OKC Thunder re-hire Rob Hennigan as Assistant GM

Rob Hennigan has returned back to the front office of the OKC Thunder.

Rob Hennigan is returning to the OKC Thunder in a role with the front offices as per Rob Scotto of Basketball Insiders.

Hennigan fired as Magic GM:

After a miserable season in Orlando, Hennigan was fired as General Manager. In fact, Hennigan’s five seasons in Orlando were anything but magic. Orlando replaced their front office with Jeff Weltman as President of Basketball Operations and John Hammond as  General Manager. Both moved from secure jobs with Weltman holding down GM for the Raptors and Hammond making a lateral move (GM of Bucks).

For Hennigan this is a return to a franchise he knows well. Hennigan spent four seasons in OKC with the final two as Assistant General Manager under Sam Presti.  He was hired by the Orlando Magic in 2012.

No magic in Orlando for Hennigan:

To say Hennigan failed to live up to expectations would be under stating just how poorly he performed. Several of his draft picks, trades and free agents signings were questionable.  Specifically his trades and free agent signings were deemed highly suspicious as he doled out massive contracts to the likes of Bismack Biyombo. His luck with coaches wasn’t much better as Scott Skiles barely last a full season. Then last year, it was felt his move to hire Frank Vogel and add more defensive minded players would see a shift for the franchise.

More from Thunderous Intentions

• Stealing one player from every Southwest Division team for the OKC Thunder
• Should the OKC Thunder chase after a disgruntled hometown hero?
• 3 OKC Thunder players who can step up in Aleksej Pokusevski’s absence
• Aleksej Pokusevski sidelined approximately 6 weeks with ankle injury
• Damian Lillard does not fit with the OKC Thunder

Notably, Hennigan’s biggest move was arguably his trade with OKC to bring in Serge Ibaka. This move also failed as Hennigan ended up trading Ibaka to the Raptors after less than one campaign. Ibaka has since re-signed with Toronto this summer  in free agency.

OKC Thunder benefited from Hennigan’s Orlando time:

In fairness the players who came to OKC for Ibaka are also gone (Victor Oladipo, Domantas Sabonis and Ersan Ilyasova). The difference is Sam Presti utilized those pieces to add depth and star talent to the OKC Thunder roster.  Ilyasova was traded for Jerami Grant. Sabonis and Oladipo  became part of the trade package to land Paul George. The irony is the pieces Hennigan traded to OKC ended up netting the Thunder star talent and depth.

Though Rob Hennigan left Orlando without much success, there were some bright spots. Adding Aaron Gordon was deemed a worthwhile draft pick although the Magic have yet to figure out how to utilize him to his full potential. And, while Ibaka was a bust, the Magic added Terrence Ross who could become a pivotal contributor for their starting core. Still, the time spent in Orlando cannot be deemed anything other than a failure. To wit, the Magic’s record during Hennigan’s 5-year tenure was 132-278 or 32 percent.

Back with Presti:

So, he returns to comfortable territory back with Sam Presti. The OKC Thunder needed to fill the spot left by Michael Winger who joined the Los Angeles Clippers in the role of GM.

Hence, Hennigan returns to familiar territory under the regime he experienced his greatest success. Consequently, Hennigan will hopefully rediscover his mojo under Presti once again.