NBA GM Rankings 2026-27

Ben Tenzer

Denver Nuggets

Ben Tenzer is a longtime Denver Nuggets executive who was promoted to executive vice president of basketball operations in June 2025, part of an unconventional front-office structure created after the team parted with coach Michael Malone and GM Calvin Booth.

A graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder and Southwestern Law School, Tenzer joined the Nuggets in 2012 and spent four seasons as vice president of basketball operations. After Denver fired Malone and Booth late in the 2024-25 regular season, Tenzer served as interim general manager, then was formally promoted in June 2025 to executive vice president of basketball operations, sharing front-office leadership with Jon Wallace under team president Josh Kroenke.

Brad Stevens

Boston Celtics

Brad Stevens left a pharmaceutical-company desk job to chase coaching, took mid-major Butler to two national title games, then jumped from the Celtics bench to the front office — where he has won NBA Executive of the Year multiple times and built a championship roster.

Born in Zionsville, Indiana in 1976, Stevens played at DePauw University and earned an economics degree before quitting his marketing job at Eli Lilly to join Butler's basketball staff as a volunteer in 2000. Promoted to head coach in 2007, he went 166-49 and led Butler to back-to-back NCAA championship games in 2010 and 2011. The Boston Celtics hired him as head coach in 2013; he made the playoffs in seven straight seasons and reached three Eastern Conference Finals. In June 2021 he succeeded Danny Ainge as president of basketball operations, taking on general-manager powers. He was named NBA Executive of the Year in 2024 and again in 2026.

Brian Gregory

Phoenix Suns

Brian Gregory spent nearly two decades as a college head coach — including a national championship as a Michigan State assistant — before becoming general manager of the Phoenix Suns in 2025.

Born in Mount Prospect, Illinois in 1966, Gregory played college basketball at the Naval Academy and Oakland University. He was an assistant under Tom Izzo at Michigan State, helping win the 2000 NCAA championship, then was head coach at Dayton, Georgia Tech and South Florida across 19 seasons. He joined the Suns' front office as vice president of player programming and was named general manager on May 1, 2025; Suns owner Mat Ishbia was a member of that 2000 Michigan State title team.

Chad Buchanan

Indiana Pacers

Chad Buchanan is a former Division III two-sport athlete from Iowa who became a respected scout and, as the Pacers' general manager, helped build a contender — with a draft history that includes pulling the trigger on the pick that became Damian Lillard.

Born in 1972, Buchanan attended Simpson College in Iowa, where he played both basketball and baseball, helping the basketball team to a conference title and the NCAA tournament. He spent a decade with the Portland Trail Blazers, mostly as director of college scouting, and as Portland's interim GM in 2011-12 made the trade that landed the first-round pick used to draft Damian Lillard. After two seasons as assistant GM in Charlotte, he was hired as the Indiana Pacers' general manager in June 2017.

Onsi Saleh

Atlanta Hawks

Onsi Saleh is a lawyer-turned-executive who became the Atlanta Hawks' general manager in April 2025, then was promoted to president of basketball operations in May 2026 after a quick rebuild that included trading franchise guard Trae Young.

Born in Austin, Texas and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Saleh earned a bachelor's in biological sciences and an after-degree in history from the University of Alberta, then a law degree from Tulane in 2017. He joined the San Antonio Spurs in 2019 as director of strategy and chief of staff, moved to the Golden State Warriors as vice president of basketball strategy and team counsel, and joined the Hawks as assistant general manager in 2024. Atlanta promoted him to general manager on April 21, 2025, and to president of basketball operations on May 27, 2026.

Rafael Stone

Houston Rockets

Rafael Stone is a Stanford-trained lawyer who joined the Houston Rockets as general counsel and rose to general manager, overseeing a rapid rebuild back into Western Conference contention.

A Seattle native, Stone earned an undergraduate degree in African American studies and political science from Williams College, where he played four years of Division III basketball, then graduated from Stanford Law School. He worked as a mergers-and-acquisitions and capital-markets attorney at Dewey Ballantine in New York before joining the Rockets in 2005 as general counsel. He was later promoted to executive vice president of basketball operations while still serving as general counsel, and owner Tilman Fertitta named him general manager on October 15, 2020.

Sam Presti

Oklahoma City Thunder

Sam Presti began as a Spurs video intern and, at age 30, became one of the youngest lead executives in NBA history — building the Oklahoma City Thunder through patient drafting and a record stockpile of picks into the 2025 NBA champions.

Born in 1977, Presti played college basketball at Emerson College and Virginia Wesleyan and broke into the NBA in 2000 as a San Antonio Spurs video intern, rising to vice president and assistant GM while winning three titles. He is credited with recommending Tony Parker at No. 28 in 2001. He was hired to run the Seattle SuperSonics/Oklahoma City franchise in 2007 at age 30, drafting Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden, and later assembling Oklahoma City's 2025 championship team. He is among the longest-tenured lead executives in the league.

Will Dawkins

Washington Wizards

Will Dawkins is one of the NBA's youngest general managers, hired by the Washington Wizards in 2023 after a 15-year climb through the Oklahoma City Thunder organization.

A Springfield, Massachusetts native, Dawkins led his high school to a 2004 Division I state title and played at Emerson College, where he captained the team and was a two-time Arthur Ashe Sports Scholar All-American. He joined the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008 as an intern and rose from assistant video coordinator to scouting coordinator to director of college player personnel to vice president of basketball operations. On June 8, 2023, the Wizards named him general manager under Monumental Basketball president Michael Winger.