New Orleans Pelicans: How Stan Van Gundy can develop Zion Williamson

Lamar Odom, Dwight Howard, and Andre Drummond show the New Orleans Pelicans what Stan Van Gundy can do with Zion Williamson

I’m starting this off by exploring Stan Van Gundy’s previous coaching stops. In the past, Van Gundy has coached three teams, the Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, and Detriot Pistons. In Miami, he mostly coached a team of veterans, except in his first year.

A lot of people forget but during Stan Van Gundy’s first year as the head coach of the Miami Heat, he spent a lot of time working with big man Lamar Odom who the team acquired from the Los Angeles Clippers.

Odom, who was still on 24 at the time had a lot of talent, especially a rare passing ability that was unique for a big. Those talents were on display a lot in Los Angeles but took off in Miami where Odom became a full-time starter who played a unique playmaking role secondary to rookie Dwayne Wade.

Once Van Gundy left the Miami Heat he took over the Orlando Magic, a young team with a promising third-year big man and first overall pick Dwight Howard on the roster. Howard put together a couple of solid seasons before Van Gundy came, but became a dominant force once Van Gundy took over.

What Van Gundy did was encourage Howard to focus on scoring on the inside and dominant the boards on offense while being an anchor on defense. In that defined role, Howard took over as Van Gundy put the proper shooting and playmaking around him.

When he joined the Detriot Pistons, Van Gundy attempted to bring the same approach to that team and their young big man Andre Drummond. For Drummond, the approach worked as he became one of the best rebounders in the NBA under Van Gundy.

Unfortunately, the NBA evolved and caught up to Van Gundy’s methods and traditional bigs like Drummond have become detrimental. Secondary to that a lot of the playmaking and two-way shooting the Pistons tried to add didn’t pan out either.

Despite the most recent failure, this a history of success between Stan Van Gundy and big man. I think some of his old concepts can still work and with Zion Williamson breaking the traditional mold of big men, here’s how they can evolve.