The Atlanta Hawks, a week from welcoming three new players to the team’s roster, have made even more changes in the back office.
They announced today several new hires and promotions in the team’s basketball operations leadership office.
The personnel moves are as follows…
- Dotun Akinwale, Jr. – Promoted to vice president of player personnel. Germantown, Md. native Akinwale Jr. is in his 11th season in the NBA and 9th with the Hawks. He was a manager and director of scouting and senior director of player personnel. He formerly worked with the Orlando Magic.
- Michelle Leftwich – Now senior vice president of salary cap administration. She joined the Hawks in 2017, after 22 years with the NBA, where she was vice president and assistant general counsel handling legal matters alongside the NBA’s top legal executives.
- Grant Liffmann – VP of basketball operations. He was promoted from his former pro personnel scout position with the Hawks. He was an Emmy-winning broadcaster for NBC Sports Bay Area where he covered the Golden State Warriors.
- Dan Martinez – SVP of Team Operations. Martinez was promoted from senior director of team operations. This is his seventh year with the Hawks and his 24th in the NBA. He previously worked as senior director of public relations with the Golden State Warriors.
- Tori Miller – VP of player personnel and basketball intelligence. This Decatur native previously worked with the Hawks’ G League team, The College Park Skyhawks, where she was the first female general manager in the G League’s history. She was also an assistant general manager and manager of basketball operations for the Skyhawks.
- Nick Ressler – Principal advisor to the governor. Ressler joined the team in 2018 as coordinator of basketball operations. He was manager of basketball operations for a year and director of business and basketball operations for two seasons. Ressler is the son of Hawks owner, Tony Ressler.
- Ryan Silverstein – VP cap strategy/player personnel. This is Silverstein’s sixth season with the Hawks, where he was a front-office assistant in basketball operations before becoming a basketball operations coordinator/coaching assistant for the Skyhawks. He was promoted to coordinator of cap strategy and administration in 2020.
- Chris Emens – Executive advisor. A 21-year Octagon employee who was involved in all of the agency’s basketball interests, including client management, contract negotiations, and corporate partnerships. He co-founded Sitesmith, Inc, a web services provider.
- Blake Johnson – Director player engagement. A return to the team after she was a community support outreach and inclusion lead at I AM ALS. She was before then a member of the community basketball programs group.