The Charlotte Hornets announced the hiring of three new people as part of the basketball executive team. They are an assistant GM, a vice president of basketball operations and strategy, and a vice president of basketball insights and analysis.
OFFICIAL: We have hired Dotun Akinwale as Assistant General Manager, Ryan Gisriel as Vice President of Basketball Operations & Strategy and Patrick Harrel as Vice President of Basketball Insights & Analysis.
Presented by @CorcoranHM
— Charlotte Hornets (@hornets) May 16, 2024
The Assistant GM is Dotun Akinwale, who comes from the Atlanta Hawks, where he served a variety of roles in the front office. He and Hornets General Manager Jeff Peterson would have had a fair amount of overlap during their respective times in Atlanta.
Ryan Gisrel will be the VP of Basketball Operations and Strategy. He comes from the Brooklyn Nets (where he worked with Peterson). He served as their Executive Director of Basketball and Business Operations after being promoted from his role as Director of Basketball Operations. Prior to his basketball career, he worked at Shapiro Negotiations Institute, which basically teaches people how to negotiate as far as I can tell.
Patrick Harrell joins the Hornets after working for the NBA itself as the league’s Senior Director of Basketball Strategy and Analytics. He apparently was a key player in the implementation of the In-Season Tournament and 2020 Covid Bubble. He seems like a highly regarded basketball nerd, and it’ll be interesting to see what he brings to the organization.
All of the hires are young up-and-comers, which fits in with the Hornets new direction. All of the hires made by the new ownership group have been younger candidates with analytical, forward thinking backgrounds as they try to take a modern approach to the NBA. It’s an entirely different process than hiring old buddies and old heads that have been around the league for a long time. It remains to be seen how this shakes out, but it’s hard not to be excited about the approach the Hornets are taking to rebuilding their franchise. It’s oozing with competence.
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