The New Orleans Pelicans are buying into Willie Green amidst the losses

The New Orleans Pelicans are not winning right now, but even in the losses we are seeing some positive signs that the culture is finally changing.

The Pelicans have played hard in every game so far, and while there are no participation trophies in the NBA, it is good to see a young team that hasn’t rolled over even though nothing has gone their way so far this season.

Zion Williamson is out and no one knows when he’ll return. Brandon Ingram and Josh Hart have both had to miss time, yet the Pelicans have been in every game so far and have kept battling even though they are woefully shorthanded at the moment.

I thought Willie Green would be a lot different from Stan Van Gundy in terms of communication and accountability and so far, he has and the team is buying what he is selling.

New Orleans Pelicans: Better days are coming with Willie Green

The last few seasons the Pelicans have repeatedly been called out for not defending, playing with no energy and for not giving focused effort for entire games.

Even though the results haven’t been there so far, we are seeing that culture slowly change, as the young players are giving energy and playing with the type of hustle we’ve been begging for for the last two years.

Part of this is that Willie Green is not only holding his players accountable, but communicating this to them in ways that don’t alienate the young guys like SVG did last season. Just listen to this exchange between coach Green and rookie Trey Murphy III:

Coach Green doesn’t need to scream and get in someone’s face to make a point. He calmly points out what Murphy did wrong and then explains to him why he did it, which got a positive response from the rookie.

This is one of the reasons coach Green was the right choice, as he knows how to communicate his point to young people without losing them in the process.

We’ve seen guys like Herbert Jones giving maximum effort and the team seems to be rallying around their coach even though they are not winning, which is a good sign.

Right now the New Orleans Pelicans do not have the talent to win games, but that doesn’t mean they should roll over and not compete. The fact that they haven’t is a good sign for the future and the culture change that has to happen for New Orleans to take the next step as a franchise.