Matt Tellem, whose Nets tenure goes back to the Rod Thorn era, is leaving Brooklyn for the Phoenix Suns.
Tellem was elevated to Vice-President for Strategy six months ago. Bobby Marks who as a Nets assistant GM hired Tellem in the team’s New Jersey days described him as “One of the top salary cap/strategy executives in the NBA.”
Tellem, whose father is Arn Tellem, Vice chair of the Detroit Pistons, began as a basketball information coordinator for the Nets and rose through the ranks under Thorn, Billy King and Sean Marks. He was Long Island Nets GM in 2019 then promoted to capologist. Tellem was instrumental in the cap manipulations that permitted Brooklyn to sign Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, DeAndre Jordan and Nic Claxton. In the post-Big Three era, he’s helped engineer trades that generated tens of millions of dollars in trade exceptions.
His departure is the third major one since the end of the regular season following those of assistant GM Jeff Peterson and basketball operations director Ryan Gisriel, both of whom joined the Charlotte Hornets.
In that same period, the Nets have added Jordi Fernandez as head coach, as well as Steve Hetzel and Juwan Howard as assistant coaches and Justin Howard as Gisriel’s replacement.
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