Willie Green deserves some Coach of the Year buzz

Head coach Willie Green of the New Orleans Pelicans doesn’t get a lot of national recognition but he deserves some buzz for Coach of the Year.

Ultimately, the Pelicans probably won’t win enough games for him to get real consideration, as there are plenty of other worthy candidates.

You have J. B. Bickerstaff, who turned a 22-win Cleveland team into a 5-seed in the Eastern Conference. Taylor Jenkins, who has the Memphis Grizzlies looking like a legit title contender.

Billy Donovan in Chicago will probably get some votes, as will Monty Williams and Erik Spoelstra, who could probably win the award almost every year.

But coach Green has had to deal with as much or more than any of them, and is starting to build an impressive resume of his own.

The Zion Williamson saga, Willie Green and the New Orleans Pelicans

Willie Green has had to deal with controversy and challenges right from the start.

The centerpiece of the team, Zion Williamson, got hurt in the offseason and it has been nothing but drama ever since.

Not only has Green had to deal with trying to work without the player the team is built around, he had to deal with non-stop speculation and rumors.

The team has stayed together and has never seemed bothered by all the talk. Green has kept his team focused, said all of the right things and not let the loss of Zion be an excuse to fail.

Speaking of failing…

The 1-12 start to the play-in

The Pelicans started the season 1-12 and a lot of people were ready to write them off. Green just kept tinkering, kept his team working and stayed positive.

They slowly starting putting together some wins, started to get healthy, made the big trade for CJ McCollum and are now playing their best basketball of the season.

They sit alone in the 10th seed with eyes on the Lakers and a chance to win their way into the playoffs.

If you had told me that after game 13, I probably would have laughed, so Willie Green deserves a lot of credit for keeping this team together after a horrendous start.

The defense

After being awful the past two seasons, the New Orleans Pelicans have finally improved defensively, which was a focal point of the offseason.

Drafting Herbert Jones helped, but Green has gotten the rest of the team to buy-in and they are now winning games with their defense.

After being near the bottom of the league last season, the Pels have jumped to 14th in the NBA in points allowed per game, a six point improvement from last year.

Coaching in a small market that never seems to get any positive attention from the national media won’t help his cause, but Willie Green deserves to be in the conversation for Coach of the Year for how he has turned this team around.