OCTOBER 2: The Thunder have officially announced Hennigan’s new role with the team, confirming in a press release that he has been re-hired as OKC’s vice president of insight and foresight.
“I couldn’t be more pleased to welcome Rob back to the Thunder,” Presti said in a statement. “He was here in the earliest stages of the organization in 2008 as we built the foundation for the Thunder that we are continuing to build from as we enter our 10th season in Oklahoma City.”
The Thunder also promoted Will Dawkins to VP of identification and intelligence.
SEPTEMBER 13: Three months after being dismissed by the Magic, veteran executive Rob Hennigan is returning to his old NBA home, according to Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). League sources tell Scotto that the Thunder have re-hired the former Orlando general manager.
Hennigan, who spent five years as the Magic’s GM, was a member of the Oklahoma City front office before making the move to Orlando. During his final two seasons with the Thunder, Hennigan served as the club’s assistant general manager/player personnel. Before that, he spent two seasons as OKC’s director of college/international player personnel.
While Hennigan didn’t have much success in Orlando during his first stint as the head of a basketball operations department, reports in the wake of his firing suggested that he remained widely respected around the NBA, and would likely receive “attractive” offers from other teams.
It remains to be seen what Hennigan’s new title in Oklahoma City will be, but it’s worth noting that one of the Thunder’s assistant general managers, Michael Winger, left the franchise last month to become the Clippers’ new GM. It would make sense for Hennigan to help fill the hole created by Winger’s departure, rejoining old friends Sam Presti and Troy Weaver in OKC’s basketball operations department.
There’s a lot of ex Magic GM’s running around out there.
Lol VP of foresight