Pelicans: Why Jacque Vaughn is a good choice to replace Stan Van Gundy
New Orleans Pelicans head coach: Jacque Vaughn has experience
Some Pelicans’ fans are leery of hiring a coach without any experience in the top job. I honestly don’t care much about that, but if it is a concern then Vaughn does have some experience.
He was the head coach in Orlando and then again in Brooklyn after Kenny Atkinson was fired last season.
Vaughn’s 65-161 record as a head coach won’t inspire a ton of confidence, but this should be viewed in context. He took over a horrible Magic team that is still horrible, so I am not going to put all of the blame on a coach who had a lousy roster to work with.
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Also, many if not most head coaches failed somewhere before finding success, so Vaughn can learn from his experience and not make he same mistakes he did in Orlando.
His time in Brooklyn was much better, as he led the Nets as an interim coach for just 10 games, winning seven of them and leading many to believe he would be next in line for the job in Brooklyn.
Instead, they gave it to Steve Nash, who might have been better equipped to lead this particular Nets’ team full of superstar egos. Keep in mind that Vaughn’s team was still very young and didn’t have all the star power they do now.
Having some head coaching experience under his belt is a plus and Vaughn is eager to get more.