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The New Orleans Pelicans are moving on from head coach Willie Green after another brutal start to their season.
The Big Easy was anything but for New Orleans Pelicans head coach Willie Green.
Per Shams Charania of ESPN, the Pelicans have fired the fifth-year boss after their latest dreary start. Assistant coach James Borrego will take over on an interim basis.
“After careful evaluation, we have made the difficult decision to make a change at head coach,” Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations Joe Dumars said in a statement, per Charania. “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.”
Green, who also built a 12-year playing career between Philadelphia, New Orleans, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Orlando (2003-15), amassed a 150-190 in four-plus seasons with the Pelicans (2-10). He supervised two playoff trips in 2022 and 2024, but failed to get out of the first round. Granted the job after serving as an assistant for the 2021 Western Conference champion Phoenix Suns, Green’s best season was a 49-33 mark in 2023-24, the best tally for the Pelicans since their 2013 rebrand.
Injuries partly marred Green’s last two seasons in the bayou, headlined by the lengthy absences of franchise face Zion Williamson, who has appeared in more than 30 games just once over the last five seasons. New Orleans has also had to work without prized acquisitions Dejounte Murray and Jordan Poole, the former of whom has not taken the floor since late January after tearing his Achilles.
All that and more decimated the Pelicans’ win total: they won only 21 games last year (the drop of 28 being the biggest single-season difference in franchise history) and lost their first six this time around, half of those defeats coming by at least 30 points. Amidst this trying season, New Orleans won’t even have the comfort of its own first-round pick come summer, having traded it to the Atlanta Hawks last draft night for the rights to the most recent No. 13 choice, Derik Queen.
In Green’s places rises Borrego, who previously held a four-season term at the helm of the Charlotte Hornets (2018-22) and a 30-game interim stint with the Orlando Magic (2015). Well-lauded for his work on Gregg Popovich‘s San Antonio Spurs’ staff, Borrego reportedly interviewed for the New York Knicks head coaching vacancy that was eventually filled by Mike Brown before returning to New Orleans. Borrego has won two championships as a Spurs assistant, earning those rings in 2005 and 2007.
The Green era ended with a 118-104 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers at home on Friday night, New Orleans’ fourth straight loss after a brief two-game winning streak. Borrego’s supervision begins on Sunday when the Pelicans host the Golden State Warriors (7 p.m. ET, GCSEN).
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
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