NEW ORLEANS — There were a few familiar faces on the floor at Pelicans practice Monday afternoon.
CJ McCollum was on one side of the court getting shots up after participating in a full, non-contact practice for the first time in three weeks. On the other end, Jordan Hawkins, who missed the last five games with a back injury, went through a shooting drill with Pelicans assistant Corey Brewer. Dejounte Murray even got in some on-court work earlier in the day as he begins his recovery from a fractured left hand suffered on Oct 23.
After weeks of struggling to keep his team afloat through an unprecedented stretch of injuries, Pelicans coach Willie Green might finally be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. He desperately needs it.
During his first three seasons in New Orleans, Green became very familiar with competing without his best players on the floor. But the lack of roster stability during his fourth season has been worse than anything he could’ve imagined.
“This is a unique circumstance we’re dealing with,” Green said. “I don’t think I’ve seen too many examples of one team having this many injuries to their main guys all at once.”
Zion Williamson, Herb Jones, Trey Murphy III, Murray, McCollum and Hawkins have already missed a combined 63 games less than one month into the NBA season. The Pelicans have played 15 following their 41-point loss to the Mavericks on Tuesday. Another game, against the league-best Cavaliers, waits on Wednesday.
New Orleans finished out a close loss against the Lakers on Saturday with Jaylen Nowell, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Brandon Boston Jr. and rookie Yves Missi on the floor. Two of those players didn’t start training camp with the Pelicans, while the other two were likely to be outside of the rotation.
The Pelicans are 2-11 in their last 13 games, as almost every member of their eight-man rotation has been out with injury. After coming into the season hoping to return to the playoffs, New Orleans left Dallas ahead of only the Utah Jazz in the Western Conference. Green is about to face enormous pressure to help turn the Pelicans’ wayward season around, even if there are good reasons why that pressure hasn’t arrived yet.
The good news: McCollum could be back as soon as Friday’s game in New Orleans against Golden State. Hawkins and Jones are both expected to return in the coming weeks, with Murray trailing closely behind them.
Barring setbacks, the Pelicans should be largely healthy early next month. Things might look bleak now, but there’s still an opportunity to string some wins together and get back into the postseason discussion among a large group of Western Conference teams hovering around .500. With Murray, McCollum, Ingram, Murphy and Jones all healthy for an extended period, New Orleans will have enough to compete with most teams in the West. Getting Williamson and/or Jose Alvarado back at some point in mid-to-late December would also provide a huge boost, but there’s a possibility neither of them will return from their respective hamstring injuries before the end of the calendar year.
Green won’t have the luxury of waiting for the Pelicans to get whole to start turning the season around.
Although there have been some grumblings among the fan base, it’s far too early to start looking at Green as a potential fall guy because things have gone south. That doesn’t mean the blame won’t start shifting his way if he fails to right the ship at some point. This team will either make its move when most of the main guys are back in the lineup, or it’ll become clear that it just wasn’t meant to be with this group, at least this year.
They might not be mathematically out of the race in January, but with the trade deadline in early-February, the Pelicans can’t afford to wait for Williamson to come back and save the day. With so many perimeter players at the top of the rotation, Green will need to quickly find the lineups and strategies that work the best to march back toward .500 and beyond.
There have already been a few shaky moments during late-game situations in recent losses that have heightened the scrutiny on Green and his in-game coaching. At the end of the Pelicans’ loss to Brooklyn on Nov. 11, New Orleans went scoreless during the final three minutes of the game and Green didn’t take a timeout until the Nets already reclaimed the lead. The Pelicans had a possession lead for extended stretches in the quarter.
One possession stood out: Murphy brought the ball up the court and held it for the entire possession, dribbling from one side to the other, before tossing up a turnaround jumper just before the shot clock buzzer. It was a wasted possession during a crucial moment in the game. On the ensuing possession, Brooklyn guard Cam Thomes drilled a stepback 3 that put the Nets up for good.
If Green had taken a timeout in that situation, he could have helped direct the team toward a better shot. There’s no guarantee the result would’ve been any different, but there are times when a coach has to grab control of the wheel during a game, especially with an inexperienced team. Green didn’t in Brooklyn.
A similar theme arose in Saturday’s loss to the Lakers following a LeBron James 3-pointer that put the Pelicans down one inside of two minutes. Even though they got decent looks on their next two possessions, the offense was stagnant both times. The Pelicans didn’t touch the paint on either possession.
It’s not Green’s fault those shots didn’t go in, but he could’ve done more to affect the outcome of those games. For a team that’s desperate to grab any win it can find while it’s shorthanded, small missteps like this can turn into major issues.
If Green finds a way to push his team back into the postseason picture, it’ll certainly quiet some of his critics. But what if he fails?
What if the saga with Williamson’s latest injury lingers through the end of the season? What if the team feels compelled to trade Ingram before the NBA trade deadline once it’s clear the playoffs are out of reach?
The need for change in New Orleans will be palpable. There’s no easier target than the head coach when things go wrong. Not to mention, the schedule doesn’t do him any favors with the upcoming gauntlet his team has to face before the start of the New Year. The Pelicans play 17 games between now and the end of December, and 13 of those come against teams that currently hold a winning record. Seven of those games come against teams that currently fall somewhere between seeds No. 5-12 in the West.
There’s ground to be made up — treacherous ground.
Green’s attitude and consistent approach have always been among the top reasons his players have supported him, even during some of their darker times. During his first season in New Orleans, he started his coaching career losing 16 of his first 19 games, which included a nine-game losing streak. He kept that team together. New Orleans rebounded later in the season and earned a spot in the postseason by advancing through the Play-In Tournament.
The next season, Green’s team experienced a 10-game losing streak that could’ve broken it apart after many injuries, but the Pelicans eventually rebounded and won nine of their final 12 games to clinch a spot in the Play-In Tournament.
He’s helped the Pelicans find their way out of monumental holes before, and there’s still belief within the locker room that he can do it again.
“He’s always sent a positive message,” Ingram said of Green’s demeanor. “That’s definitely keeping us alive.”
“He’s always even-keeled. Willie is always steady. He was steady when the Titanic was kind of sinking when I first got here (in 2022),” McCollum added. “It was a lot of losses in a row, (Ingram) was hurt, there was a lot going on with the team. He was always steady and he always said we would turn it around.”
That steadying presence was exactly what New Orleans needed during a tumultuous time. Considering how much he did to repair some of the glaring issues that were holding this team back early in the Williamson/Ingram era, it’s no coincidence that New Orleans has increased its win total in each of his first three seasons.
But as Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin said last April, “It’s time to get better.” The days of complacency and hoping this group can finally get it together are over. Either the problem gets solved this season or big changes should be expected once again.
Does that mean Green should have the finger pointed at him when so much of this team’s shortcomings have been outside of his control? Of course not. But if the Pelicans continue on their current trajectory and end another season with an epic faceplant, the blame has to go somewhere.
(Photo: Sean Gardner / Getty Images)
