NBA Rumors: Danny Ferry Meeting with Pelicans About Full-Time GM Position

The New Orleans Pelicans are reportedly meeting with interim general manager Danny Ferry on Tuesday to discuss the full-time GM role.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com reported the update. He noted other finalists for the position include former Cleveland Cavaliers GM David Griffin; former Milwaukee Bucks GM Larry Harris; Brooklyn Nets assistant GM Trajan Langdon; Houston Rockets executive vice president Gersson Rosas; and Washington Wizards senior vice president of basketball operations Tommy Sheppard.

Ferry, 52, played 13 NBA seasons with the Cavaliers and San Antonio Spurs following a standout collegiate career at Duke that included winning the Naismith Trophy in 1988-89.

The Maryland native retired from the NBA in 2003 and immediately joined the Spurs' front office before becoming the Cavs' general manager in 2005.

Although he oversaw plenty of on-court success in Cleveland, highlighted by five straight playoff appearances and an NBA Finals berth in 2007, the sides parted ways in 2010. His exit came during the same offseason the Cavaliers lost LeBron James to the Miami Heat.

Ferry became the Atlanta Hawks' GM in 2012 but stepped down from that role in June 2015 after a 10-month leave of absence as the team investigated an audio recording of him reading "culturally insensitive comments from a scouting report" about longtime NBA forward Luol Deng, per Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com.

"I wish the full context of the call was known, but I made a mistake," Ferry told ESPN. "Those words [should not have] come out of my mouth. I have to own that, and I have."

He originally joined the Pelicans in 2016 as a special adviser and took over as interim general manager in February after the team announced it parted ways with Dell Demps.

New Orleans' next GM will be tasked with deciding how to handle the Anthony Davis saga. The superstar power forward has one guaranteed season left on his five-year, $127.2 million contract. He can utilize a player option in the deal to become an unrestricted free agent after the 2019-20 campaign.

If the Pelicans can't sign him to a long-term extension, which seems unlikely after the forward requested a trade in January, finding a deal that can build a strong foundation for the future is essential.