The New Orleans Pelicans are firing head coach Willie Green after a 2-10 start to the 2025-26 season, the team announced Saturday. Green, initially hired after a strong stint as an assistant under Monty Williams with the Phoenix Suns in 2021, was let go early in the fifth season of his tenure in New Orleans after a disappointing start that included an NBA-record three 30-point losses in their first six games.
Associate head coach James Borrego has been named interim head coach.
“After careful evaluation, we have made the difficult decision to make a change at head coach,” executive vice president of basketball operations Joe Dumars said in a statement. “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’s time with the Pelicans began with a modicum of promise. He took over the team just two seasons into the promising career of Zion Williamson. New Orleans was, at that time, still loaded with draft capital from the Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday trades. They still had a wealth of young talent led by Williamson and Brandon Ingram, and a stellar 2021 draft class featuring Trey Murphy, Herb Jones and Jose Alvarado only raised expectations.
Willie Green was a symptom of much deeper problems for the Pelicans and a new coach probably can’t solve them
Sam Quinn
However, those talented young players all struggled to stay healthy for a New Orleans team that could never find a consistent lineup. During the one stretch in which the Pelicans could largely muster the same starting lineup, between early…
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