New Orleans Pelicans: Evaluating Nate McMillan for Head Coach
By Nick Alvarez
Nate McMillan brings leadership to a young New Orleans Pelicans roster looking for guidance
When evaluating coaching candidates for the New Orleans Pelicans, I always like to start by seeing what they bring to the table, and for Nate McMillan, the answer is a lot.
A head coach since the early 2000s, Nate McMillan is one of the more successful coaches in the modern NBA. From his time coaching in Seattle, Portland, and Indiana, McMillan holds an impressive 661-558 head coaching record. Within that time also comes a lot of qualities the New Orleans Pelicans are looking for in their next head coach.
Let’s start with the biggest factor, McMillan is a leader. A former player at the point guard position, McMillan knows how to galvanize his players and get them to buy into his coaching. That’s a quality that the Pelicans organization felt was seriously lacking from Alvin Gentry this season.
If McMillan were to take over, expect the New Orleans Pelicans roster, specifically their young star trio of Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, and Zion Williamson to respect him and look to him as a leader.
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With the leadership McMillan brings to coaching also comes a great record of player development. In all three of his previous NBA coaching stops, McMillan has grown young NBA stars to reach All-Star heights. It happened in Seattle with Rashard Lewis, in Portland with LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy, to recently in Indiana with youngsters Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis.
If the New Orleans Pelicans hire McMillan it’s realistic to expect that their young trio will also continue to make massive leaps in their career trajectories.
Nate McMillan is no slouch when it comes to X’s and O’s either, coaching teams to top-10 levels on both sides of the ball during his career. That includes this past season in Indiana.
In New Orleans, McMillan’s defensive abilities would be perfect for improving the young Pelicans, while his outdated offense could get a boost if David Griffin retains some of the team’s key assistant coaches as he has discussed.