Michael Blackstone Named Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations
Dennis Lindsey Named Senior Vice President, Basketball Operations
George David Promoted To Senior Vice President, Basketball Administration
JR Holden Named Vice President, Player Acquisition & Development; Greg Smith Named Vice President, Player Health & Care; Eric Tellem Promoted To Vice President, Player Personnel
DETROIT, Mich. (July 31, 2024) – The Detroit Pistons announced today the finalization of their basketball leadership under President of Basketball Operations Trajan Langdon.
Michael Blackstone has been named Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations, Dennis Lindsey has been named Senior Vice President, Basketball Operations and George David has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Basketball Administration.
JR Holden returns to the Pistons, where he served in the front office from 2016-2018, as Vice President, Player Acquisition & Development, Greg Smith has been named Vice President, Player Health & Care and Eric Tellem has been promoted to Vice President, Player Personnel.
Additionally, former WNBA Champion Mistie Bass-Boyd joins the organization as Executive Director, Player Engagement & Basketball Operations, Marshall Smith joins the club as Executive Director, Basketball Strategy & Operations and Cory Schlesinger has joined the organization as Executive Director, Sports Performance. Gianluca Pascucci has joined the team as Senior Director, Global Scouting, Dwane Casey continues with the organization as Senior Advisor to Basketball Operations and Roderick “RJ” Hunter has joined the organization as Executive Assistant to the President of Basketball Operations.
Blackstone comes to Detroit after five years in New Orleans where he most recently served as vice president of basketball administration, assisting in player contracts and trade negotiations, administration of the salary cap and directing the basketball operations staff, strategy and implementation. Prior to joining the Pelicans, Blackstone spent time as a managing partner with Work Unfiltered, a consulting and training firm which provided negotiation, leadership, strategic planning and execution services. He also served as an assistant general manager for the Atlanta Hawks during the 2015-16 season, spent two-plus years with Shapiro Negotiations Institute (SNI) as Executive Vice President/Sports Practice Director and worked with the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2010-13 as the team’s executive director of basketball operations.
Lindsey joins the Pistons with 28 years of front office and scouting experience, including most recently serving as Senior Advisor for the Dallas Mavericks during the 2023-24 season. Lindsey spent 11 seasons with the Utah Jazz, including two seasons as Executive Vice President of basketball operations, seven seasons as General Manager and two seasons as Senior Basketball Advisor. He also spent five seasons with San Antonio as the Spurs’ Vice President and Assistant General Manager. Lindsey began his NBA career with the Houston Rockets as video coordinator/scout in 1996 before being promoted to Director of Basketball Development, and later, Director of Player Personnel. In 2002, Lindsey was named the Rockets’ Vice President of Basketball Operations and Player Personnel where he served until 2007.
David transitions to Senior Vice President of Basketball Administration after serving as associate general manager of the Pistons for the last two seasons and assistant general manager in 2021. David returned to Detroit after spending six years at Wasserman Media Group as Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations where he worked closely with numerous high-profile NBA players represented by the agency. In his first stint with Detroit, he served as assistant general manager with Detroit from 2012-14, after promotions from Director of Player Personnel (2007-12) and as Director of Scouting (2002-2007). David was first hired within the organization as video coordinator during the 1996-97 season.
Holden returns to Detroit for his second stint with organization. Most recently, he served two seasons as general manager of the Long Island Nets, the NBA’s G League affiliate of the Brooklyn Nets, after three previous seasons as the Nets’ director of pro personnel. Holden joined the Nets after spending the 2018-19 season as a college scout with the Philadelphia 76ers and four years with the Pistons as a college scout (2014-16) and the franchise’s director of international scouting (2016-18). He played professionally for 13 years (1998-2011), including nine years (2002-11) with CSKA Moscow, where he was a part of nine-straight Russian League championship teams. Holden played collegiately at Bucknell University for four years where he earned All-Patriot League First-Team honors in each of his last two seasons. He was inducted into the Bucknell Hall of Fame in 2008.
Greg Smith holds 20-plus years of athletic training experience in professional sports. Prior to joining Detroit, he co-founded Pivot Physical Therapy, one the largest out-patient physical therapy companies in the US with over 300 locations. He served as the Head Athletic Trainer of the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League, a position he held from 1999 to 2017 after spending two seasons as Head Athletic Trainer with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
Tellem was promoted to Vice President of Player Personnel after most recently serving as Senior Director of Player Personnel for the Pistons. Tellem joined the organization in 2016 after serving as Toronto’s G League Basketball Operations Manager for Raptors 905.
Bass-Boyd joins the Pistons’ organization after serving as the Director of Team and Athlete NBA/Grassroots Marketing for Nike Basketball’s Sports Marketing arm. She also spent time as an Assistant Product Line Manager with Nike Basketball Apparel before being promoted to Product Line Manager focused on Women’s Lifestyle Capsules and Collections in 2020. Bass-Boyd played in the WNBA and internationally from 2006-18, winning a WNBA Championship with the Phoenix Mercury in 2014. She attended Duke University, helping the Blue Devils to two Final Four Appearances during her collegiate career from 2002-06, and was named to the ACC All-Freshmen Team. During her collegiate career, the Blue Devils women’s basketball team won more games than any other four-year period in school history.
Marshall Smith comes to Detroit from the Los Angeles Clippers where he most recently served as Director of Basketball Strategy. He also worked as a Basketball Data Analyst with the Clippers from 2018-23. Smith graduated from the University of Portland in 2018 with a Bachelor of Business Administration with a focus in economics and math.
Schlesinger has over 15 years of sports performance coaching experience, including four at the NBA level and 10 in collegiate athletics. He most recently served as Assistant Coach, Director of Basketball Health and Performance for the men’s basketball program at The University of Texas. Prior to joining Texas, Schlesinger was the Director of Performance/Head Strength and Conditioning Coach with the NBA’s Phoenix Suns from 2019-23. He’s also held sports performance roles with Stanford University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Santa Clara University and Campbell University.
Pascucci joins the Pistons with 22-plus years of front office experience, including most recently as a scout for the Chicago Bulls. Prior to his time in Chicago, he held front office positions with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Brooklyn Nets, and Houston Rockets. Pascucci is a native of Pesaro, Italy.
Casey, who transitioned from head coach to a role in the basketball front office in 2023, begins his seventh season with the franchise. The former NBA Coach of the Year led the club to a 41-41 (.500) record during the 2018-19 season, setting a team record for most 3-pointers in franchise history (993) and their first NBA playoff appearance since 2015-16 season. The Pistons averaged 107.0 points per game that year, the most since 1987-88, and Blake Griffin was named to the 2018-19 NBA All-Star team and All-NBA Third Team.
Hunter joins the Pistons with over 10 years of experience, including most recently as the Men’s Basketball Director of Operations for Duke University from 2017-2024. In his time with Duke men’s basketball, the program captured an ACC Tournament title in 2023, an ACC regular-season title in 2022 and reached the Final Four that same season. Prior to his time at Duke, Hunter worked for University of the Pacific, USF Women’s Basketball and the Golden State Warriors. Hunter is a native of Little Rock, Ark., and obtained his bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas and his master’s degree from San Francisco.
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