NEW ORLEANS — You cannot debate the progress the New Orleans Pelicans have made under head coach Willie Green since he took over as head coach to start the 2021-22 season.
After getting out of the gates 2-16 in his first year, the Pelicans have steadily improved, falling just shy of 50 wins last year. Despite that, the coach knows he has to change, and that starts with loosening his grip beyond the arc for a team that has not shot many 3s in his tenure.
“I’m growing (to accept) that those are good shots for us,” Green said. “Just becoming more comfortable with knowing those are great looks for us (and) having our guys prepared to take those shots and take them with confidence. And for myself, from the sideline, when they miss a couple, I’ve got to still be OK with that.”
And that’s not even the biggest challenge for Green in his fourth season. The roster looks different, the style of play will change and some of the pieces Green has relied upon in the past won’t be there anymore.
Jonas Valančiūnas started in 235 of the 246 regular-season games Green has coached in New Orleans. Now, Valančiūnas is a member of the Washington Wizards and the Pelicans are likely to roll out a starting unit that doesn’t feature a traditional center on opening night against the Chicago Bulls next Wednesday.
An injury-riddled preseason that prevented Dejounte Murray, Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram from sharing the floor at any point didn’t make things easier. Nor did sharpshooter Trey Murphy being sidelined since the start of October due to a hamstring strain.
The Pelicans’ expected shift to a heavier reliance on small ball will be a big transition for a team that has often utilized its size advantage in the paint to win games over the past three seasons. Now, their best lineups could feature Ingram or Murphy as the tallest player on the floor. This will require Green to push his team differently and emphasize some new principles.
He established a core identity that his team turned into a successful blueprint during his first three seasons. In some ways, he now has to start from scratch and do it all over again.
“The more we do it, the more I’ll get comfortable,” Green said. “I know it’s the right thing to do. … I know we’re going to be a team that, at times, we’re going to have small-ball, positionless wings all across the board. I understand that we’re going to play that way at some point. But it does take time to work on it and get comfortable with it.”
Green’s adaptability will be one of the biggest factors in determining how successful the Pelicans can be with a roster that presents some clear challenges.
One of the most attractive features for teams like the Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets is the way they can comfortably stick to their preferred style of play regardless of the opponent. That won’t be the case in New Orleans. Green will have to mix and match his starting lineups depending on matchups. He’ll probably have to shift who’s included in his closing lineups for the same reasons. As the personnel on the floor changes, Green’s tactics will have to adjust to align with the units’ strengths and weaknesses.
More than ever, Green’s success will be judged by the decisions he makes that’ll help his team win from night to night rather than the sustainable culture he helped build earlier in his tenure. In particular, Green’s biggest skeptics have pointed to the Pelicans’ consistent issues with finishing close games over the past three seasons. In 2023-24, the Pelicans were 0-22 in games when they were trailing entering the fourth quarter, a stunning stat for a team that won 49 times. They were also 14-15 in games that were within five points in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter, which the NBA considers a “clutch” situation.
Overall, New Orleans is 45-53 in those games over the last three seasons. Executing during the most important moments in the game is what separates good teams from the rest of the pack. So far under Green, the Pelicans have struggled in that regard.
In an extremely deep Western Conference, where a couple of games can be the difference between home-court advantage and not making the playoffs, those minor details will be vital for this team’s success.
“That’s an area where I need to improve,” Green said when asked about the Pelicans’ late-game play. “Getting out in front of it and letting our team know this is where we are. If we grow, if we improve in this area, with all the other things that we do well, the margin’s maybe two, three, four more wins this season.”
And then there are the 3s. Green has consistently voiced his desire to see his team shoot more 3s to take advantage of all the talent it has on the perimeter. If this team can’t get stops the same way it has in recent years due to a lack of size or an inability to control the defensive glass, it can make up for it by being more explosive with the ball. It’s tough to create that kind of variance without being a team that can make 20-plus 3-pointers on any given night. Over the last three seasons, New Orleans has finished 24th, 29th and 24th in 3-point attempts. That won’t be good enough considering how this team is currently constructed.
Along with this change in playing style, Green will have to adjust his message and go away from some of the things that have worked for recent Pelicans teams. One of the reasons Green has been so successful early in his coaching career has been because he’s been so open to switching the way he does things based on ideas that were brought to him by his coaching staff. The relationship between Green and Pelicans assistant James Borrego was so successful last season partially due to Green’s willingness to implement some of the ideas Borrego brought to improve the Pelicans’ process in offense.
But if the team is going to have a complete shift in its collective mindset the way it needs to this season, it has to start with the head coach.
It’s far too early to start having discussions about Green being on the hot seat or becoming a figure the front office needs to keep an eye on, but his performance will be highly scrutinized this season by his skeptics along with those who believe in him.
As much pressure as there will be on Williamson, Ingram and Murray to prove they’re ready to perform under the bright lights, there may be even more pressure on Green to prove he can do the same.
(Top photo: Stephen Lew / USA Today)
