New Orleans Pelicans’ training camp: Stan Van Gundy shows why he was hired

Stan Van Gundy didn’t waste any time establishing a new culture for the New Orleans Pelicans.

“Soft.”  “Passive.” “Unfocused.”  All words you could have used to describe the New Orleans Pelicans’ defense last season. Stan Van Gundy is trying to change that in the first day of training camp.

Reports out of the Pelicans’ first practice are that the team focused on defense. In fact, it was only defense.

Stan Van Gundy explained how he wanted to set a tone right away:

"“Day 1 you want to set the tone,” Van Gundy said. “For us, it was defense, first and foremost. I thought it was important this year, with me coming in new, that we went right to the priority first. Today we wanted to get a defensive mentality and how we wanted to play on the defensive end of the floor.”"

It seems like Van Gundy’s message was heard loud and clear, as several Pelicans, including Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram, remarked that it was an intense practice that focused only on defense.

Ingram and Zion had this to say after Day 1:

"“Today’s emphasis was the defensive end,” forward Brandon Ingram said. “Every coverage we’re doing. It was very detailed from top to bottom. It was really a mental day for us (to focus on learning).”Williamson had a very concise way to summarize Sunday’s lengthy practice: “Defense, defense and more defense.”"

New Orleans Pelicans training camp: Stan Van Gundy focuses on defense

The New Orleans Pelicans had the 21st ranked defense in the league last season, largely because they couldn’t stop anyone in the paint and gave up too many easy baskets off turnovers.

Stan Van Gundy hopes to clean up these defensive problems and get the Pels into the top half of the league.

The Pelicans’ offense is already near the top of the league, so any defensive improvement should mean more wins.

It was good to see Stan Van Gundy come in right away and establish that defense is what wins games and that guys who don’t play it will be on the bench.