The Pelicans have fired head coach Willie Green, NBA insider Chris Haynes tweets. James Borrego will take over as the team’s interim coach, Marc J. Spears of ESPN tweets.
The change comes as no surprise. New Orleans has lost four straight and sits at the bottom of the Western Conferene standings with a 2-10 record.
It was reported on Friday that they were having “serious” internal discussions about Green’s future. Team owner Gayle Benson told NOLA.com that any decision on Green’s job status would be made by executive VP of basketball operations Joe Dumars.
The Pelicans released a statement, confirming Green’s dismissal and the hiring of Borrego.
“After careful evaluation, we have made the difficult decision to make a change at head coach,” Dumars said in the statement. “I have the utmost respect for Willie Green, and I’m sincerely appreciative of his contributions to the Pelicans organization and the New Orleans community. We wish him and his family all the best in the future.”
Benson also confirmed that Dumars made the decision to relieve Green of his duties.
“As I have stated, Joe Dumars is in charge of basketball operations decisions, and as one of the best basketball minds in the business, I trust him to make the right decisions for our franchise,” she said. “I have tremendous admiration and respect for Willie Green, and I truly appreciate all he has done for our organization over the last few years. This is a tough business and these are difficult decisions. My expectation is to be a winning team that competes for championships, and I remain steadfast in our commitment to building a championship-caliber organization for our players, partners, and above all, our fans.”
Green was named head coach prior to the 2021/22 season and the team’s record steadily improved during his first three seasons. The Pelicans posted 36 wins in his first year, 42 the next and 49 in 2023/24. They made the playoffs in two of those seasons, falling in the first round both times.
Everything fell apart last season with injuries to multiple rotation players greasing the skids for a 21-61 season. Dumars was hired afterward and chose to stick with Green in the short term but their disastrous start led to his dismissal.
Pivoting to Borrego is also not a surprise.
Earlier this month, Marc Stein reported that Borrego was retained as New Orleans’ lead assistant in anticipation of a potential head coaching change. Stein noted that the Pelicans denied a request from the Knicks to interview Borrego to become the lead assistant on Mike Brown‘s staff.
Borrego, of course, has plenty of head coaching experience. He was Orlando’s interim coach in 2014/15, then had a four-year stint as Charlotte’s head coach from 2018-22. He has compiled a 148-183 record during his head coaching career.
Two years too late
Ok now do the same with Dumars
About damn time
Should fire the entire medical staff with how many injuries they have every year.
They already did that a couple of years ago, and nothing changed.
The team has been on the injured list more than available to play list. maybe he can go back to being Kerr’s coach.
What a joke. Like it’s his fault this team is a dumpster fire. Maybe address the real problem – your “star” is a loser that never plays. Too bad the NBA isn’t like the premier league so this team could be relegated to the G League
No doubt
Zion never plays, has little value at this point. Not sure who thought Jordan Poole was a positive move. Traded next year’s first round pick unprotected for Queen. Signed Kevin Looney with the intention of starting him next to Zion. Basically whiffed on every asset from the AD trade.
Willie Green is not the issue lol
if youve watched any pels this season youd know willie green is absolutely a major part of the issue.
Clearly Green had lost the team, so it was inevitable.
Borrego hasn’t been very fortunate in his coaching career, starting as an assistant with the Pelicans, getting hired as an assistant with the Magic and getting named interim coach for a partial season when they went 10-20, then 3 years as an assistant with the kings before being named head coach of the hornets where he lasted 4 years, and they actually had a winning record in the final season at 43-39. The Hornets stupidly replaced him with perennial loser Steve Clifford and they immediately dropped to 27-55.
So now, back to the Pels, and with this roster he’s going to have to be great to get this team to change. Good luck to him!
I always thought that was an idiot move by Charlotte. He actually had that team improving. Not sure what leap they were expecting from Clifford, but look at the franchise since.
Now they should move Zion. Time to really build this team. No ordinary Joe …
They can’t rebuild they traded their first for a backup center
Adam Silver’s done everything possible to rig trades, games, and drafts.. and still inept billionaire owners have no idea why they suck. dumbfounding
I would not watch a sport where I thought everything was staged. At that point, WWE would be more entertaining
Trade Zion!