During his two-year hiatus from the NBA, Stan Van Gundy spent his time taking notes. Whether he was watching an NBA game, taking part in a basketball clinic, speaking to his coaching colleagues or – more of a sign of the times – taking part in Zoom sessions, Van Gundy was jotting things down.
On Tuesday, he looked like a man well-prepared for his return to the sidelines as he was officially introduced as the New Orleans Pelicans’ new head coach. Alongside executive president of basketball operations David Griffin, general manager Trajan Langdon and owner Gayle Benson, Van Gundy’s enthusiasm was evident even over a computer screen.
“I was really enjoying being a TV analyst,” Van Gundy said. “I wanted to coach again but only if we could find an absolutely great opportunity and New Orleans had it all.”
Van Gundy’s patience was only matched by the Pelicans’ as the franchise went nearly two months without a head coach. But it was a very deliberate plan for Griffin and his front office as they wanted clear minds to evaluate their team.
“We feel like we absolutely got the right guy and the right person for this job for the right fit at the right time for our team,” Griffin said. “We set up a very clear criteria that we cared about for what we were seeking in the next head coach and we took a great deal of time to do that.
“We wanted to take enough time to really analyze our team, get a feel for who we felt like we really were and do that without the sting of what had just happened in the bubble sort of resonating with us,” he added. “We wanted to give ourselves a real opportunity to know who we were and what we needed. I think what we very quickly discovered in our interview process was that Coach Van Gundy gave us the best possible optionality.”
Van Gundy was one of nine candidates interviewed by the Pelicans for the position. In the end, the two sides met three times before agreeing to a deal. Ultimately for the Pelicans, Van Gundy’s enthusiasm and curiosity, evidenced by his note-taking, pushed him ahead of the rest of the contenders.
“I think the one that really stood out with Stan was just his passion for the game of basketball, his open-mindedness, his curiosity about the game,” Langdon said. “In his time out, he was still looking to get better as a coach. He was listening to a lot of Zooms, he was taking a lot of notes, he talked to us about a clinic that he was apart of over in Iceland with a lot of great names, coaches in Europe. I think that curiosity and that open-mindedness has a lot of similarities with some of the great coaches that I’ve interacted with and played for over in Europe. I’m really excited to have Stan with us and to be able to learn from him in these years going forward.”
Unlike the last time he was in the NBA, Van Gundy won’t be serving a front office and head coaching role simultaneously, which he noted he was “excited about just being able to zero back in on our roster.” That roster is one of the more interesting ones in the league, featuring one of the most exciting youngsters in the league (Zion Williamson), the reigning Most Improved Player (Brandon Ingram) and a mix of young building blocks (Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart) with veterans mixed in (Jrue Holiday and JJ Redick).
“The thing that’s most exciting to me is…there’s a great mix,” Van Gundy said. “There’s a lot of exciting young talent with the potential to really grow into something great but alongside them, you’ve got some very productive, high-character veterans with great experience. That, to me, that mix is the most exciting thing.”
Van Gundy will face specific challenges with this roster. Williamson will be the focus of the franchise moving forward. Despite playing just 24 games last season, Williamson established himself as a focal point of the franchise. Getting the most out of one of the most unique players in the league will priority No. 1 for Van Gundy.
“I think you have a vision for what he is, which is a multi-talented guy,” he said of Williamson. “He is an unbelievable playmaker for a guy at his size. He’s a guy who can take the ball off the glass and lead the break and make plays. He can make passes off the dribble. He can finish over bigger people inside. He’s a multi-talented guy.
“I don’t look at him in any way as far as is he a four or five. I’m not sure those labels matter when it comes to him. I think as we study and try to get more definitive and talk to Zion about what he likes, I think it’s what positions we want to put him in and who’s best around him and things like that,” Van Gundy continued. “It’s not limiting him to a position and I think we’ll get to a starting point of that at the start of the season and my guess is, as time goes on, I’m going to find out he can do even more than I think he can do and things can evolve from there.”
Van Gundy also spoke highly of Ingram as well, who is technically a restricted free agent this off-season but certainly seemed to be a big part of the franchise’s long-term plans.
The “incredible depth” Van Gundy also mentioned is largely young players, though, as nine members of last year’s roster were 25 or younger. After a season of growing pains last year, Van Gundy isn’t interested in that narrative continuing next season.
“… I don’t want (the team) certainly or us to ever use that youth as an excuse,” he said. “I think sometimes you can start with ‘Oh, well we were young and that’s why we turned the ball over three times in the last two minutes of a tie game.’ Listen, they’re all great players and they came into this league young because of their talent. It’s time to play and compete so I don’t want to use that as an excuse. As far as the coaching, what makes it different is, yeah, there’s a lot of teaching to do and to bring these guys along…They are far from finished products from this point in their career no matter how good they are and we have to keep that in mind every day.”
After all the patience from both sides in getting to Tuesday, things may have to shift up a few gears as the league’s start date is only moving closer and closer. With potentially less than two months until opening day for the 2020-21 season, the Pelicans will have to adapt quickly.
But having spent the last two seasons away from the sidelines, Van Gundy is ready to jump back in headfirst.
“Yeah, I missed it a great deal and I’m excited to be back at it,” he said, “but, again, I would have still only done it with a great situation. I was not in a situation where I would have just taken any job. There was only one job I even tried to get involved with. That was this job and it was because of all the things we talked about before and I’m really excited to coach this group.”
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