Willie Green's time in New Orleans will be remembered a lot like so many of the games he coached.
He got off to a pretty good start. But things didn't go so well down the stretch.
Green was fired Saturday morning, 12 games into his fifth season as Pelicans coach.
Truth be told, Joe Dumars didn’t have to bring Green back this season.
Dumars, hired in April as the executive vice president of basketball operations, could have looked at Green’s 21-61 record last season and said “No thanks.”
Instead, Dumars looked at the season before that when Green — with a healthy roster and more importantly a healthy Zion Williamson — led the Pelicans to the second-most victories in franchise history.
It was fair to give him another shot.
Judge Green on his entire body of work and not just on one injury-riddled season that would have been hard for even icons such as Phil Jackson or Red Auerbach to endure.
See what Green could do with a healthy roster and a new boss.
Could Green get back to being the promising young coach whose win totals increased in each of his first three seasons from 36 to 42 to 49? Or was last season just the beginning of the end?
It took Dumars just 12 games to find his answer.
The Pelicans lost their first six games, then managed to win two before losing four more.
After seeing the blowouts and lack of effort in most of those games, Dumars had seen enough.
He could live with the lack of wins, but it was the lack of effort from the team that did Green in.
“We flat out have to establish who we are going to be,” Dumars said Saturday. “We just can’t go out and play and go up and down and not have an identity.”
The Pelicans are one of the worst teams in the league. They lost three of their first six games by 30 points or more, a sure sign it was time to move in a different direction.
The fans are so frustrated that many already have quit on the season with five months to go.
Even more damaging was that the players seemed to quit on their coach.
Green didn’t just all of a sudden forget how to coach after those first three seasons when he became one of just three coaches in franchise history to lead the team to two playoff appearances. Byron Scott and Monty Williams were the others.
Somewhere between those first three seasons and now, Green was unable to connect with his players. They played as if they no longer believed in him. His message was no longer getting through.
Once a coach loses the locker room, the losses on the scoreboard will follow. To be fair, Green wasn’t always dealt the best hand. Williamson played in only 134 of the 340 games Green coached. During the injury-filled 2024-25 season, Green had to reshuffle the deck night in and night out, using 47 different starting lineups.
Some of it was on him though, particularly how his teams so often failed to finish games.
Green will land on his feet and find an NBA job as soon as he starts looking. Good things happen to good people.
But the team’s lackluster play this season couldn't be overlooked, and it didn’t take long for Dumars to see change was needed.
“We can’t sit on our hands,” Dumars said. “And we can’t sit here and (say) ‘it’s going to get better one day.’ Status quo is never going to be acceptable.”
The good news is there are 70 games remaining.
“Don’t give up on us,” Pelicans forward Trey Murphy said. “… We obviously understand the hole we are in right now. But we also know it’s a long season and we have 70 games left. We can turn this thing around.”
Murphy has seen it done before. During his rookie season, which was also Green’s first season, the Pelicans started 1-12. They ended up making the playoffs and pushing the No. 1-seeded Phoenix Suns to a six-game, first-round series.
It'll be up to James Borrego, who was elevated from assistant to interim head coach, to orchestrate that type of turnaround this season.
The key will be whether he can get those same guys who often played without effort for Green to play with effort for him.
Borrego went through his first practice as head coach Saturday. He had a simple message to his team.
“Get their heads up,” Borrego said. “(Get their) spirts right. Find the confidence. Challenge them. We own this. We’ve got to be better. All of us. Including me. We’ve got to be better in our leadership, our play on the court. Our focus. We have time to improve.”
Borrego will get tested early. His first three games, all at home, are against the Golden State Warriors (Sunday), the Oklahoma City Thunder (Monday) and the Denver Nuggets (Wednesday).
“Let’s go,” Borrego said. “Throw us in the fire. If you want to be in the fire, here’s the fire.”
The only thing hotter in the Smoothie King Center this season was the seat Green occupied. That seat was blazing after the team’s 0-6 start. After returning home from a road trip after that sixth loss, Green’s message to the team was “turning the page.”
Six games later, Dumars delivered a similar message, turning the page.
And closing the book on Green in New Orleans.