James Borrego will be a head coach in the NBA again someday sooner than later.
Don’t be surprised if his opportunity comes next season.
But the Pelicans’ interim head coach may not have to wait that long.
Joe Dumars, the Pelicans’ executive vice-president of basketball operations, should just make the call now and rip the interim tag off Borrego’s title much like Borrego’s Pelicans ripped the hearts out of the Houston Rockets Thursday night at Smoothie King Center in a [133-128 overtime victory.](https://www.nola.com/tncms/asset/editorial/f29f6275-cba4-4ab1-b3cf-28e97dd4c55b/) And if Dumars isn’t quite ready to make that decision after a small sample size of 16 games, he should at least have Borrego’s name somewhere near the top of his short list head coach candidates.
One month on the job and the team’s improvements under Borrego have been clear.
“The biggest thing is their buy-in and trust to one another and how hard they are playing,” Borrego said. “Their competitive spirit. The commitment to get better every day and stick to the process. They are building good habits. It’s more about that. I’d love the results to be better, but it’s more about the process of building good habits and building an identity. They’ve bought into that and I’m seeing that reflected in games and practice.”
The Pels are just 4-10 since Borrego replaced Willie Green. But as the practice time has increased with more days between games, there has been a steady improvement in the team’s play. It helps that the Pelicans are as healthy as they’ve been with Dejounte Murray as the only player who hasn’t returned. Borrego has preached details since taking over and the players have bought in.
“He has a fire about him and it really ignites our entire team,” said Trey Murphy. “We just get out there and try to play for him as a team and stick together. That’s his biggest thing. Getting us to stick together and play with fire.”
Rallying from a 25-point deficit to beat the Rockets tied a record for largest comeback in franchise history.
“Resilient, tough, physical,” Borrego said after the win. “Everything we’ve talked about over the last couple weeks. This is a team that reflects the city of New Orleans. Never drop the sword mentality.”
Since Dumars took over in April, he has talked about wanting a team with an identity. That’s what Borrego is trying to build. On the day before Thursday’s win over the Rockets, a former sniper from the New Orleans Police Department addressed the team.
“He relayed a message to us of being resilient and representing a community,” Murphy said after Thursday’s win. “I think New Orleans as a whole has been a really resilient community and I think we tried to show that on the court tonight. We were down, but we didn’t give up.”
Forward Saadiq Bey scored a season-high 29 points to go with nine rebounds to lead the comeback. Bey, in his first season in New Orleans, likes what he’s seen in Borrego.
“He’s made some helluva adjustments,” Bey said. “In the game, scout and when we are going through shoot around. He’s a great mind on both ends of the floor and we really trust him.”
Borrego hasn’t been afraid to switch things up. One of the first moves he made was inserting rookie Derik Queen into the starting lineup. One of his big changes the last two games has been bringing Zion Williamson off the bench. It’s the first time Williamson has ever come off the bench. The logic behind it was to have Williamson be able to play more minutes in the fourth quarter to close out games. But in the win over the Rockets, Borrego didn’t play Williamson any in the fourth quarter or overtime. Instead, Borrego chose to stick with the lineup that brought the team back.
“I know they were gassed, but I kept rolling with them,” Borrego said. “That group was rolling. Those were tough decisions. It’s going to be like this every night. Who do you go with? That group had momentum and I tend to stay with momentum.”
Getting a talent like Williamson to be ok with coming off the bench says plenty about Borrego’s leadership.
“He’s putting the team above himself,” Borrego said. “The individual wants to start in general. Every player I’ve been around wants to start. It was just a clear communication between the two of us. ‘Hey, what do you think? Is this the best for you, for the team?’”
Making those type decisions and having wins come with it makes it a much easier sales pitch.
The players know that wins like Thursday can be a turning point for the season. The Pelicans are still five games out of the play-in tournament.
“Obviously it helps gives us some more mojo and motivation to keep it going,” Bey said. “If we play together for a 48-minute stretch, we can compete with anybody.”
One month in this new role, Borrego likes what he’s seen. And he’s not looking back to the early struggles.
“We’re past that,” Borrego said. “We’re building identify. It’s about now. The past is the past. We don’t sit there and say ‘woe is us.’ There is a lot of season ahead of us and I look forward to growing with this group. Tonight I think we took a major step forward. The goal is to keep our foot on the gas.”
And Dumars might want to consider letting Borrego be the one leading the way.