In a season like the one the New Orleans Pelicans are currently having, there are bound to be unintended consequences. They came into the 2024-25 campaign expecting to compete for a postseason berth and hoping to make a deep playoff run, the first one of their current era.
Instead, they incurred multiple injuries in the early year that absolutely ruined their entire season and any chance they had at making the playoffs. That left the Pelicans with an identity crisis, as a team with a roster built to win-now but with no hope of advancing to the postseason. After a half decade of struggling with their health and failing to become serious contenders in any way, New Orleans had some serious introspecting to do regarding their approach.
Many thought that the Pelicans would undergo a franchise overhaul and pick a more defined direction at the trade deadline, but, instead, the franchise simply pushed off their tough decisions until the offseason. One of those difficult choices might have to be firing Head Coach Willie Green, even if the team's struggles this season are in no way his fault.
Willie Green might have to be fired through no fault of his own
This season, the New Orleans Pelicans are currently 13-43, firmly planted at the bottom of the Western Conference standings. That gives them an abysmal win rate of just 23.2 percent, which would be the worst mark of Willie Green's coaching career by far.
Green started off his tenure on the sidelines with a 36-46 finish in his first season as a head coach. From there, he and his Pelicans showed improvement in every season since, until this one.
Being a head coach in the NBA might seem like a glamorous dream job to outsides, but, in reality, it's mostly a thankless position. They're often the first ones to get blamed when a team is underperforming. Even when they manage to take their squad to new heights, the players and front office usually get more of the glory than the play caller.
That might seem bleak, but it's not exactly unfair. In reality, most coaches in the NBA are only slightly influential on their team and their success. There are a few elite minds on the sidelines who can seriously impact their squad's chances through schemes and in-game adjustments, but the largest part of an NBA coach's job is really just keeping their players locked in and motivated. Most of the league's play callers are somewhere between decent and good at managing their team's egos.
For Willie Green, he was dealt an extremely unfair hand this season. Through no fault of his own, his team is now at the bottom of the standings and will be headed to the lottery this summer. Due to the overwhelming absences he's had to deal with, the Pelicans haven't even been able to garner important moral victories or establish any rhythm they can build off of moving forward.
Losing at the rate that New Orleans is currently enduring, in the manner they've been losing — getting blown out, falling apart in the fourth quarters, with many of their top players sidelined for long stretches of the season — can be absolutely terrible for morale. There's a strong chance that the Pelicans will be returning a similar roster for next year, because this team has enough talent to compete when fully healthy. But they'll have to find a way to wash the stink off from this season and free themselves from the mental detractors they've garnered throughout this abysmal campaign. To do so, they might have to offer a sacrifice to the basketball gods to cleanse their energy, and that offering might have to be coach Willie Green. Even though he's not to blame, he might be expendable, and his dismissal may even be necessary to ensure that the Pelicans can turn things around after this lost season.