballots)
Governor: Micky Arison
President: Pat Riley
Head coach: Erik Spoelstra
The Heat have a novel entrance workplace. Riley, its headman, has been there since 1995, and most people round him have too. Andy Elisburg, his deputy, really predates Riley in Miami and has change into some of the revered executives within the NBA. Assistant GM Adam Simon began with the Heat within the video room in 1995 and is a part of the crew answerable for their hits within the draft and off the scrap heap. Eric Amsler, the VP of participant personnel, is in his twenty first season with the group.
“In this point in time the place every thing is tenuous and house owners are so capricious, how about Miami having that complete group there since 1995?” requested one one that voted for the Heat. “It’s an unbelievable testomony to consistency and longevity.”
With all that point collectively, they’ve a finely tuned eye for what embodies Heat tradition. The outcomes have been exceptional. The Heat have received three NBA titles in Riley’s tenure and have made it to seven NBA Finals. They’ve received huge with stars — Shaq and Dwyane Wade, and the LeBron James-led huge three — and been among the best organizations at scouting and improvement. They’ve been capable of lure free brokers — to Miami, which doesn’t damage — and drafted effectively — Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro and Jaime Jaquez Jr. are amongst their newest hits.
What actually stands out is the alignment up and down the group because it feeds into what Spoelstra often turns into one of many league’s overachievers.
“They do an awesome job discovering the those who match Spo and vice versa,” one other Heat voter stated.
Total factors: 64 factors (1 first-place vote; 1 second-place vote; appeared on 15 ballots)
Governor: Robert Pera
President of basketball operations: Zach Kleiman
Head coach: Taylor Jenkins
Kleiman received the league’s Executive of the Year award in 2022 when the Grizzlies received 56 video games, marking a fast rebuild from the ashes of the Grit ‘N’ Grind period. While Memphis slipped out of the playoffs due to a plague of accidents in 2023-24, the Grizzlies have largely been a small-market success story by piecing collectively sensible late-draft choosing and worth signings round high-lottery abilities Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr.
Trading as much as take Desmond Bane thirtieth in 2020 is the obvious success, however the Grizzlies additionally made trades for Brandon Clarke (twenty first in 2019), Xavier Tillman (thirty fifth, 2020), Santi Aldama (thirtieth, 2021) and Jake LaRavia (nineteenth, 2022) and tabbed Vince Williams Jr. (forty seventh, 2022) and GG Jackson (forty fifth, 2023) as rotation-level gamers exterior the lottery. This season, 2024 second-rounder Jaylen Wells has began 20 video games and averaged 12.4 factors per in these video games, a key to Memphis’ begin, which once more has the Grizzlies close to the highest of the Western Conference.
One season after buying Rudy Gobert, Tim Connelly celebrated Gobert being named Defensive Player of the Year for 2023-24. (David Sherman / NBAE by way of Getty Images)
Total factors: 54 factors (1 first-place vote; 2 second-place votes; appeared on 15 ballots)
Governor: Glen Taylor
President of basketball operations: Tim Connelly
Head coach: Chris Finch
Connelly has taken some huge swings since he took over basketball operations for the Timberwolves within the spring of 2022. He made an enormous commerce for Rudy Gobert throughout his first 5 weeks on the job. In October 2024, he dealt away Karl-Anthony Towns a couple of months after the franchise’s finest season in 20 years.
That form of chutzpah has received him the admiration of a few of his friends. The Timberwolves had been one in all two groups other than the Thunder and Celtics that was capable of snag a first-place vote.
“I identical to that Tim doesn’t give a f—,” one government stated.
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There’s extra to Connelly than simply risk-taking. The Wolves have made quite a few sensible strikes since he took over a gifted however unproven roster from former GM Gersson Rosas, whereas additionally constructing an surroundings for Anthony Edwards to develop into among the best gamers within the league. The Gobert commerce was immediately controversial, however after a rocky 12 months, the middle was the bedrock of a 56-win crew that made it to the Western Conference finals, slaying the defending champs alongside the way in which — a roster additionally constructed closely by Connelly when he was the Denver Nuggets common supervisor.
Total factors: 41 factors (3 third-place votes; 7 fourth-place votes; appeared on 15 ballots)
Governor: James Dolan
President: Leon Rose
Head coach: Tom Thibodeau
The Knicks have skilled a renaissance underneath Rose’s stewardship since he took over in March 2020. It appears that just about each transfer the entrance workplace made earlier than this season had labored, utilizing a mix of savvy, smarts and connections to place collectively the most effective Knicks crew in a era.
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The Knicks haven’t solely drafted and scouted effectively, because of assistant common managers Walt Perrin and Frank Zanin, but in addition they’ve combed the NBA ranks to search out the proper veterans for notoriously choosy head coach Tom Thibodeau. The cap and technique crew, led by Brock Aller, New York’s VP of basketball and strategic planning, appeared to have its fingers on a string of offers the franchise received on the margins.
But the Knicks had been probably the most divisive entrance workplace within the NBA amongst league executives. Rival executives lauded their work but in addition had questions in regards to the two huge swings the crew took this previous offseason. For some, the Towns and Mikal Bridges offers pushed them off ballots or stopped them from rating larger.
“If they hadn’t made the Mikal Bridges commerce, they might be on right here,” one crew government stated. “I didn’t suppose that was the all-in transfer. They paid the value of what I believed would have been a greater participant.”
“I might not be within the Karl Towns enterprise for $55 million a 12 months,” an assistant common supervisor stated.
Still, there’s numerous respect for the Knicks. They had been third on three ballots and simply missed a vote from a number of executives.
The outcomes that the Rose-led entrance workplace has produced is difficult to disregard, even when there’s room to nitpick. New York signed Jalen Brunson to a four-year deal in 2022 that rapidly turned a steal after which acquired him to re-sign at a reduction. The Josh Hart commerce was astute and helped form the present character of the crew. The commerce for OG Anunoby final winter turned them into an East contender, and time will inform if the Towns and Bridges offers flip them into the NBA Finals crew they certainly hope they are often, however it has given them the most effective offense within the NBA and made them a high menace within the league.
“I feel they’re astute they usually do a great job of it,” one VP stated.
7. Orlando Magic
Total factors: 33 factors (1 second-place vote; 3 third-place votes; appeared on 9 ballots)
Governor: Dan DeVos
President of basketball operations: Jeff Weltman
Head coach: Jamahl Mosley
The Magic are steadily accumulating extra respect across the league as they hold piling up wins with one of many league’s youngest rosters. The key second was pivoting to a rebuild on the 2021 commerce deadline, after they dealt Evan Fournier, Nikola Vučević and Aaron Gordon. The Vučević cope with Chicago, specifically, has confirmed a ski-mask commerce, as Orlando walked away with a beginning heart in Wendell Carter Jr. and a draft choose that turned star ahead Franz Wagner. Combined with their very own picks (notably Jalen Suggs and Paolo Banchero), it has fashioned the core of one of many East’s finest groups.
The Magic even have been very shrewd about working the scrap heap, paying nothing to accumulate Moe Wagner and Goga Bitadze after they had been let go by different groups. Contractually, they’ve maintained flexibility by being the grasp of the crew possibility — six Magic gamers have them of their contracts, not together with the automated ones for first-round rookie offers.
Orlando has picked its spots in free company, splurging this previous summer time on Kentavious Caldwell-Pope however principally holding its powder dry to re-sign or prolong homegrown expertise. The Magic additionally nailed their coach rent after they tapped Jamahl Mosley to information their rebuild. And a max extension for Franz Wagner that had rival execs trying sideways earlier than the season couldn’t have turned out higher.
The selections will get tougher from right here. The Magic could have to shed cash to get beneath subsequent 12 months’s tax line as soon as extensions for Wagner and Suggs kick in, and Banchero is a 12 months later. But the Magic earned respect from rival execs for getting the rebuild up to now.
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Total factors: 30 factors (3 third-place votes; 4 fourth-place votes; appeared on 10 ballots)
Governor: Dan Gilbert
President of basketball operations: Koby Altman
Head coach: Kenny Atkinson
The Cavaliers have steadily climbed the ladder within the East since LeBron James left in 2018 and could crest this season with their 21-4 begin by way of 25 video games. Altman turned the primary common supervisor to get a contract extension from proprietor Dan Gilbert — maybe extra spectacular than any placement on this record — earlier than he acquired promoted to president. He and common supervisor Mike Gansey have constructed a roster on the ascent thanks to a couple savvy strikes. Insinuating themselves into the James Harden commerce in 2021 netted them Jarrett Allen. The Donovan Mitchell commerce was a giant swing, however getting him to signal an extension may need been extra notable. The newest huge resolution — firing J.B. Bickerstaff final offseason and changing him with Atkinson — seems like a winner too.
“Good job embracing the strengths (of) their gamers and making their huge transfer when these had been able to assume it,” one government stated.
Total factors: 21 factors (1 second-place vote; 2 third-place votes; appeared on 5 ballots)
Governor: Joe Lacob
General supervisor: Mike Dunleavy Jr.
Head coach: Steve Kerr
This Warriors entrance workplace is just not the identical one which constructed and nursed the dynastic groups final decade, however it has discovered a technique to rejuvenate the Stephen Curry-led roster by including contemporary blood and younger expertise. The Warriors netted their lone second-place vote as a result of Mike Dunleavy Jr., not Bob Myers, is the GM.
“This goes to be a bit of little bit of a controversial choose, however this has to do with who’s in cost now and never the previous,” one government stated. He added that he “wouldn’t have stated it previous to Mike taking on.”
The Warriors haven’t reached anyplace close to the heights they did a a half decade in the past, however they’ve gotten off to a robust begin to date this season as Dunleavy, government VP of basketball operations Kirk Lacob, assistant common supervisor/director of participant personnel Larry Harris and a slew of younger front-office staffers have remade the roster round Curry and Draymond Green. The Warriors took Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis in Dunleavy’s first draft in cost and have added quite a few sensible veterans round their core. The option to let Klay Thompson depart isn’t burning them, and Dunleavy and firm have executed it whereas following Joe Lacob’s mandate to decrease payroll.
R.C. Buford (left) celebrates successful the No. 1 choose in 2023 NBA Draft with Spurs managing companion Peter J. Holt and GM Brian Wright. (Jeff Haynes / NBAE by way of Getty Images)
Total Points: 14 factors (2 third-place votes; 1 fourth-place vote; appeared on 4 ballots)
Governor: Peter J. Holt
CEO: R.C. Buford
General supervisor: Brian Wright
Head coach/president: Gregg Popovich
The Spurs had been the category of the NBA for almost twenty years, an nearly unbelievable reign. The key drivers of that interval are nonetheless there. Buford is now the CEO and Popovich stays president of basketball ops. Wright took over as common supervisor in 2019.
“R.C. continues to be there,” stated one Spurs voter.
While the Spurs have hit some potholes in recent times and transitioned into rebuilding mode (including Victor Wembanyama with the No. 1 choose within the 2023 draft helps), they nonetheless preserve respect across the league. Perhaps the most important testomony to that’s not simply the on-court outcomes however the litany of Spurs disciples in entrance places of work across the NBA, from Sam Presti to Sean Marks to Landry Fields. A stint within the Spurs entrance workplace nonetheless carries some cachet.
Others receiving votes
T-11. Indiana Pacers and Houston Rockets (12 factors)
The Pacers made a double splash as a small-market success story in 2023-24, making each the NBA Cup closing and the Eastern Conference finals. Under president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard and common supervisor Chad Buchanan, Indy rebuilt a playoff crew with out tanking by way of an impressed commerce for Tyrese Haliburton and shrewd drafting and signings on the margins, and employed a high coach in Rick Carlisle to run it. In a rarity for the Pacers, they made a splash commerce for Pascal Siakam in January 2024 to spice up their playoff run.
Houston has emerged as a power within the West this season after buying and selling James Harden in 2021 and rebuilding by way of the draft underneath common supervisor Rafael Stone, nabbing younger stars corresponding to Alperen Şengün, Jalen Green, Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari Eason. In 2023, the Rockets labored free company to seize Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks as veteran linchpins and added an elite coach in Udoka.
13. Philadelphia (10 factors)
The Sixers had been a divisive subject, with some voters praising crew president Daryl Morey’s creativity and drive and others dismissing his strategy to team-building.
“Daryl has balls, however he’s buying and selling shares from a desk. I don’t suppose what he does can win on the highest ranges,” one government stated.
While his groups have by no means received a title, Morey has an intensive monitor report of successful in Houston and Philadelphia and a willingness to journey out uncomfortable conditions with the likes of Harden and Ben Simmons. Those earned Philly a number of votes.
14. Utah Jazz (9 factors)
Team president Danny Ainge arrived from Boston in December 2021 and used the 2022 offseason to commerce Gobert and Mitchell for a boatload of draft picks, beginning Utah on a still-ongoing rebuild. He and common supervisor Justin Zanik earned plaudits for nabbing Walker Kessler and Lauri Markkanen within the respective trades.
15. Dallas Mavericks (8 factors)
President of basketball operations Nico Harrison took over in 2021 and had the Mavs within the NBA Finals in 2024, after executing a collection of trades and transactions to reshape the crew round Luka Dončić. The Mavs acquired Kyrie Irving, P.J. Washington, Daniel Gafford and Quentin Grimes in trades, added Naji Marshall and Klay Thompson (by way of sign-and-trade) and drafted Dereck Lively II … all since 2023.
16. Brooklyn Nets (6 factors)
Nets common supervisor Sean Marks has seen this film earlier than, taking on one of many league’s most hopeless conditions in 2016 and getting the Nets into the postseason by 2019, earlier than Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving signed as free brokers. Now he’s doing it once more within the wake of their departures. Marks has accrued much more belongings for this spherical by way of trades of Durant, Irving and Mikal Bridges, and he won’t be executed.
17. Milwaukee Bucks (3 factors)
Under common supervisor Jon Horst, the 2021 champions have saved the primary factor the primary factor, twice extending star Giannis Antetokounmpo whereas sustaining a core group round him with Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez, Bobby Portis and Pat Connaughton. An opportunistic foray to swap Jrue Holiday for Damian Lillard has been the one current main swing, though the 2020 commerce that netted Holiday within the first place performed an enormous function of their championship. And whereas Lillard has performed significantly better in Year 2 with the Bucks, that deal — to date, anyway — has hardly labored out as they’d hoped.
18. Toronto Raptors (2 factors)
Toronto was the envy of the league after a collection of shrewd strikes resulted in a crew with no lottery picks successful the title in 2019 — the primary time that had occurred in 30 years. But the Raptors appear to have misplaced their means the previous couple of years and are attempting to work again into rivalry. Recent draft picks Scottie Barnes and Gradey Dick and trades for Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett and Ochai Agbaji have rearmed crew president Masai Ujiri’s squad with a younger nucleus.
T-19. Washington Wizards, Denver Nuggets and LA Clippers (1 level)
Denver received the championship in 2023 and has earned plaudits for its drafting, participant improvement and total stability, clearly together with the steal of the century in forty first choose Nikola Jokić within the 2014 draft (when Connelly was on the Nuggets’ front-office helm). Calvin Booth joined the Nuggets as an assistant common supervisor in the summertime of 2017 and was elevated to the GM function when Connelly left for Minnesota in 2022. Other staffers who helped construct their championship crew, amongst them assistant common supervisor Tommy Balcetis and vice chairman of basketball operations Ben Tenzer, are nonetheless there as effectively.
Under president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank, the Clippers have appeared to do their finest when issues look bleakest, corresponding to scratching out a 48-win playoff season the 12 months earlier than Kawhi Leonard and George confirmed up, or this 12 months’s 14-11 begin with George gone and Leonard injured. Owner Steve Ballmer has invested closely within the entrance workplace, thereby affording him the posh of additionally having two front-office executives in Trent Redden (common supervisor) and Mark Hughes (senior vice chairman/assistant common supervisor) who’ve been within the operating for GM spots elsewhere.
Said our Clippers voter: “This goes to be controversial as a result of it didn’t work (with Leonard), however these guys are actually good.”
The Wizards apparently thought so, too, as a result of they employed Michael Winger from LA in May 2023 to run their very own flagging operation. Winger’s down-to-the-studs rebuild continues to be in its early phases, however the strikes (together with buying and selling Bradley Beal and Deni Avdija for draft capital) earned sufficient respect from no less than one voter to make the record.
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(Illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic; Photos: Elsa / Getty Images; Kathy Willens /Associated Press )
