Warriors lose high-ranking executive to Eastern Conference team

Oct 30, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; T-shirts depicting a map of the bay area and the new bay bridge Golden State Warriors logo at Oracle Arena before the game between the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

More changes are coming for the Golden State Warriors.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported on Friday that the Atlanta Hawks are hiring executive Onsi Saleh away from the Warriors to be their new assistant GM. Saleh had been serving as the vice president of basketball strategy and team counsel for the Warriors.

According to the Warriors’ website, Saleh assisted Golden State GM Mike Dunleavy in all basketball operations matters. He had also been acting as the legal lead for team matters, overseeing league compliance, salary cap, and other key issues.

Saleh, who just completed his third season with the Warriors after spending the five seasons prior to that as an executive for the San Antonio Spurs, now heads to Atlanta where he will work under their current GM Landry Fields. Atlanta also has another very notable name acting as an assistant GM, so they are definitely stacking up the basketball minds right now. As for the Warriors, who lost longtime GM Bob Myers (Dunleavy’s predecessor) last year, this is another prominent departure for them ahead of an offseason where there will be a lot of tough decisions to make.