Pelicans need to make a substantial change after disastrous season

New York Times

11-04-2025

David Griffin called his shot last April.
In about three weeks, it'll be exactly one year since the Pelicans' executive vice president of basketball operations declared that leaning on continuity and hoping for better health were no longer good enough in New Orleans.
'I want to be really, really clear,' Griffin said. 'This is not going to be a summer of complacency. It's time to get better. … I think you'll see a real sense of urgency from all of us.'
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It was a bold declaration after a 49-win season, which included Zion Williamson playing a career-high 70 games. Yet, it was the correct one.
Griffin knew the Pelicans were in danger of being stuck in the middle of a competitive Western Conference that keeps getting better. The failed attempts to move Brandon Ingram in the summer and the eventual acquisition of Dejounte Murray were all attempts to invigorate a Pelicans team that needed a new look on the floor and a new feel away from it.
Ultimately, it all turned out to be a failure. If 'urgency' was required after 49 wins, what should come next after the second-worst campaign in franchise history?
In Griffin's words, 'It's time to get better.' But the route there needs to look much different from what it did last summer. It's time for the Pelicans to get bold. There have to be some substantial moves to shake up the foundation of this team, and there are only three moves that would meet that criteria: firing Griffin, firing head coach Willie Green or trading Williamson. Anything less would feel like New Orleans is stuck trying to revive something that's already gone. Just look across the parking lot on Airline Drive and ask the New Orleans Saints how that works out.
Even if bad luck was involved, this year leaves no time for more patience with the most important people in the franchise. Things went poorly. Ingram played only 18 games before injuring his ankle and sitting out until being traded to Toronto in February. Murray broke his hand in the first game and returned a few months later, only to rupture his Achilles tendon in January. Once again, Williamson missed a significant portion of the season due to a hamstring injury, playing just 30 games before ultimately being shut down for good.
Now, if the Pelicans don't win their final two games, they'll finish with the second 60-loss season in franchise history.
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The Pelicans have to start preparing for the future. May's Draft Lottery could help. But whoever the Pels end up selecting in the 2025 Draft needs to step into a situation that feels stable and free of any burden that comes with recent failures.
So, who should go out of Griffin, Green and Williamson?
In the cases of Griffin and Green, it is not fun to consider people losing their jobs. But I also understand it's a fundamental part of this business. And, at times, abrupt changes are necessary for a team to grow.
Griffin has done a lot of good during his time as the lead executive in New Orleans. Over the past five seasons, the Pelicans have been one of the best teams in the league at finding and developing young talent without using top-10 draft picks.
Green gets credit for developing many of those players. Green also stabilized this group often over the last four seasons when injuries arose and led them to playoff berths in 2022 and 2024.
Griffin also has made some questionable moves along the way that have damaged the team, including the Murray trade and the awkwardness surrounding Ingram's final season in New Orleans. More than that, it is fair to criticize Griffin for being reactive instead of proactive. He often hoped the culture in the locker room, created largely by oft-injured stars, would suffice.
That is where Williamson enters the picture. By the end of this season, he'll have missed 199 games since Green's arrival in New Orleans before the 2021-22 season. It would be almost impossible for any coach to succeed consistently when the best player on the team has missed that much time.
Wiliamson has also brought more scrutiny upon himself with some of the drama he's dealt with away from the court, including his one-game suspension earlier this season due to his late arrival for a team flight.
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When Williamson is on the court looking as good as he did during the 30 games he played this season, there's no question he can be the face of a franchise and the best player on a playoff team. But is everything else that comes with Williamson worth the trouble? Can you truly trust him to be the guy everyone relies upon if the ultimate goal is to win a championship? His contract would allow the Pelicans to move on from him relatively painlessly if they made that choice.
These are some of the difficult questions New Orleans has to answer this summer. As difficult as it may be, running it back with all three in their current positions cannot be the answer.
There's already enough apathy within the fan base after this year. Keeping all three in place would only turn off fans more and legitimize the critics who say ownership isn't willing to make the tough decisions to put this team in the best position to win.
If the goal is to reshape the foundation of this team, this would be the right time to do it: with a lottery pick coming to town and the understanding that there will be a transition period now that Ingram is gone and Murphy, once healthy, is moving up in the team's hierarchy.
Any single move could foretell another. Firing Griffin and keeping Green would lead to many wondering how long it'll take the new lead executive to bring in a coach of his own, much like Griffin did after he fired Alvin Gentry one year into his New Orleans tenure. Firing Green and keeping Griffin would only lead to more questions about Griffin's credentials to lead this team into a third rebuild.
And ultimately, if a rebuild is where this is headed, would it be fair to place all the baggage that comes with Williamson on any new lead executive or coach the team hopes to hire? That is the case to move on from all three, and it has some merit.
It's easy for folks like me to say blow the whole thing up and start over. If I were the guy called on to make decisions in New Orleans, I probably wouldn't be bold enough to move on from Williamson after the way he played this season.
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But as we've seen in recent weeks with the stunning firings in Memphis and Denver, the pressure to win — and keep winning — in the Western Conference is higher than ever. Teams are getting desperate in attempts to keep up.
The last thing anyone wants in New Orleans is the feeling that this franchise isn't willing to do what it takes to keep up with everyone else fighting for relevance in the West. If the Pelicans aren't prepared to make some uncomfortable decisions this summer, they're in danger of being left behind.
(Photo of Willie Green and Zion Williamson: Jerome Miron / Imagn Images)