Following the New Orleans Pelicans’ season finale, head coach Willie Green answered reporters questions for nearly 20 minutes.
“My message to the team and to our staff was just gratitude, just starting with that,” he’d begin.
“Grateful that everything that they poured into this… the character with our whole entire group. Even through adversity and challenges this season, I’m extremely blessed that I can come into a building and still have joy in that building getting after it everyday with that group.
It’s not the season we wanted and we’re all disappointed. We’ll take some time to reflect and see how we can be better, how we can improve. But I’m really grateful for the opportunity and grateful to get after it with this group.”
In Green’s reflections, he also gave a candid assessment of his own performance:
“I didn’t do great. I have to take full ownership in where we are as a team… We failed. I failed.”
Pelicans Have A Leadership Problem
Despite sounding much like the highly respected Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin in that postgame presser, Green “has virtually zero player support left in the locker (room),” per In The N.O.’s Shamit Dua.
With that in mind, he may have alluded to the dissension that day. Asked about injuries that ravaged their roster, Green says: “That’s the challenging part. That’s the adversity we faced all year.”
Then, when questioned about the lessons he could take away from the experience, the 12-year NBA veteran responded:
“Sometimes you get hit with things that you can’t control. It’s easy to lash out at people and start behaving in a way that nobody wants to be around you. But I thought our entire group tried to stay as steady as we could and try to stay on course.”
Putting two and two together, he may have been talking about himself. That’s just speculation of course. However, if correct, his volatility could’ve wore on the nerves of his players. It would be particularly draining in such a trying season, especially with so many young players on the roster.
Missing The Forest For The Trees
Green “is beloved by ownership,” according to Dua. “So much so that (former Pelicans executive vice president) David Griffin seeking permission to dismiss Green earlier this year was a huge factor in the loss of Griffin’s own job.” Even still, there are now many that feel the Pelicans have a leadership problem.
Right now, they would be right to believe that. However, the crux of the issue isn’t Green, a coach who was just being praised a couple of seasons ago. In fact, upon hiring Green, Griffin released this statement:
“Willie has established himself as one of the most respected assistant coaches in the NBA. In large part, this is due to a tireless work ethic and authenticity of character. He brings a vast amount of basketball knowledge and experience to our team as both a coach and former player, along with exceptional leadership qualities and an innate ability to connect with players, staff and fans alike.”
When their 2021-22 campaign began to turn around, Devonte’ Graham told reporters:
“The biggest thing is confidence throughout the team. That has a lot to do with Coach Green, just not getting down on guys. A lot of coaches with that start would’ve started panicking. He just kept building us up, to keep believing.”
That season, they reached the playoffs for the first time since 2018. It was just their third playoff appearance since 2011. The individual highlight of his 2022-23 campaign may have been winning his first Coach of the Month after going 10-5 in December. Notably, Pelicans veteran CJ McCollum was front and center when telling his coach about his honor.
Mr. @CJMcCollum lets Willie Green know he has been named the @NBA‘s Western Conference Coach of the Month!
#Pelicans pic.twitter.com/R2xVOH1avX
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) January 3, 2023
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Several players genuinely appeared to be happy for Green.
In 2024, the Pelicans were right back in the playoffs. Entering 2024-25, Green was the only head coach in franchise history with an above .500 record after multiple seasons coaching the team.
Help Wanted
The way the Pelicans’ 2024-25 season went could have been an anomaly. The team’s attitude toward Green could’ve been partly attributed to their veterans, or lack thereof. To that point, when New Orleans went through a rough stretch in 2022-23, Brandon Ingram cited a meaningful message he had received from their veterans:
“We can either feel sorry about ourselves or stay positive. Look at ourselves in the mirror and see what we can do better. That was the message not from the coach but from our veterans on the team.” (h/t Pelicans.com)
In 2022-23, the Pelicans players with the most experience were Garrett Temple (12 years), Jonas Valanciunas (10 years), and McCollum (9 years). Larry Nance Jr. and Josh Richardson both had seven years of experience.
Of note, Temple and Nance are considered to be two of the league’s best locker room leaders. Neither were on the roster in 2024-25. Nor were Valanciunas and Richardson, both of whom have displayed leadership qualities in their career. Instead, it was just McCollum and Dejounte Murray.
That’s decent but the Pelicans seemingly need to fortify their roster with more locker room leaders. They need to acquire players that can be Green’s lieutenants. Their potential free agent targets should include Nance, Patty Mills, Jeff Green, and Luke Kornet. Additionally, Al Horford (the nearly ageless wonder) would be an ideal target because he can still help on the floor as well.
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