Joe Dumars Introductory Press Conference

[Pelicanidae]

Just going to log stuff from the presser here so that all the updates are in one place.

"You dont compromise the standard... You can't get me to move off high standards. I can say it with a smile but I am not going to move off high standards. If you cant live in that space, it's probably not for you here"

-- Joe Dumars on his leadership style pic.twitter.com/Y9Dt2rtJnR

— Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) April 22, 2025

"I read that last week that I have a mandate. If I have, no one has called and told me that... She said "Joe I would like to know what its like to win an NBA title" That was as close to an edict as you will get"

-- Joe Dumars on mandates from ownership pic.twitter.com/iDpJ7qIUKN

— Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) April 22, 2025

"If you dont know the fans of Louisiana, you might not get it... If you're from here, you understand what it is to be a fan of Louisiana... I'm pulling for LSU, I'm pulling for ULL, I'm pulling for LA Tech"

-- Joe Dumars pic.twitter.com/L1uNUdap1j

— Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) April 22, 2025

Joe Dumars: At the league office I have had to talk to Zion a few times... I talked to Zion since I became EVP here and we had exceptional conversations... I called every player and talked to each one individually... I let em know "lets go, its time here in New Orleans" pic.twitter.com/6BYp14mzI5

— Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) April 22, 2025

As pressers go, it seems pretty solid. Obviously words are words and we have heard a lot of good words over the last few years, but it's better than it sounding immediately awful.

Edit: I will, as though it was the old days, include a transcription of key moments in more detail later on. There's some stuff in here to comment on - both good and bad.

[Pelicanidae]

Some more transcribed stuff from the presser. These transcriptions come from me, and I edit them very slightly for clarity but the spirit of things is always retained and I don't change actual wording or sentence structure - I just get rid of doubled words, filler sounds such as 'uh' and 'erm' and that kind of thing.

From his initial introduction, speaking freely:

'Happy to be home, happy to be back in Louisiana. It's been a whirlwind journey for me, but before I get started I just want to thank Mrs Benson for this opportunity to come back home and to do this. To take on this task. As Mrs Benson said, we've spent quite a bit of time together and most of what we've talked about really is the culture of Louisiana, the fans, the organisation; good people, surrounding yourself with the right people and I feel very confident taking on this role primarily because of her insight and her approach to people. I'll say this, and I'll say it with as much humility as possible, but there's just not a lot of places that I would have left New York for. I enjoyed my job in New York, it was great, loved it at the league office. All the people on the 20th Floor that I worked with in New York, all those people were great. I loved working with them. I wasn't looking to leave. But sometimes opportunities come along and you know right place, right time, right people. And that's what happened here with the Pelicans, with Mrs Benson. So I really wanna thank Mrs Benson for this opportunity to come home.

The other thing I want to do is just say this; I've gotten to see a lot of stuff over the years throughout my NBA career but there are some certain things that are universal, I think. You fill your building with like-minded, good people, and I think you win with good people. I often say this, just because you're a good person doesn't mean you're a tough person. So you can be a good person and tough at the same time. I don't stand here making proclamations about pounding my fist but we really wanna hire good people here, bring in the right type of players here. We want people who are going to embrace New Orleans, embrace being in this city, in this state. If you don't know the fans of Louisiana, you may not get it. You know, my house in Michigan, we got Saints stuff in - we're die hard Saints fans in Michigan. We didn't grow up Detroit Lions fans, we were Saints fans. If you were from here, you understand what it is to be a fan of Louisiana, and I say that because if I'm living in Michigan and LSU is playing I'm not going to LSU but I'm pulling for LSU, UOL, Louisiana Tech. That's just how we are as fans.

So, the team, the players, all of my colleagues that I'll be working with here, I believe that you build a great culture where everyone feels great coming into the building every day. Win, lose, or draw, you feel great coming into the building. So I put a tremendous emphasis on the culture, what the building is like, and then the basketball part; that's for myself and my staff to make sure that we pick the right people but the culture has to be right first. So I put heavy emphasis on that, and build the right way and we'll go from there. So I just wanted to open up and say thank you to Mrs Benson, thank the people back in the NBA, thank Adam Silver, Mark Tatum, those guys were incredible to work with for the last there years, but I'm super happy to be here and super happy to be home.'

From the Q&A section - questions in bold, answers unbold.

When you took this position, were there any operational edicts when you came in as far as retaining your head coach, having to trade players, or do you have an opportunity to come in and assess things top to bottom and go from there?

'No edicts, none whatsoever. I read that last week, that I had a mandate, and I was like if I have, nobody has called and told me that. Absolutely zero. When me and Mrs Benson talked she really just said what she said here, she said 'Joe, I would love to know what it feels like to win an NBA title'. That's as close to an edict as you get. So I intended to do just that, what you said. I intend to get to know people first because I don't know the culture, I don't know all of the people - I know some of the people, I now some people are going to ask me about Willy, I known Willy forever, great man, but Willy and I haven't even sat down and talked yet. Hopefully later this evening if we can sit down and have time, but we haven't even talked yet because yesterday was my first day here, so I haven't even had a chance to do that yet. I'm slowly starting to do it now, talking to everyone. But no, no mandate, zero, nothing like that.

We all hear rhetoric, and we've heard that for a long time, it's great but how do you make that a reality? Are there any core principles that you can elaborate on, non-negotiables for some perspectives on how you plan to go about.

Just the standards that you set as an organisation. Like, you have to set standards and you can't waver from those standards. They can't be the first week of the season, here's standards, but then as the season goes on things slowly start changing. That's not championship, that's not contending, that's not elite basketball. That's not elite anything. When you allow things to slide. And so, it's just setting standards early on and then you have to hold to that and hold everyone accountable to that. I think that this, Fletcher, too; I think, and I had this conversation with Mrs Benson yesterday, I asked her because we were talking about how you raise kids, but I think this is true of the team too, I can say anything that I want to say. I can come in here and I can rattle off this and this and this, but people have to see you live it every day. Championship culture, you're talking about being, playing into June every year, I can assure you, Fletcher, that is not this. You're not going to be up one day - they have to see you come in like a rock, every day, and they have to know that we lost last night, we won last night; doesn't matter. This organisation, we're going to do things the right way and we're not going to waver from that. Now, I think that culture is that. It's what you see everyday when you come - it can't fluctuate from day to day, it can't fluctuate from win to loss. That's what culture is, that's how you get there. That's how you get to playing in June every year.

Do you have a relationship with Zion Williamson now, and what are your impressions of him?

At the league office I've had to talk to Zion a few times so I do have a relationship to Zion that started in my role at the league office. I won't go into those conversations there, but we've talked since then and I've talked to him since I've became EVP here, and we've had exceptional conversations on the phone. Actually I've talked to every player. Willie and I talked for what, five minutes on the phone, something like that, we've talked for a couple of minutes on the phone but I've talked to every play, called every player and talked to them individually. But I've tried to reach out and make sure that I touch these guys and let them know "let's go, it's time here in New Orleans".

You've had a couple of stops since your championships, what did you gain from your time with the Kings, then in the League Office?

What's been good about that, it's great because I had to deal with all 30 teams every day. I mean, it was none stop, and so in the course of my position at the league office what you end up seeing is how every single team runs their business. And for me, it was great to just pick up - because you can pick up something from every organisation and what I tried to do is pick up best practices rom every organisation that I dealt with because I saw how each person, how each team dealt with certain issues and I just, y'know, I filed that away as I was doing my job every day and it was good. It was good to get thoughts from besides your own small circle, it's good to see what everyone else does on a daily basis and I think that was great.

You're inheriting a team that had the second worst season in franchise history. You're starting point guard is going to miss some time to start next season. What are the goals for coming into next season? Are we trying to push this team back into the playoffs, or is there perhaps a longer, more patient approach?

So, you build a culture where every game your team thinks you can win. That you never walk on the court and think that there's no chance for us to win. And so, when you do that, the results will come from that but to put something on a wall - to announce that we wanna do this - that doesn't matter. What you put on the wall. It's what you build on the ground first. So my focus will be what we're building and as we build that, the results will come from that. You won't hear me making these predictions about 'we're gonna do this'. We're not gonna do that. You can go to any winning team, NFL, NBA, wherever, all 30 NBA teams, the really really good teams, you'll never see them talking like that. What they talk about is what we do everyday. What we do every single day to be great. And I think that, more than anything else, is what we want to do here. We want to build everyday. And I promise you the results will show.

You mentioned that you got bits and pieces from different teams; what was it about this team that you liked?

I like the young core here, I think there's some really good pieces here. I think there's a fanbase that - if you win in New Orleans, I think everyone in this room knows, if you start winning in New Orleans people are going to come out in droves. So I know that this was, first of all an incredible fanbase but secondly, for me, at this point in my career, ownership of where I work was of paramount importance. So coming here and working for Mrs Benson, coming here and looking at the core of who is here, I've been knowing Willie since he was at Detroit, and so I just thought all of those things together for me personally, said that this is the right fit.

You came from the Pistons that set the standard at its time when you were a player and then early in your executive career for going the extra mile for players and for the fans. Building a world class arena, the first team to have its own private jet. When you look at one of the criticisms of the Pelicans, which has been the fan experience, how important is it for you to get a stadium deal done, or to get the arena renovated, and to make the fan experience for Pelicans fans better?

I can't speak specifically to exactly your question, but I can say that I trust what Mrs Benson and her execs, we've talked about. I have zero doubt about that. What I am concerned about is the product that we put on the floor, whether it's this arena, Smoothie King, or somewhere else - for me, put the right product out there and it's gonna sell out. Fans are gonna come. That's, y'know, Detroit, y'know, we had some incredible runs there in the past and there's another one right now, they're doing great right now but it's all based on what you build. I've always said this: when it's at its best, the product on the floor reflects the city. So y'know there were times you would come to Detroit and the Bad Boys might have toughed you a little, but that reflected the toughness of Detroit. And so I think the same thing here; this is a resilient city. New Orleans is resilient, and people don't fold here. They don't just give up. And so you want a team to reflect that and so for me, that's the main thing. To put the right product on the floor. You can trust Mrs Benson with what she says, I trust what she's told me, I have zero doubt about it - and I'm just thinking okay, that's going to happen, let's get a great product on the floor.

Point of view on analytics - the proliferation of analytics leaguewide. Where does he stand on data driven decision making, not just on the court but also in terms of moves in the front office?

At the league office I've had the opportunity to, frankly, the analytics department at the NBA office was right on my floor - the 20th Floor, the whole group there - so I was close with that entire group over in analytics. I think there's absolutely a place for it in this game, I think it has to be used the right way. You can't replace basketball with analytics, you still have to have basketball minds in the building that can see the game, and then I also think that there's a place for analytics where you can combine those two together. There's a place for it, I'm not either/or, it's not mutually exclusive where you have analytics but you can't have basketball minds or that you have basketball minds and can't have analytics, for me it's about how you use it. I embrace, that's why I got close to those guys in the league office because I want to understand what I'm seeing and then test it up against what I'm seeing with my eyes. So yes, definitely a place for it for me.

How have you evolved since you were in Detroit? What have you learned, adapted.

Where the game was more half court, big man-centric, the floor is way more spaced out now, obviously way more threes. The pace of the game is much more than it used to be, so you know, you're there and living it every day and watching the game evolve into something new, and so I think you have to be progressive minded enough to change with the game. I don't think that you can come in and say, hey I'mma build a team the way I won my other championships - I don't think you can do that. There are some principles that you have, you still have to defend people, still share the ball, certain things that don't change, but there are aspects of the game that have clearly changed. The spacing, the pace of the game, the number of threes shot, players who can play multiple positions, all of those things have changed over the years.

In regards to games lost to injury, is that something you want to analyse or address in any way or do you think it was just bad luck and there's only so much management can do?

I wanna find out what's happening. I see it from afar, I'm watching it this past season and I'm watching all the injuries happen here and I don't know exactly what was happening but, as I said before, I want to sit and talk with medical staff and all of health and performance people and at some point I'll get to sit down with them this week, hopefully, and just try to get a handle on what's been going on, what's been happening, why are these injuries happening. I think that's the best thing that you can do, is listen to the people who are dealing with this on a daily basis. Don't come in with preconceived notions because I wasn't here, I don't know what happened.


TL;DR - Bulletpoint summary of key things:

- Dumars confirms he still owns two phones but they're iPhones now.
- Is considering attending the draft lottery himself because he was in the lottery room the last few years.
- Has spoken to every player on the team, has a pre-existing relationship with Zion from his time in the league office, has not yet spoken to Green in extended fashion.
- Sounds like he's happy to retain Green, positive pre-existing relationship.
- Claims he does not have a mandate to make any specific moves (could just be smokeblowing, but that's what he said)
- Likes the young core, is concerned about the injuries and is going to meet with medical soon.
- Cares more about process than results, at least in the short term.
- Says he's open to analytics but favours a mixed approach rather than letting it replace 'basketball' guys (which is kinda everyone's viewpoint, analytics always come in conjunction with film but whatever).
- Notes how much the league has changed since he was last in power and stresses a need to keep up with the modern game rather than trying to relive the past.
- Dodges questions about fan experience and the arena, defers to Gayle.

Overall it sounds very much like continuity. Didn't drop any bombs, not massively looking to shake the boat, which is kinda what we expected. Lots of stuff about picking the right people, getting the right guys in the room, focusing on culture - slightly more focus on accountability than Griff, but that could easily just be pretense. We'll see how that ages.

Consider me whelmed. It was fine, he said the right things but it wasn't spectacular. He's still got to prove he's not the same guy from the end of his terrible previous jobs, imo, but there are no massive red flags other than keeping Green. Which we all expected.

Nothing there to get your hopes up, nothing there to make you feel worse. Extremely mid.

[DroopyDawg]

Thank you @Pelicanidae much appreciated.