New Orleans Pelicans Taking Time Evaluating Top 30 Coaching Candidates

After five seasons with injury-riddled rosters, Alvin Gentry has been “relieved of his head coaching duties” by the New Orleans Pelicans. New Orleans Pelicans Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin stated in a press release, “I’m grateful for and appreciative of Alvin’s commitment to the organization and, most importantly, the local community. The City of New Orleans is richer because of his presence here. These types of moves are often about fit and timing, and we believe now is the right time to make this change and bring in a new voice.”

Several reports alleged that keeping Gentry was a requirement when Griffin was hired. Whether that was the case or not no longer matters. Griffin will now get to conduct a search for a fresh face to lead the New Orleans Pelicans coaching staff. It should be noted the press release stated only that Gentry was relieved of his head coaching duties. New Orleans picked up Gentry’s contract option for next season; he could remain with the team in an executive or advisory capacity.

Both Griffin and Gayle Benson have expressed their appreciation for Gentry’s attitude and advice. Gentry handled the turmoil surrounding the Anthony Davis trade well, acting as the public voice of the team through most of the process until Griffin was hired. He kept the team together through a franchise-worst losing streak and a pandemic. The lack of success in Orlando is not representative of how much satisfaction Gentry gets from working in basketball. Keeping Gentry’s spirit and wisdom in the building could still benefit the organization.

Benson said, “I want to thank Alvin for his contributions to the Pelicans and the New Orleans community. We believe that making a head coaching change is necessary at this time. I truly appreciate Alvin’s leadership, dedication, and perseverance through some challenging circumstances over the past five seasons. He will always be a part of our Pelicans family, and we wish him and his family all the best in the future. Our intention moving forward is to find the right head coach that will guide this Pelicans team to compete for championships. That is what our fans deserve.”

Moving Gentry out of the lead chair on the sidelines was the first big move of an abbreviated, possibly hectic offseason for Griffin and the front office. Griffin said it was “difficult on a human level” because Gentry “hasn’t forgotten how to coach and this isn’t about any shortcomings. This is far more about finding the right fit and a shared vision for a very young and ambitious group moving forward.”

Hiring a new head coach will be difficult on a basketball level, but the process will be more difficult due to COVID-19 safety measures. Griffin replied at the press conference, “We will not be quick with this at all. This is not a rush. We have a job that we believe is going to be the most attractive in the NBA, quite frankly…The virus itself is going to dictate some of our timeline. This (hiring process) isn’t going to be done solely via Zoom (conference calls). Depending on when we’re able to sit down and really get to know one another, we’ll have more updates from then on. This is going be unprecedented in terms of turnaround time, the lack of available salary-cap numbers as you’re building toward next season. You really don’t know when (next) season starts. It’s going to be challenging in many, many ways. That’s a big part of the reason we’re going to be really slow to make a decision in this, because there are so many factors that contribute to the right fit. We need to have far more information about next season itself before we can properly identify the right human being to lead the group.”

David Griffin’s Categories of Coaching Candidates

Griffin said the plan is to not hire any outside consulting firm to conduct this search. His fingerprints will be on this hire. The process starts with sorting through the coaching candidates, which fit into certain categories. Current NBA head coaches, assistant coaches, former coaches now doing media, college coaches, and international candidates will all be considered. Still, current assistant coaches Chris Finch, who has previous interviewed for head coaching jobs, and Fred Vinson could be options as internal hires.

Griffin mentioned coaches still in Orlando, which includes Brett Brown and Ime Udoka (Philadelphia), Jacque Vaughn (Brooklyn), Jamahl Mosley (Dallas), and Becky Hammon (San Antonio). While many will push for Hammon to be the first female head coach in the NBA, an argument could be made Nancy Lieberman deserves the honor. Adrian Griffin (Toronto) had a great night leading the Raptors in Orlando, but news of legal issues broke soon after.

Trajan Langdon has been developing an international Rolodex, and a couple of candidates would expand that network greatly. David Vanterpool (Minnesota) is a longshot odds candidate who has playing and assistant coach experience internationally. Jordi Fernandez (Denver) is one step away from a Ph.D. in sports psychology. He has Spanish roots and some of the same links to Griffin as Ty Lue. He was with Cleveland in the dark days of Kyrie but also has a ring from 2016. Griffin will want a coach that has experienced as much of the game as possible while also being young enough to connect with the locker room. He will have plenty of options for what he called one of the most attractive jobs in the league.

Chauncey Billups has expressed a desire to coach but might lack the resume to tackle this job at this time. Jerry Stackhouse (Vanderbilt) was head coach of the Raptors G-League team before moving into an assistant coach seat in Memphis. He moved to the college game because of a stated love of player development but has almost two decades of NBA playing experience to command respect in the locker room. Chase Buford (Wisconsin Herd) has experience leading a G-league team but is still in his early-30. He may still be too young to command the respect of established veterans.

The list of college coaches that might have outgrown the NCAA’s structure is full of potential candidates. Griffin’s elite eight list of colleges coaches: Chris Beard (Texas Tech), John Calipari (Kentucky), Will Wade (LSU), Mark Few (Gonzaga), Jay Wright (Villanova), Bill Self (Kansas), Dana Altman (Oregon) and Bobby Hurley (Arizona State). Tony Bennett (Virginia) and Tom Izzo (Michigan State) might see this as their last chance to jump into an NBA chair and the coronavirus pandemic affecting the NCAA season could push them into it, if they convince Griffin they can handle the vast differences in the jobs.

Every one of those coaches has years of deep NCAA tournament runs and regular-season dominance to suggest they could make the leap to an NBA chair. Hurley has had great success turning around college programs but has yet to log a decade of experience as a head coach. Griffin will find there are prospects with years of experience leading NBA teams similar to these Pelicans.

David Fizdale, Kenny Atkinson, Dave Joerger, and Scott Skiles have all had young NBA contenders on the brink. Any of the other recently fired NBA coaches are now available for interview. Surely, Griffin will go through their backgrounds with the same thoroughness as every other candidate. In the end, the New Orleans Pelicans will likely find a more creative coaching solution will be more well recieved initially and beneficially long-term than just going for the big name, well-known, perhaps even safe hire of either Mark Jackson or Jason Kidd.