LA Clippers President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank has been selected as the 2019-20 NBA Basketball Executive of the Year Award by the NBA team basketball executives, the NBA has announced recently.
This is the first time Frank to have won the NBA Basketball Executive of the Year Award. He has served in the front office of the Clippers since 2016 after spending 20 years in the coaching ranks of the league.
Frank received ten amongst the 29 first-place votes, earning 61 total points from a team basketball executive panel. He is followed by Oklahoma City Thunder Executive Vice President Sam Presti in second place with 41 points and Miami Heat President Pat Riley in third place with 39 points.
The voting was conducted based on regular-season games held in March. The seeding games did not count toward voting for the league’s Basketball Executive of the Year Award or other traditional end-of-season awards.
With Frank leading the Basketball Operations department, LA Clippers’ roster for the 2019-20 season took shape in July last year with the signing of Kawhi Leonard – the two-time Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player – as a free agent.
Other moves last offseason consisted of re-signing forward JaMychal Green, starting center Ivica Zubac, and starting to guard Patrick Beverley. Frank and the LO Clippers also managed to bolster the roster during the 2019-20 season, acquiring the New York Knicks’ starting forward Marcus Morris Sr. as part of a three-team trade and signing guard Reggie Jackson, who was waived by the Detroit Pistons.
Frank became the assistant coach of the Clippers in 2014. He remained that role for two seasons before becoming the Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations in 2016. He was appointed to be the President of Basketball Operations in August 2017.
His NBA career also includes head coaching stints with the New Jersey Nets and Pistons and assistant coaching roles with the Vancouver Grizzlies, Nets, and Boston Celtics.