Pelica Debrief
Fansided

New Orleans Pelicans: Boom or bust? Stan Van Gundy’s player development

By Aaron Kellerstrass

Stanley Johnson is the type of bust Stan Van Gundy wants to avoid on the New Orleans Pelicans (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
Stanley Johnson is the type of bust Stan Van Gundy wants to avoid on the New Orleans Pelicans (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 3
Next
New Orleans Pelicans, Stan Van Gundy
Stan Van Gundy needs to develop young players on the New Orleans Pelicans (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images) /

New Orleans Pelicans: Stan Van Gundy’s history of player development in Miami and Orlando

Miami Heat (2003-2006)

Stan Van Gundy’s Miami Heat teams were not loaded with young players, so it’s hard to get a read on how he did with development.

He really only had two rookies on the team who played significant minutes and both went on to have exemplary careers in the NBA.

The first was Udonis Haslem, a long-time role player who is miraculously still on the Miami Heat bench at age 40.

Haslem was undrafted and Stan Van Gundy helped develop him into a quality role player who has won three rings in Miami, not bad for a guy who most didn’t think would even make the league.

The second rookie was some guy called Dwyane Wade, a first-ballot hall-of-famer who made the All-Star game in his second season. Wade is obviously a superstar but credits Van Gundy for having faith in him and handing him the keys to the team.

Orlando Magic (2007-2012)

The Magic were another team that wasn’t loaded with young players when Stan Van Gundy was coach.

He is credited with helping Dwight Howard become an All-NBA player but Howard was already in his fourth season when Van Gundy came on the scene.

However, Van Gundy did help develop rookies Marcin Gortat, who went on to be a quality two-way big man, Courtney Lee, who had a nice career as a 3-and-D role player, Ryan Anderson, who was a quality stretch-four and Ish Smith, another undrafted player who is still making an impact off the bench.

He also helped J.J. Redick, who credits Stan Van Gundy with teaching him how to defend, and Jameer Nelson, who Van Gundy helped develop into an All-Star.

There are two clear patterns here:

  1. Stan Van Gundy coached mostly veterans early in his career
  2. He’s had a lot of success developing role players. If you look at guys like Haslem and Ish Smith, Stan Van Gundy was able to get the most out of their talents.

Wade is the only star Van Gundy coached as a young player and I’m not sure any coach can take credit for a guy who was going to be a superstar either way, but SVG didn’t get in his way.

Unfortunately, his success with young players didn’t continue in Detroit, where it was mostly “busts” for Stan Van Gundy.

Home/Pelicans News