One of the hottest topics surrounding the New Orleans Pelicans as the 2025-26 campaign comes to an end is what the front office will do with their head coaching opening. With Willie Green being fired 12 games into the season and associate head coach James Borrego getting the interim title, it's still unclear who will be leading the Pelicans from the sidelines next season.
According to The Stein Line, two names gaining real traction as candidates for the team's vacant head coaching spot are Darvin Ham and Jamahl Mosley.
Mosley is currently the head coach of the Orlando Magic, but with them struggling to reach the ceiling many thought they had coming into this season and their playoff hopes being in jeopardy, he appears to be on the hot seat. Ham was the Lakers' head coach for two seasons before being let go, then returned as an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks.
On social media, it appears the majority of the Pelicans' fan base opposes hiring Ham as the franchise's next head coach. However, that criticism typically stems from an agenda driven by how his time with the Lakers ended.
Darvin Ham is exactly what the Pelicans need
Nothing can truly prepare a coach for the transition from assistant to head coach, and it often takes a while to figure things out. In Ham's situation, it took him most of his first season, but by the time the postseason rolled around, he was pretty well-rounded, which was one of the main factors in the 43-win Lakers reaching the conference finals. Not many coaches can say they've ever led a team to that level of success in their first season running the show, let alone with as poorly constructed a roster as the Lakers had.
Sure, in that conference final, Ham was outcoached, and that story repeated itself the following postseason. But that doesn't mean he doesn't deserve a second chance.
With the growth both Derik Queen and Jeremiah Fears (especially as of late) have shown this season, the Pelicans have never had a bigger reason to enter a true rebuild. Rebuilds are all about growing, developing, and getting a little bit better every day, and that doesn't just go for the players—it goes for the coach too.
People can point to the memes of Ham having his hands in his pockets or the classic "go hard on them dudes, salute" timeout speech as reasons to poke fun at him. But at the end of the day, those moments don't define his body of work. Not many coaches have back-to-back winning seasons in their first head coaching stint, especially in a market as big as LA.
Look at the Houston Rockets and Ime Udoka. Do any of us really think Ime is going to lead that group to a championship? Probably not. But what we do know is that his arrival helped shape that young core. His ability to lead men and motivate young talent was essential to who Houston is today. Ham is very similar, and his work with players like Ousmane Dieng, Ryan Rollins, and Jericho Sims on the Bucks this season shows that.
The Pelicans don't have LeBron James-sized egos, they don't have championship aspirations, and they aren't under the same microscope as the Lakers. But what they do have is a young, hungry core that wants to learn, and Darvin Ham could be just the teacher they need.