James Borrego on taking over as interim head coach | New Orleans Pelicans

James Borrego on taking over as interim head coach | New Orleans Pelicans

What was your reaction to the news and what was kind of the Yeah, Tough day. Tough day. Tough day. You know, um I’ve I’ve sat in that seat. I’ve been fired. It’s uh um you know, Willie believed in me, trusted me, brought me in. It’s a tough day to see a friend of yours, someone that you care about uh that helped you uh that helped this program, you know, be let go. Uh so it’s tough day. I mean, we all own it. It’s not just on him. this is on everybody. Unfortunately, in this business, it tends to fall on the head coach in every profession, any sports, uh, profession. So, um, but you know, now it’s the job to move this group forward and, um, I love this group. I love this city, you know, and, uh, we got to rally the troops and get our heads up, our spirits up and move forward. What was your message to the team? What was your first message to the team when you spoke to them today? Get their heads up. Get their spirits up. There’s a lot of basketball to be played here. You know, there’s not 20 games. A lot of these positions like you never know when you’re going to take over, you know, where in the season this is going to happen. We have 70 games to go. Basically, a whole, you know, a whole season. Um, so there’s a lot of basketball. Get their heads up, spirits right, uh, find the confidence, uh, challenge them too. Like, we own this. We got to be better, all of us, including me. like we got to be better in our leadership, in our play on the court, u our focus. Um, you know, that’s our job right now. So, uh, but we have time to improve. There’s plenty of time in basketball this basketball season. Uh, we’ve had the toughest stretch, I think, in the NBA so far. This is, it doesn’t get any easier. You look at these next three, it doesn’t get any easier. So, we got our our, uh, our work cut out for us. But, there’s a lot of basketball. We want to build an identity. like you can clearly see on the floor right now. Who are we? That’s what we have to identify. And it’s not going to happen overnight. Like tomorrow night’s going to be some magic wand. I I wave and we have this magic identity. It’s going to take it’s a process. It’s day by day. It’s our habit work. Uh how we communicate, how we work on the floor. Obviously, it starts with me and giving clarity and direction on players roles. I have met with players. Um, I don’t have all the answers for them right now, but I tried to share as much as I can with them, where they stand, where I’m at, um, and how I see this team moving forward. That you want this team to have? Well, I think it’s an identity that really resembles our community. You know, it’s resilient, it’s tough, it has pride, uh, it’s aggressive. Um, and I think identity wise, it starts there. just an overall physical aggressive group um that plays with force uh that plays together. I’m a big believer in playing together, sharing the ball, moving the ball. You know, last time I was in the seat, uh my team led the NBA in assist. I believe in trusting it, sharing it. I grew up under the San Antonio Spurs where people move the ball, shared the ball, and trusted it. That’s what I want to see. But at the at its core, we’ve got to be a more resilient, tough, physical group. Period. whatever that looks like. X’s and O’s we could talk about all day. At the end of the day, this group’s got to find an identity that’s built around competitive spirit that can play with great force every single night. We never drop the sword when we’re down. We’re down 10, down 20. We don’t let go of the rope. We keep fighting. We got to have that spirit. We got to find that. And what I will say is there’s a group of men in that locker room that are capable of doing this. And that’s my challenge. They’re a great, wonderful, character group. Uh but we got to find that resiliency. Where do you stand with I’m sorry. Where do you stand with Queen? I know you we will see tomorrow night. Is he potentially going to start? Will will you make changes to the lineup that potentially look different than what we’ve seen in the first couple of weeks? I’m certainly open to it. Yeah, I think everything’s on the table right now. Obviously, he’s played better than I expected. I can only speak for myself right now. I did not expect him to come out and have this type of impact, which is a breath of fresh air for our our program, our organization, our community. Um I see a lot of value in him. So, could he potentially start? Yes. Could he come off the bench? Yes. I don’t I don’t have those answers right now. We’ll see what tomorrow looks like. It’s just a very fluid situation right now. We got a lot of pieces. Uh I think my biggest challenge right now is how to figure out this rotation. Who plays well together? You got Zion potentially coming back. You got Queen in the mix. You’re starting a rookie point guard. What does that look like? You know, you have the emergence of Trey Murphy. Um you know, Jose still there. like there’s a there’s a lot of moving pieces here and we have a number of bigs that can play. We have three young bigs that can play plus Looney and DeAndre Jordan. There’s a lot that I got to figure out here. Um but what I’ll say is there’s there’s tools there to to play with. Now I got to figure that out. How much do you kind of lean on those past experiences having been in this position before? Tremendous amount. You know, tremendous amount. Um you know, I sat in that seat for four years. Learned a lot. learned a lot the last what is this my how long have I been out three four four years now you know I’ve learned I’ve grown a lot you know I’m very comfortable with who I am what I stand for as a coach uh I’ve looked back on things that I did well in Charlotte things that we could have done better you own it you get better so uh I feel comfortable in this role um taking over at this time it’s just part of the you know not ideal um but I can lean on my past experiences for sure are you hoping uh to get Z back and what’s your vision for how you want to get the most out of him? Well, number one, we need Z to be healthy, right? Ultimately, we know that when he’s on the floor, good things happen. So, um the goal is to get him back on the floor as soon as possible. I mean, we can’t rush him back. I don’t know when that’s going to be, but I think it’s sooner rather than later, it looks like to me. You know, I I don’t have those answers today, but um and then, you know, utilizing him within this offense, I think it’s going to be fun and creative for me. you know, I get my my hands on him and just see how to utilize him in many different ways. He’s a very unique player. Very unique. There’s nothing I don’t know, maybe I could give you one or two other examples of a Z in this league, but um you know, moving him around the chessboard, that’s my job. James, was he able to go through practice today? What about Jordan P? Was he able to do anything today? Pool was light today. Uh not much. I mean, we just didn’t do a whole lot. We have a backto-back coming. We talked a lot today. Hey, we did a little bit of walkthrough. So, there wasn’t a lot of activity on the floor. Uh, I think Pul did it a little bit and uh, you know, Z was out there as well. Um, so we but we don’t have an update for tomorrow. So, sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off there. Um, you were talking about that identity and you know, leading the league in assists and whatnot those few years ago. How confident are you when you look at this roster that they can kind of Oh, they can do that. They can do that. Absolutely. I mean, this group, this is a very unselfish group. Um, it’s just it’s it’s about what we stand for and our standards at the end of the day. Like we got to lean into what we’re going to stand for. Uh, what we’re going to look like and I’ve got to hold them accountable to that. Every one of them from the top, you know, player on our team to, you know, the rookies to the 15, 16, 17 man. Like, there’s got to be a standard of this is who we are. This is what we stand for. Hold them accountable to that. Again, my last team, we were we were playing a bunch of young guys, rookies, and we got them to buy into it. But it’s it’s chipping away at it. Just like anything in life, you just got to chip away. Every day I did habit work. This is our standard. When they’re not doing it, when I’m not doing it, we hold ourselves to a higher standard and hold each other accountable to that. Um, and that’s truly where leadership comes in. This is a leadership position I’m in. and I’ve got to be out front leading this group, demanding it, celebrating it, rewarding it, and uh moving this group forward. You mentioned the character of this team. Yeah. And with the tough times starting this year, even the tough year last year, sometimes you would see a team splinter to for you to mention how good the character is. Is that maybe one of the most encouraging things like trying to turn this around? No, this group’s still together. I I didn’t I don’t feel that at all. This is not a splintered group. Uh they’re committed to one another. They like each one another, you know, they they they really uh they really enjoy being around one another. They’re pulling for each other. Um it’s a connected group. So that we do have that behind us. This this is a talented group, a talented roster that’s together. I’ll take my chances with that. When you’re evaluating which pairings work well together, which lineup groups work together, how sensitive are you to the fact that, hey, this is still early in the season. samples might not be where you know they need to be act okay we’ve kind of seen enough maybe we do want certain changes or certain pairings on the court together I wish we had more data on that I I don’t think we have enough yet to to say this absolutely works um I’ll try to find some consistency in the next you know let’s call it five games that we look at a sample and say this is working I don’t think we can say after a couple games this is absolutely going to work I think we got to really look at it in a five to 10 game sample and I could probably be you know clearer there where I can be um sensitive is is being consistent in some of those rotations so they give us an idea down the road what that could look like. Um but I also got to be sensitive to trying stuff that works. If something’s not working, move off it and I’m okay with that. Just adapt. Like right now I just got to adapt and try some different things. Look at different lineups pairings. This is very new. We’re very new into this this season. So, um, but yeah, we’ll we’ll try, especially with the bigs. The bigs got to figure out like that’s probably where I’m going to lean in most. We have a group of bigs that can play. How do they work together? Zion is so unique. Who pairs best with him? You know, I’m sure people have said that the numbers of Zion and Queen, I think, are really good. If if I’m not mistaken, that’s a number that has been given to me. Uh, and how true is that? I don’t know. I think we’re going to have to find out. We need a bigger sample there. But what I can say is we’re going to try some stuff. I know I’m sorry. I know that you uh are unselfish and you’ve talked about your team being unselfish, but no matter the circumstances, these opportunities don’t come along very often. You’ve interviewed for Lakers and Cavs and Suns jobs. Do you understand that this is an important moment for you individually? Well, I’ll always remember this day. I’ll always remember this moment, you know, and I’m grateful for it, too, that um I’ve had a lot of wonderful people help me get to this point. And sometimes you never know if you’re going to get back. I’ve I’ve been very close in landing head coaching jobs over the last three years. Very close. They haven’t gone my direction, you know, up to the wire in a number of cases. Disappointment, hurt, whatever that is. Um and you never know if you’re going to be back in this position. So, I don’t take this lightly. This is a this is a tough day for me in a I wish it was under different circumstances. The reality is this is uh u there’s only 30 of these in the world and I get to do you know and and lead a team uh beginning tomorrow and I’ll do that with great gratitude uh toughness resiliency uh faith and lean into these guys and the staff and um I believe in them and I look forward to uh the journey with them. When we came in we saw you speaking to a couple guys individually. I was doing that. I think I think that was you over there. That was the guys. Was that me? Uh, but why do you think that was important for you to kind of have some of that one-on-one time? Oh, we don’t even have enough time to I mean, look, this is all just I I’m going to need a lot more time with them. But the good part is I do know these guys. Like, there’s a there’s there’s a there’s a level of trust with them as we stand today with the with these players. I’ve been with them what now, three years. So, we have some relationship. I think it’s just trying to settle settle their minds a little bit like just hear from them and I think as leaders that’s my job. How are you feeling? I can give them all the answers and what I’m thinking in the world. At the end of the day it’s their minds, their spirits, their confidence, their hope, how they see this thing. I just want to hear from each one of them. That’s what I tried to do today in a vacuum of five minutes. You know, I probably need a whole dinner and, you know, couple uh oysters to figure this out, but uh we’ll do that. We have some time. Um, we only have Steph Curry coming in tomorrow, so we’ll figure it out. I was going to ask you, did you thank Joe for giving you go to state OKC and Denver right after the game? Uh, it’s a tough stretch. Uh, hey, let’s go. Let’s go. Throw us in the fire. You want to be in the fire? Here’s the fire. You know, let’s go. You got to bring it. So, it’s got to raise our level for these next three games beginning tomorrow night. Tough schedule against three very good teams. Um, and what’s difficult, I think you’re probably looking at the three most unique players in the NBA coming up. Steph is as complicated as we’ve seen over the last 10, 15 years. Uh, Shay’s obviously that team’s a juggernaut and uh the the Joker gets to come in, but we get to put our imprint on these games, too. That’s why we have to go be the aggressors. We have to find an identity um of resiliency, toughness, aggression. And look, that’s that’s what I’m hoping that our fans come out tomorrow, they say, “We back this group. We love this group. Now it’s our job to go fight.” We didn’t about your time obviously with Charlotte as a head coach, but this isn’t, you know, your first time as an interim head coach as well in in Orlando. What did you learn through that experience as an inter that was a long time ago. I forgot about that time. Where was that? That was Orlando. Yeah. How can you for whatever you learned during that stretch, how can you kind of apply that year? Maybe taking over in the middle of the season. I don’t remember much about that time. I mean, it was a long time ago. I I guess I’ll I’ll rely more on my Charlotte experience right now just to lean into that. I have a rhythm as a head coach, my day-to-day, you know, going into uh I have a better sense of who I am calling a game offensively. I think that’s one of the things that, you know, one of my strengths is just calling a game offensively. And I got to do that tomorrow night. Find rhythm with these players. I’ve done that. So, I feel good about that. Putting together a game plan. Uh I’m going to I’m going to rely a ton on this coaching staff. What I’ll say is this is a very good coaching staff. Willie did a heck of a job putting together a very good coaching staff. Um so I’m going to rely on those guys. Um you know, especially as we get our feet under us over the next couple games. So, um you got to trust and lean into your staff right now as well. I don’t remember uh being a video coordinator for the Hornets. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. It’s kind of crazy. It’s been a minute. It’s been a minute. Yeah. When was the last time I saw you? Oh, I’ve been around. Yeah. All right. It’s been a minute. Is that true? Yeah. Yes. Okay. So, I do I do a lot of stuff. But anyway, explain it just from your view. Um I think a lot of people would say, “Okay, well, how how different can it be? He’s been here several seasons.” um you know, part of the staff, but the nature of your job has changed. I mean, your job was to support the head coach and his vision, and now it’s different, right? I mean, you have a lot of leeway to kind of Well, I think I think every head coach, if you put anybody in the seat, it’s going to have a different feel and flavor. It just is. We’re we’re different human beings. We tick differently. We see the game a little bit differently. Everybody would call the game a little bit different. you know, it could I could give you the same menu, but you’re just going to use the menu differently, no matter who it is, whether it’s me or, you know, the next guy. So, um, the guy that took over, you know, guy whoever took over for me in Charlotte, I’m sure he called a different game, different look, right? So, um, yeah, you got to put your imprint on it. You got to be who you are. And I’m I’m very comfortable with who I am. I think that’s what our guys understand. I I know who I am. I know what I stand for. And, um, now I just got to lean into these guys. So, um, but we’re all going to have a different flavor, every head coach, and now it’s it’s my opportunity to put my own stamp on it. James, have you had any consideration on who you’re going to replace your old position on this on the bench yet? I’m sure you probably think about that. Hey, you Let me put that on my list, too. Let’s put that on my list. Mattie, can we put that on a list? Replace yourself. Replace yourself. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. I we we haven’t, you know, Joe and I haven’t really talked to the staff yet. I don’t know if there’s going to be anything, but all what I’ll go back to is I I believe in the staff and I know these guys. I trust them. There’s a lot of manpower here and it’s my job to pull even more uh manpower out of them and and maximize that group. It’s not just the players. If we got a staff that’s fully committed, aligned, pushing this group forward, our players are only going to be better for that. So, that’s my job and I believe in that group. David, do you have a message to the fans who some have already given up on the season? No, don’t give up. Don’t give up. We just got started. You know, you have a beautiful group of players and individuals that care about this community, this city, and we want to reflect that. As I said earlier, we want our identity to be built on what this city represents. I think maybe all of us here would have a different representation of what that looks like, but at my core, I see this as a resilient community. Tough, right? pride, uh, energy, um, they show up every day, they do their job, you know, and and I think that’s what I’m looking for, uh, in our players, and we want to reflect that for our community. That’s who they are. Um, and my my hope is that they show up and, you know, and pack that thing out tomorrow night. let’s get after this thing, buy into these guys, let’s build it together, and ultimately if we have the community behind us, um it only strengthens who we are as a team when you have that buy in, that belief. Now, it’s our job to to make them believe ultimately. We got to do that and that’s our job. Can you uh Trey referenced your two stints with San Antonio and obviously coming from Pop’s Tree, I I know obviously you dealt with health issues. Do you talk to him? Will you text him or is that just kind of you’ve already learned from him and or do you think he’ll reach out to you? I’ll always lean on Pop. You know, he’s I wouldn’t be standing here without him. And I go back to the gratitude piece for me. Think about the fortune I’ve had for my first run as a professional to be in San Antonio with Greg Papovic, you know. Um, and he’s one of those there’s probably five or six people I’ll talk to today and he’s one of them. Just lean on their his advice. And sometimes it’s a it’s a oneliner. Sometimes it’s I get five minutes and you know sometimes it’s a dinner. I don’t know what today will be. But um you know he’s someone that I’ve always leaned on for advice and wisdom and uh I still carry with that you know with me today. Can we rely on him the same type of political commentary that he I’ll leave that to pop. You know I don’t I don’t go there and I don’t what is going on in our world today. I don’t know. There’s a lot. There’s a lot. There’s a lot. Maybe you could update me on what’s going on. I think these next couple months I’m going to lose even more sense of reality, but um it’s important for me to get to our players, too. I like our players being tapped into the world and we learn together. I think that’s one thing, you know, you’ll learn from me is I just try to be more worldly. And I learned that from Pop, you know, is just it’s got to be more than just basketball. Um it’s got to be more about who are we, you know, how does each one of us tick? what’s going on in the world, how do we fit in this community? You know, where do we fit in all this? Because there’s a bigger purpose to all this. Obviously, we want to win. You know, that’s the goal. You have to you have to it’s a it’s a result driven business, but at its core, like are we impacting lives? What are we doing for the community? And I think just being having that perspective on the world is something that I’ve I’ve really learned from pop. I probably didn’t I won’t I’ll leave it there. You red wine, too, right? Red wine. Yeah. Amazing. We’ve had a lot of good good meals together. And this I’ll say this. Pop. This is one of Pop’s favorite cities to dine. You like Clancies? Clancies, right? Clancies. Oh, were you guys there stalking him? No. He’s told us that’s where he goes. Oh, I don’t know. I thought I saw you there. I thought I saw you there one night. You know, I thought I saw you there. Probably. Give me another restaurant. Give me Give me Clancy’s. Give me another Where you going tonight, Brett? Uh, Commander Palace. Commander Palace. Got to get there. I’m sorry. You’ve had a question. Yeah. Don’t let these other Don’t these two are just Let me get out of the way. Let me get other way. I just You’ve been around the building for a little bit. How much do you think you could change the rest of the season moving into a higher role? How could I change this season? Oh, we’re going to try like hell. But um absolutely we can. No doubt. No doubt. There’s plenty of time. It’s not again it’s not ideal because you know this the situation. Um but this group can definitely move forward. There’s some real uh foundational pieces, character pieces, um talent in the house. Um now we got to put it all together on the fly. It’s a little bit, you know, we’re going to have to figure this out on the fly, but there’s no doubt this season can turn. I’m optimistic. That’s how I live my life. Um and that’s how I’m going to roll. like we can do this, but we got to do it together and we got to do it with a pride that this this city represents and that um that aggression, that resiliency we talked about. We got to start from day one having that and I wish I could correct it overnight or whatever wherever we’re at. This is just going to be dayby-day process. And look, a month from now, we could be looking in a very different situation. No doubt. And then uh JP is someone like first seven games before the injury kind of trying to find a role. What’s your vision for getting the most out of that? Yeah, I I look I’m trying to figure again I think JP’s one of those guys we got to figure out how to best utilize him on a good team. You know, whether he’s a lead guard with the ball in his hands, is he off ball? I think he can do both. You know, he’s a weapon for us though. Ultimately, he’s a weapon that can come off the bench or start and bring us 20 25 points a night. That’s that’s hard to find in this league. So, I’m going to lean into that, challenge him defensively and uh pull the most out of him. I think that’s one of the things that I probably take most pride in my time as a head coach is maximizing players careers. And you I mean, I’m not going to sit here and go through that right now. You know, if you’d like to, you can do that. But um you know when you look at the when you when you have a chance to coach a talent like that, did I maximize who he was as a player? Did I pull the most out of him? You’re not going to do that for every player. I know that. But are you doing that for the majority of your of your players? And um Pool’s one of those guys that excites me to do that

New Orleans Pelicans Interim Head Coach James Borrego speaks with the media after practice in the Ochsner Sports Performance Center on Nov. 15, 2025.
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