Hall of Famer Joe Dumars is coming home.

The Louisiana native who played for the Pistons, and then ultimately took over their front office and led them to their 2004 title — but also had some misses with player and coaching moves that led to his exit a decade later — is finalizing a deal to become the New Orleans Pelicans' head of basketball operations, a story broken by Shams Charania of ESPN.

Dumars takes over for David Griffin, who was let go Monday after six years on the job, with just two playoff appearances (and only two playoff games won in that time). Dumars had been a consultant with the Kings' front office and ownership for a few years, but spent the last three as the NBA league office's executive vice president of basketball operations (he's the guy who officially handed down fines and suspensions).

Dumars takes over a team at a crossroads, a franchise facing a couple of big questions: Whether to retain coach Willie Green and test the trade market for Zion Williamson.

Dumars may be taking the job with the understanding that ownership/upper management wants to see Green retained and Zion traded, a rumor working its way around league circles and reached NBC Sports. There's nuance to this — Green could have interest in the Phoenix coaching vacancy, the trade market for Zion may not be to Dumars' liking — but don't be surprised if that is the road traveled this summer. Zion has three years and $ 126.5 million remaining on his contract, and he looked like an All-NBA player (24.6 points a game on 56.7% shooting with 7.2 rebounds and 5.3 assists a night) when healthy, but he only played 30 games this season and has played more than 65 games just once in his career. That said, because of clauses in his contract that would allow a team to walk away from Zion if he's not playing (New Orleans could do the same), there will be teams trying to take the risk.

It's not just Zion and his hamstring, the Pelicans were ravaged by injuries this season including to Dejounte Murray (torn Achilles), Trey Murphy III (torn labrum), Herb Jones (torn labrum) and CJ McCollum. However, it was piled up losses and misses on players that led to Griffin's dismissal. For example, Dyson Daniels spent two seasons in New Orleans battling for minutes with Jones, Murphy, and Jose Alvarado among others. However, after being traded to Atlanta last summer, he has had a breakout season where he is the frontrunner for Most Improved Player and is in the conversation for Defensive Player of the Year.