Looks like there are some changes coming to the Spurs FO with RC being promoted to a higher position overseeing a broader range of responsibilities and assistant GM Brian Wright will be appointed GM, but still report to RC directly. We'll start a new thread once more details are revealed and an official announcement is made. No word on the timeline of all this occurring, but there once was a whole section on Spurs.com with bios from various executives that is no longer listed. I guess they're updating it.
Report: Spurs revamping front office... longtime general manager R.C. Buford is moving up within the Spurs Sports & Entertainment hierarchy and will receive a new title.
Assistant GM Brian Wright, 37, will be promoted to GM and will report to Buford, the report stated.
Buford, 58, is a two-time winner of the NBA's executive of the year award, winning it first after the Spurs won their fifth league title in 2014 and then again in 2016 after he landed LaMarcus Aldridge in free agency and engineered several other key signings that allowed the club to record a franchise-best 67 wins.
Before joining the Spurs in 2016, Wright served as the Detroit Pistons assistant GM. Buford praised Wright on draft night in June after the Spurs landed a class that included first-round picks Luka Samanic and Keldon Johnson and second-rounder Quinndary Weatherspoon.
The Spurs named Buford their GM in summer 2002. The Spurs have won four championships while he's been in that post.
"The best way to put it would be to say we'd be lost without him," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said after Buford was named Executive of the Year for the second time. "I think those few words say it all. His organizational abilities, his foresight, his ability to plan ahead of time and make judicious and wise decisions is off the charts. We would have had a hard time keeping this together for this long if he wasn't here."
https://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/article/Report-Spurs-revamping-front-office-14110165.phpWe've been losing a lot of talent to other teams even more so recently, and while that's a compliment and extends the Spurs coaching and executive trees, still, I'm very happy that we are retaining RC and he is getting a well deserved promotion. I don't really know much about Brian Wright, and other than news of his being hired in 2016, he's fit right in with the Spurs doing his work diligently and quietly in the background. He has been more involved in more recent deals, so he's been given greater responsibilities along the way. If PATFO trust him, that is a good start.
The article cites snake Young as the source who wrote that Spurs are making this move as a way of transitioning to the 'new NBA' whatever that means. I give snake Young not a scintilla of benefit of doubt who for over at least one year has been pumped info from player snake's group and wrote egregiously one-sided articles against PATFO, so I take this as a dig at the Spurs that RC - he who oversaw four of our five championships during his GM stewardship - is somehow the 'old' way of doing things. Past snake Young criticism that the Spurs were too old school, keeping things hidden close to the vest, operating 'like the CIA' were more self-serving whines that there was less access to a reporter who should not actually have such access than legitimate critique. A nickel says he tries to worm his way into Wright's good graces like he does with new and young players. But if Brian Wright has the trust of PATFO to do things the right way that have served us so exceptionally well through all the trials and tribulations, he'll see right through it.
I do wonder though to what extent BW's influence was on the Morris deal as on paper he did not fit the character we usually look for and in this case looked more at the on-court fit. I'm not blaming Wright, that was all on Morris, and we do have a uniquely collaborative front office dynamic. I guess the Morris debacle was a reminder to stay true to our character principles even when the on-court fit is so tempting. He reportedly didn't even want to play here, so I believe in the long run did us a favour by showing himself sooner rather than later.
Anyway, this news coincidentally comes on the three year anniversary of new of Brian Wright's hiring as assistant GM. He has a very good reputation and has worked his way up to this position. My only concern right now is his drafting ability, and while part of me wishes we could have kept Sean Marks , I feel good having RC's eye overseeing the roster, and the collaborative nature among BW, RC, and Pop and other FO and coaching voices who have ideas to share.