It Keeps Getting Worse For Zion Williamson

It Keeps Getting Worse For Zion Williamson

Morning. The New Orleans Pelicans announced head coach Willie Green has been let go. Said, “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. He leaves with a 150 189 record after five seasons. We’re not even two weeks removed from me making a video about how the New Orleans Pelicans have completely destroyed their franchise with some of the worst trades in NBA history.” And guess what just happened? They fired Willie Green, officially the first head coach casualty of the 2025 to 26 NBA season. Now, let me tell you why this is bizarre. If you’re going to fire your head coach 12 games into the regular season, why wouldn’t you just do it during the off season? It’s just another indicator that the New Orleans Pelicans front office is scrambling and has no coherent plan for this team. And here’s the question we need to answer today. And stick with me because this is where it gets complicated. Was Willie Green a scapegoat for Joe Dumar’s and Troy Weaver’s catastrophic front office decisions? Or was he actually a bad head coach who deserved to get fired? Because here’s what makes this so interesting. It might be both. The Pelicans are sitting at 2 and 10 after firing Willie Green today. And remember, they don’t even own their 2026 first round pick because of that disastrous Derek Queen trade that we covered. So, every loss makes that pick more valuable for Atlanta, not New Orleans. The stakes couldn’t be higher. But was firing the coach really the answer? Let’s dig into this mess real quick before we get to the content. We are giving away a jersey each and every week to a subscriber that turns on our notifications on this channel. And I’m also going to do an additional jersey giveaway for anyone that follows me on Instagram. Just comment what jersey you want in the comment section down below or on one of my NBA related posts on Instagram. And now that we got all that out of the way, cue the intro. [Music] [Music] My Instagram community, Patreon community, and the Waplink Discord community in the description down below have been profiting consistently on a month-to-month basis using prize picks. We do this by trying to research the best plays and making sure we lock in those plays before Prize Pix updates it on their platform. So, if you haven’t joined Prize Pix yet, make sure you use my promo code microphone to get $50 in lineups when you make a play of $5 or more. And here’s my free play of the weekend. I’m going to admit this is a Hail Mary over here. I really like the odds of this potentially hitting. The reward is great, but the risk could be pretty up there. So, don’t go too heavy on this one. I have Matthew Stafford getting over three pass touchdowns versus the Seattle Seahawks. 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Because believe me, there are some legitimate concerns here that go beyond just the win loss record. First, let’s talk about the numbers. Willie Green finished his tenure in New Orleans with a record of 150 to 190 over four plus seasons. That’s a441 winning percentage. He made the playoffs twice in 2022 and 2024, but lost in the first round both times without winning a single playoff series. And here’s what really stands out. Since the start of the 2024 to25 season, the Pelicans have had the third worst record in the entire NBA. We’re talking about a team that went 21 and 61 last season and then started this season 2 and 10. But the record alone doesn’t tell the full story. Let’s talk about what was happening on the court because that’s where things get really problematic. The Pelicans opened this season by losing their first six games by a combined 107 points. They became the first team in NBA history to lose three of their first six games by at least 30 points. Against Boston, they lost by 32. Against Denver, 34 against OKC, 31. These weren’t close games. These were absolute blowouts where the team looked completely unprepared and outmatched. And the defense, forget about it. The Pelicans allowed at least 120 points in five straight games to begin the season for the first time in franchise history. This season, New Orleans ranked 28th in defensive rating, allowing 121.3 points per game. Remember, Green was hired specifically because defense was supposed to be a specialty. He came from that Phoenix Suns team that made it to the 20121 NBA Finals where defense was a huge part of their identity. But in New Orleans, the defense has been atrocious. They’re also bottom five in offensive rating. So, it’s not like the offense was picking up the slack either. Now, let’s talk about rotations because this is where Willie Green really started losing people. Remember Derek Queen, the rookie center of the Pelicans, gave up an unprotected 2026 first round pick to draft? Green was extremely reluctant to play him meaningful minutes. Queen was playing between 10 and 20 minutes per game. And when Queen finally did get extended playing time, he was incredible. In the Pelicans first win of the season against Charlotte, Queen had 12 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, and four steals. Willie Green himself said, “He was amazing tonight. Uh, we needed every ounce of what he gave us.” So, if the rookie who cost you a potential top five pick is playing that well, why wasn’t he getting more minutes from day one? And it wasn’t just Queen. Green kept playing Cavon Looney, a 38-year-old veteran who is absolutely killing the team. The Pelicans were minus 58 in Looney’s 87 minutes this season. That’s 24.8 points per 100 possessions worse with him on the floor than off of the floor. easily the worst onoff mark on the team. Yet, Green kept trotting him out there to start games. Behind the scenes, things were even worse. According to multiple reports, players were disinterested and frustrated with how Green’s lineups were being handled. These displeasures were visible on the team’s bench and heard behind the scenes in the tunnel and locker room. There was a growing sentiment around the NBA that Green had lost the Pelicans locker room. When your players aren’t buying in anymore, you’re done as a head coach. And then there’s the offensive system, or lack thereof. Green’s offensive approach relied too heavily on isolation scoring, leading to stagnant possessions and low percentage shots, especially during crunch time. The team had minimal structure to the offensive sets. And when things got tight, the plans seem to revolve around hero ball or broken plays. For a team with Jordan Pool, Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy, and talented young players, that’s just not good enough. Okay, so Willie Green had some coaching issues, but before we completely bury the guy, we need to talk about the elephant in the room. injuries because this is where the story gets a lot more complicated. Zion Williamson, the franchise player this entire team is supposedly built around, has played just five games this season due to a hamstring injury. And this isn’t new. It’s a hamstring injury he suffered in four straight seasons. Now, over his six-year career, Zion has appeared in only 214 of a possible 492 games. That’s less than half. You literally cannot game plan for a guy who’s on the injury report more than he’s on the court. And it’s not just Zion Williamson, DeJonte Murray, who the Pelicans traded Dyson Daniels in two first round picks for. He tore his Achilles tendon after 31 games and was out for the entire season last year all the way up until this season. Jordan Pull missed games with a quad strain. The roster that was supposed to compete this year literally hasn’t been available. Remember that amazing stretch in the 2023 to 24 season where the Pelicans won 49 and 33 and looked like a legitimate playoff team? There was a specific window between November 5th, 2023 and March 20th, 2024, where the Pelicans went 38 and 24 and had the NBA’s third best net rating, trailing only the 2024 champion Celtics and the 2025 champion Thunder. You know what made that possible? Health. It was the one truly healthy window the Pelicans have had since the Anthony Davis era. Then what happened? Brandon Ingram got hurt in March. Zion got hurt in April. Everything went to hell. The Pelicans got swept by OKC in the playoffs, then stumbled to that 21-61 record last season in an injuryridd nightmare. So, the question becomes, how much of the Pelicans failure is on Willie Green’s coaching, and how much of it is on the fact that he literally never had a healthy roster to work with? Here’s something else to consider. When Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram have spent more time on the injury report than they did on the court together, how is any coach supposed to build continuity, chemistry, or an identity when the roster is constantly changing due to injuries? So, if this is the case, why are people calling Willie Green the scapegoat? Well, let’s talk about the front office because they really put Willie into an impossible situation. Do you guys remember David Griffin, the GM who originally hired Willie Green? He got fired after that 21 and61 season in April. And there were actually reports that Griffin wanted to move on from Willie Green before he got fired himself. But ownership apparently wanted to keep Green. So they fired Griffin and brought in Joe Dumars instead. Now here’s the crazy part. Reports surfaced that team owner Gail Benson gave Joe Dumar a mandate to keep Green, who she had developed a professional affinity for. Dumar’s publicly denied those reports and said he kept Green because he believed he was the right coach for the job. But come on, when you’re a new executive coming in and the owner is telling you to keep the coach, you’re keeping the coach. Rather than bringing in his own coach immediately, Dumar’s allowed Green to start this season and attempt to prove that he was the man for the job long term. Green essentially was coaching on borrowed time from day one. So, what did Dumar’s do to help Willie Green to succeed? The combination of David Griffin and Dumar’s really screwed Willie Green. The Dejonte Murray trade that David Griffin made completely ruined any flexibility the Pelicans have moving forward. Especially cuz I don’t expect Murray to be the same player once he returns from his torn Achilles. The Jordan Pool trade was one of the first trades that Joe Dumar made and he gave up CJ McCollum for a ball stopping guard with a bad contract and most importantly trading away both their own 2026 first round pick and the Pacers 2026 pick to move up and draft Derek Queen. So let’s be clear about what happened here. Dumar put together a roster that made questionable sense. gave up all the draft capital that would provide insurance if things went wrong and then gave Willie Green 12 games to prove it could work. 12 games with a roster decimated by injuries. No team in NBA history has ever made the playoffs after starting 0 and6. So Green was essentially doomed from the moment they started the season that poorly. And here’s the thing that really makes me feel like this is a scapegoat situation. Dumar is the one who traded for Jordan Pool. Dumar is the one who gave Cavon Looney that contract. Dumar is the one who mortgaged the future for Derek freaking queen. But when things go wrong, fire the coach. And I hate to break it to you, but changing coaches doesn’t fix an organization. Here’s a good example. Sacramento. When Mike Brown came in, he won coach of the year unanimously and was fired a year and a half later. The problem wasn’t Mike Brown, it was the organization. And the same thing could be said here. The Pelicans are owned by Gail Benson, who also owns the Saints. An organizational crossover has been a major concern. They’ve never paid the luxury tax and are known for their reluctance to spend not only on players but infrastructure. This is a franchise-wide problem. Willie Green’s firing is part of a much bigger problem in the NBA. Coaches being scapegoed for front office failures. I really don’t like Darvin, but I have to admit he never really had an opportunity to succeed in the earlier part of his career with the Los Angeles Lakers because they fundamentally had a roster that didn’t work. Russell Westbrook on a max contract with Anthony Davis and LeBron James. I think his firing was reasonable given the fact that he was unable to make any adjustments at all whatsoever in the playoffs. But Ham himself later on would say that the roster was imbalanced and it was a lot going on between our star players. In other words, it was front office and star player issues, not coaching issues. But maybe that’s not the best example. I think the best example here is the Phoenix Suns. The Suns traded for Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal. Then they fired Monty Williams and brought in Frank Vogle. When Frank Vogle didn’t work out, they fired him and replaced him with Mike Benhoer. And then eventually Mike Benhoer would get fired too, which resulted in four coaches in four years for the Phoenix Suns. When a team might employ four coaches in four years, are the coaches the problem or is the team the problem? In Willie Green’s case, I’d argue it’s both. He had legitimate coaching flaws. The rotations were bad. He didn’t adapt quickly enough. players lost faith in him. But he was also set up to fail by a front office that made catastrophic trades, assembled an imbalanced roster, gave away all their draft picks for insurance, and then gave him 12 games to make it work with half the roster injured. So, where do the Pelicans go from here? Well, currently, James Berago is the interim head coach. And this is actually an interesting choice. Barago is the former Charlotte Hornets head coach and was a finalist for the Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers head coaching jobs in 2024. The New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets also offered him lead assistant jobs during the off season, but he stayed in New Orleans. And here’s the interesting part. The Pelicans blocked him from interviewing elsewhere last summer, which led to speculation that the move may have been made in case the franchise fired Willie Green. So, they’ve been planning this for a while. Barago’s known for being an offensive guru. In his first year with the Pelicans, he helped their offensive rating jump from 21st in the league to 11th, which is pretty impressive. And interestingly, Zion Williamson has been engaging more than usual with Berago during pregame warm-ups, suggesting he might have more buyin from the star player. But let’s be real, no coach can fix what’s broken in New Orleans without addressing the bigger issues. The roster needs serious upgrades if it’s going to be competitive. Zion’s health remains a huge question mark, and most importantly, they don’t have their 2026 first round picks to rebuild if this doesn’t work. For Dumar, this is massive. He now owns back-to back franchisee definfing decisions. Between the trades he made and firing Willie Green after 2 and 10, his next move will help determine the Pelican’s direction around Zion and recent investments like Derrick Queen. So, was Willie Green the scapegoat? Yeah, I think he was. The front office made catastrophically bad decisions, gave away all their draft capital, put together an imbalanced roster, and then when that roster predictably struggled due to injuries and poor fit, they fired the coach. But was Willie Green also a flawed coach who had legitimate issues? Also, yes. His rotations were questionable. He was too slow to adapt. He wasn’t developing the young talent. The offensive system was stagnant and players lost faith in him. Both things can be true at the same time. Willie Green was dealt an impossible hand by this front office, but he also didn’t play that hand particularly well. The bigger story here is that the New Orleans Pelicans are a dysfunctional organization from top to bottom. They’ve won only two playoff series since moving to New Orleans in 2003. Despite drafting Chris Paul, Anthony Davis, and Zion Williamson, that’s not a coaching problem. That’s an organizational problem. And unless something changes at the ownership and front office level, it doesn’t matter who’s coaching this team. James Burggo might be an upgrade. He might get more out of this roster. But without Zion and Murray healthy, without their draft picks, and without serious organizational changes, this is still going to be a disaster. I wouldn’t be surprised if Willie Green gets another job somewhere and potentially becomes successful because sometimes a coach just needs to be in the right situation and the Pelicans weren’t it. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you want more of a deep dive into how much of a mess this organization is, I’m going to leave our previous video on the subject that we made two weeks ago where we dive into the front office decisions that this team has made over the years. Aside from that, I’m your boy Mike and I’m dropping our mic until our next upload.

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