Hawks rumors: Atlanta interviews 2 recently fired GMs

The Atlanta Hawks are looking for their next president of basketball operations after making changes to the front office after their season ended. Landry Fields was fired as general manager, and Onsi Saleh was immediately promoted to take the position. The Hawks now want to pair Saleh with an executive to help with making decisions, and they have a few names who have already interviewed for the position, according to The Stein Line.

“Two other candidates who interviewed with Atlanta this week, according to league sources, to replace the ousted Landry Fields: Former Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth and former Kings general manager Monte McNair,” The Stein Line wrote.

“Booth and McNair are among the five GMs leaguewide — along with Atlanta’s Fields, Phoenix’s Jones, and New Orleans’ David Griffin — to lose their jobs in the past month,” The Stein Line continued. “For the Hawks’ purposes, Booth’s scouting acumen and strong reputation as a talent evaluator could pair well with Saleh’s strategic expertise. McNair, meanwhile, just worked in a two-executive structure alongside Wes Wilcox with the Kings.”

Booth was fired toward the end of the season along with head coach Mike Malone, even though they had success over the past few years and won a championship. There seems to have been a power struggle between Booth and Malone, which led the Nuggets to fire them.

McNair was fired after the Kings’ play-in loss, and he had built something special in Sacramento, but this past season was very underwhelming. The Kings had a lot of talent on the team, but they were not able to put the pieces together and win games.

The Hawks also have two more candidates, including Travis Hansen, who once played for the Hawks, and G League president Shareef Abdur-Rahim, who also played for the Hawks.

It will be interesting to see who the final candidates are for the job and who the Hawks decide to hire.