Sergi Oliva Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Trail Blazers Hire Schmitz, Oliva As Assistant GMs

June 9th, 2022 at 3:23pm CST by Rory Maher

The Trail Blazers have officially hired Mike Schmitz and Sergi Oliva as assistant general managers, the team announced in a press release. Both hires were previously reported late last month, but hadn’t been confirmed until today.

“We are ecstatic to welcome both Mike and Sergi to the front office,” said GM Joe Cronin. “Mike’s extensive knowledge of evaluating talent both here in America and internationally along with Sergi’s extensive background integrating strategy and analytics in the game of basketball are welcomed additions to the organization.”

Schmitz has worked as a draft analyst for ESPN since 2017. He’s also a contributor to DraftExpress.com, a comprehensive scouting service utilized by NBA, NCAA and international teams, and is an assistant coach for the Ugandan national team which he joined in 2018. Schmitz will join Portland in early July after he concludes his coverage of the draft for ESPN.

Oliva was part of the Sixers’ front office from 2014-20, beginning as a basketball operations analyst and eventually being promoted to vice president of strategy. He joined the Jazz in 2020 as an assistant coach and spent the last two years in Utah. Prior to arriving in the NBA, Oliva spent 12 years coaching at the youth and senior amateur levels in Catalonia and earned a PhD in Computational Complexity.

Schmitz and Oliva are the second and third assistant general managers hired by Cronin. The first, Andrae Patterson, was hired from Cleveland in January.

Portland has also hired Kevin Kinghorn to serve as chief marketing officer and executive vice president, a non-basketball role.

Trail Blazers Hiring Sergi Oliva As Assistant GM

May 30th, 2022 at 1:34pm CST by Luke Adams

The Trail Blazers are making another addition to their front office, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who reports (via Twitter) that Sergi Oliva is coming aboard as an assistant general manager.

Oliva will be the third assistant GM hired by new permanent general manager Joe Cronin in 2022. Portland also brought in Andrae Patterson during the season and reached an agreement earlier this month with ESPN’s Mike Schmitz, who will officially join the team in July. The Blazers reportedly parted ways with assistant GM Bill Branch.

Oliva was part of the Sixers’ front office from 2014-20, beginning as a basketball operations analyst and eventually being promoted to vice president of strategy. He joined the Jazz in 2020 as an assistant coach on Quin Synder‘s staff and has spent the last two years in Utah.

Prior to arriving in the NBA, Oliva spent 12 years coaching at the youth and senior amateur levels in Catalonia and earned a PhD in Computational Complexity.

The Athletic listed Oliva in their “40 Under 40” feature in March, identifying him as one of the NBA’s young coaches/executives to watch.

Joseph Blair, Sergi Oliva Leave Sixers

October 15th, 2020 at 6:33pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Sixers assistant coach Joseph Blair has departed Philadelphia in favor of a position on Ryan Saunders‘ staff with the Timberwolves, according to Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link).

Blair was previously an assistant coach with the Rockets’ G League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, from 2015-18 before being promoted to head coach for the 2018/19 season. Blair guided that squad to a G League title. He served on Brett Brown‘s staff with the Sixers for Brown’s final season in 2019/20.

Pompey also reports that Sergi Oliva, the vice president of strategy for the Sixers, is leaving Philadelphia’s front office to join Quin Snyder as an assistant coach on the Jazz bench. Oliva has worked for Philadelphia’s front office in some capacity since 2014. Pompey indicated that Oliva played a key role in the club’s analytics-predicated decision making.

Blair and Oliva are not the first Sixers personnel to move on from Philadelphia this season. Assistant coach Kevin Young also recently departed the Sixers for an opportunity with Monty Williams and the Suns.

The Sixers recently signed head coach Doc Rivers to a five-year contract in the hopes that he could guide All-Stars Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid to a title. Rivers is in the process of fleshing out his own staff. Early today, it was announced that former Kings and Grizzlies head coach Dave Joerger would be joining the 76ers as an assistant.