New Orleans should look to the G-League for next head coach
The New Orleans Pelicans need to find their own Nick Nurse.
Nurse isn’t the only coach to make a successful leap such as this. Look no further than Taylor Jenkins and the overachieving Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies were expected to be rebuilding, and instead made it to the play-in game for the eighth seed. Of the 17 players on Memphis, 11 are in their third year or less and the team still held a playoff spot until the bubble.
Another quality of both of these teams has been their ability to get good players from G-League development. Currently, the Grizzlies hold Yuta Watanabe and John Konchar who have both flashed excellence in the G-League and more notably, Raptors star Siakam was the G-League Finals MVP in his early seasons in the NBA.
So where does this leave the Pelicans?
Well for starters, the Pelicans have been relatively unimpressive at developing players in the past. Charles Cooke and Trevon Bluiett were left to the wind after their two-way contracts expired, and it seems that one or both of Josh Gray or Zylan Cheatham could fall to the same fate.
Two-way spots aren’t the end-all, be-all, but the team has struggled to develop players for a while. The Pelicans just got a G-League affiliate this season, but guys like Frank Jackson, Jahlil Okafor, Kenrich Williams, Christian Wood and Cheick Diallo are just some of the players who flashed rotation potential and were left to dry. Jackson, Okafor and Williams might return, but a jump from any of them seems unlikely unless the Pelicans make a concerted effort to develop youth.
With such a youth-driven culture around the team, with Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, etc. and a lottery pick coming in, the Pelicans need to hire someone that can actually develop players. Ball is someone that has flashed greatness, but his development has been stunted from having to deal with coaches like Luke Walton and Alvin Gentry who seemed to care less about improving his game.
New Orleans has the potential to be a top-five team for years to come, but they need a coach who can unlock their abilities. So what options remain for the team? A lot more than one might think.