Willie Green Articles - Page 3

After keeping it close in Game 1, the New Orleans Pelicans got blown out of the water in Game 2 against the Oklahoma City Thunder. OKC was able to adjust and get their offense going after struggling in Game 1. New Orleans, on the other hand, continued to struggle on offense. The result is a […]

The New Orleans Pelicans can be forgiven for breathing a sigh of relief following an NBA Play-In Tournament victory over the Sacramento Kings. They were without an injured Zion Williamson and just one loss away from squandering a 49-win season. Falling short of the NBA Playoffs would have kicked off a long offseason of roster […]

The New Orleans Pelicans fell just short against the Los Angeles Lakers in their 110-106 NBA Play-In Tournament loss on Tuesday night. While most of the talk will be about whether the Pelicans could have won if star Zion Williamson didn’t have to exit the game in the fourth quarter, New Orleans’ head coach Willie […]

The NBA Playoffs bring a certain kind of seven-game series pressure but the introduction of the NBA Play-In Tournament has injected some elimination game intensity into the postseason. The extra opportunities to keep a team’s NBA Finals dreams alive have been a lifeline to the New Orleans Pelicans. They’ve been in the Play-In three consecutive […]

The New Orleans Pelicans got an important update on the injury status of second-leading scorer Brandon Ingram on Saturday, less than 24 hours prior to their matchup with Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns. Ingram has not played since Thursday, March 21 in a road game against the Orlando Magic and is an important piece […]

The New Orleans Pelicans could waste no time with any pats on the back following a 3-1 road trip. Sure, Willie Green’s group was coming back to the Smoothie King Center for a six-game homestand. The teams coming to town all have postseason aspirations, or in the San Antonio Spurs’ case, Victor Wembanyama. The Pelicans […]

The New Orleans Pelicans have made regular-season progress every year that Willie Green has been in charge. The coaching staff has seen some turnover, but Green’s consistent message and steady resolve have been credited for leading the locker room through some very challenging situations. Green has dealt with injury-plagued seasons and slow starts yet still […]

The jockeying for playoff positioning is really starting to ramp up in intensity and there is one new development: The New Orleans Pelicans are no longer a running joke in the national media’s most uninformed conversations. The small-market squad is 15-5 over the past 20 games with the locker room’s main attractions are leading the […]

The New Orleans Pelicans (37-25) are 12 games over .500 and sitting in fifth place with just under a quarter of the 2023-24 NBA regular-season schedule remaining, putting them in position to make the playoffs. The franchise has not always gotten off to a great start under third-year head coach Willie Green, but this locker […]

The New Orleans Pelicans are making out like bandits while on a three-game road trip through the Eastern Conference’s lower middle class of playoff contenders. They are getting to play hobbled squads missing NBA All-Stars. The Toronto Raptors were missing Scottie Barnes and Jacob Poeltl. The Philadelphia 76ers will be without Joel Embiid. The Atlanta […]

The New Orleans Pelicans have been on a playoffs-or-bust mission since convening for an informal training camp around Labor Day 2023. Making noise in the postseason is the only way Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum would get league-wide respect as a trio. The Pelicans are currently fifth-place in the Western Conference, but Willie […]

The New Orleans Pelicans let things get a little too close for comfort on Friday after building up a 31-point lead at home against the Indiana Pacers. Brandon Ingram and Trey Murphy III eventually finished off a 101-89 win, but there is plenty of credit to spread around. Willie Green’s decision to trust Jonas Valanciunas […]

Trey Murphy III earned the reputation of being one of the NBA’s most lethal long-range threats during the first two years with the New Orleans Pelicans. The Virginia alum had to miss the first 19 games of the season after undergoing a knee procedure and has not been very accurate since returning to the rotations. […]

The New Orleans Pelicans were healthy and playing some of their best basketball going into the NBA All-Star break. The team limped out of the league-wide hiatus however, posting a 1-2 record with more injuries and suspensions than highlights. Having four unavailable players opened up some playing time for the locker room’s newest rookie, but […]

The New Orleans Pelicans have been taking the high road all year when it comes to addressing the referees. The team has been on the wrong end of more NBA two-minute reports than any other organization, and they’ve also been waiting on some proper foul calls for Zion Williamson, who is constantly working through walls […]

The New Orleans Pelicans missed most of Mardi Gras due to a road-game-heavy schedule going into the NBA All-Star break. They played eight of the last ten games away from the Smoothie King Center and then everyone but Jordan Hawkins went on a week-long February break somewhere besides Indiana. The team had practice in the […]

The New Orleans Pelicans had all the momentum going into the NBA All-Star break. The squad was 7-1 with a road-heavy schedule and now get to restart the season with three straight home games. They have the 11th toughest remaining schedule but have proven resilient if nothing else over the past few years under third-year […]

The New Orleans Pelicans survived a scare in Hollywood, ending up with a comfortable 117-106 road win over the LA Clippers. They led wire-to-wire but this is a team is a team that has squandered away 16 double-digit leads already and the Clippers sat atop the Western Conference standings for a reason. After Norman Powell […]

Third-year head coach Willie Green’s first two years were mostly spent stitching together patchwork rotations from skeleton crews, yet he kept the New Orleans Pelicans in the postseason conversation. Now with a revamped staff and relatively healthy roster around two former All-Stars, Green has guided the team to one of the best starts in franchise […]

The New Orleans Pelicans have eight games remaining before going into the NBA All-Star break but the franchise finds itself in a familiar position. The franchise is once again fighting to get above the NBA Play-In Tournament’s cutoff line as the Western Conference playoff race takes shape. The standings are starting to sort themselves out, […]

Brian Scalabrine pulled no punches when calling Monday night’s game between the New Orleans Pelicans and Boston Celtics. The NBC Boston broadcaster, an 11-year veteran sporting an NBA Finals championship ring no less, called out Willie Green’s lineups. It’s not the first time the Pelicans’ lineup decisions have been under the microscope, and it came […]

Third-year head coach Willie Green is getting ‘artistic’ with the rotations a few weeks before the New Orleans Pelicans split for the NBA All-Star break. Switching up what is working for a team 26-18 squad sitting tied for fifth place could ruffle some feathers in some locker rooms. Not in the Smoothie King Center though. […]

Willie Green’s New Orleans Pelicans of the past two years were noticeably hamstrung by their lack of three-point shooting. The front office kept the core of the team together this summer but brought in James Borrego to overhaul the offensive approach. The roster remained mostly intact, but everyone knew they’d be tested on two big […]

The New Orleans Pelicans have a reputation for playing paint-pounding bully ball, but the team is starting to lean more heavily into their three-point barrage battle tactics. It’s working wonders in opening up what was a ‘congested’ offense a few weeks ago. The Pelicans even set a franchise record in Wednesday’s 132-112 win over the […]

Brandon Ingram had a bit of a wacky Wednesday individual stat line in a lopsided 132-112 home win over the Charlotte Hornets, but the New Orleans Pelicans were downright historic shooting from beyond the arc. The cause and effect is obvious. Coach Willie Green’s pairing of Jordan Hawkins and Trey Murphy III has been getting […]

Fans in the Crescent City can be forgiven for thinking that a trip to the city cures all ills for NBA All-Stars looking to return from an injury. Ja Morant made not one but two statements in the Big Easy starting with his season debut and ending with a bit of it-happened-again game-winning shot deja […]

After two and a half seasons covering the New Orleans Pelicans under Willie Green, it’s hard to find any similarities between the third-year head coach and The Wire‘s Marlo Stanfield. However, the religiously grounded basketball boss does have one thing in common with the fictional Baltimore shot-caller. They’ve both had to deal with what “sounds […]

Larry Nance Jr. is not surprised the New Orleans Pelicans are coming back to the Smoothie King Center sporting three more wins in the standings. In fact, the Wyoming alum expected more out of this team and he’s not alone. So does head coach Willie Green but this Pelicans locker room is not getting worked […]

Back and forth games may be what fans want, but make no mistake about it, there is nothing that teams desire more than to win comfortably. That is exactly what the New Orleans Pelicans have done over their past two games. On Wednesday night, it was the Golden State Warriors’ turn to receive a beatdown […]

The New Orleans Pelicans were up on the Sacramento Kings by 50 points with just 9:40 remaining in the game but did not pull their final starter until three minutes later. Naji Marshall replaced Trey Murphy III, so it was hardly a reprieve for Mike Brown’s Kings. Willie Green’s Pelicans were focused solely on their […]

The NBA’s 82-game schedule allows for contending teams to iron out rotational wrinkles while front offices try to find the missing piece to a championship team. Strengths are sharpened; weaknesses get exposed. Well, head coach Willie Green and the New Orleans Pelicans got a wakeup call unlike any other this season in a 111-95 home […]

The New Orleans Pelicans have had a rollercoaster ride over the first 35 games of the 2023-24 NBA season. Their up-and-down experience is starting to stabilize, however. The locked-in locker room got a boost with the return of Larry Nance Jr. to the rotation and the offense has been firing on all cylinders. Furthermore, Zion […]

Where are those Willie Green naysayers now? The grumbling towards the New Orleans Pelicans head coach has been completely silenced over the past few weeks. The 42-year-old Green is finding an NBA Coach of the Year caliber groove midway through a third season with Pelicans. The Pelicans are surging up the standings and Green’s growth […]

The New Orleans Pelicans (20-14) are off to one of the best starts in franchise history and Larry Nance Jr. is putting the league on alert. It’s a credit to both the team’s depth and health, especially All-Stars Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram. Third-year head coach Willie Green is one Trey Murphy day-to-day injury from […]

The New Orleans Pelicans have won seven of their last 10 games, but third-year head coach Willie Green does not think this team is close to its ceiling, not yet anyway. However, with 48 games remaining on the schedule, Green is not looking too far ahead either. The NBA Playoffs race has plenty of time […]

Third-year head coach Willie Green is admittedly still getting used to some of the on-job adjustments. It’s not a slight to a coach in their first lead chair position, just a part of the ongoing evaluation process for the New Orleans Pelicans. However, there is one area that needs attention. Green is not getting the […]

Whenever fans think of the New Orleans Pelicans, the names of Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram always come up. But, some players have been climbing up the ladder en route to a huge breakout season. Coach Willie Green had given his full trust to Trey Murphy III when they faced the Cleveland Cavaliers. It is […]

The New Orleans Pelicans were drawing rave reviews for the past few weeks; now that they’re getting their entire roster healthy, the Pelicans are now viewed by some as one of the most legitimate contenders in a stacked Western Conference. This is not wishful thinking; as one would recall, the Pelicans were the first seed […]

With the New Orleans Pelicans missing Zion Williamson’s services on Wednesday night in their game against the Washington Wizards, the onus to carry the offense fell on Brandon Ingram’s shoulders. And Ingram, much like he was to end the 2022-23 season, welcomed this responsibility with open arms. He ended the Pelicans’ 142-122 win over the […]