New Orleans Pelicans: Has Alvin Gentry Lost the Team?

Alvin Gentry is on the hot seat after the New Orleans Pelicans’ disappoint.

The New Orleans Pelicans may have quit on their coach.

The idea of teams “quitting” on their coach is a cliche, often overused, but at times, completely accurate.

This is sometimes the case when a team isn’t playing hard, isn’t listening, isn’t responding to advice and is generally not showing that they care.

The New Orleans Pelicans aren’t quite there yet, but there are some troubling signs.

I wrote about how Alvin Gentry may be coaching for his job after rumors emerged that Jason Kidd and Tyronn Lue were being considered as replacements.

David Griffin consistently said that he wouldn’t use the bubble to make personnel decisions, but that seems unlikely after the Pelicans have played so poorly and failed to adjust.

Has Alvin Gentry lost the New Orleans Pelicans?

Let’s take a look at some of the signs.

Is his team playing consistently hard? No.

Does the team respond to his coaching? No.

Does he consistently put his players in the best position to succeed?  No.

Does he get the most out of role players? Definitely not.

Is there troubling body language? Yep.

If you watched the game yesterday, you might have noticed a sulking and disinterested Brandon Ingram on the bench.

You also might have noticed him loafing back on defense a few times like he and Zion Williamson were having a stroll through a park instead of playing a must-win game.

Lonzo Ball’s confidence looked shot. Zion Williamson was clearly unhappy.

J.J. Redick had to light a fire under this team yesterday after Alvin Gentry consistently failed to do so.

There was a lot of finger pointing, and in general, this team did not look like they enjoyed playing together, which has been the biggest surprise so far.

Overall, it was not an inspiring performance for either the coach or the team and the New Orleans Pelicans are showing most of the signs of a team that has tuned out the coach.

They aren’t yet at Jim Boylen level with the Bulls, where players are openly arguing with, ignoring or flat out defying their coach, but let’s hope it never gets that far.

Alvin Gentry is a good guy, but it’s not clear he’s the right guy for this job.

He may have lost his young team, which in the end will cost him his job.