Tag: David Griffin

Report: Brandon Ingram, Pelicans expected to quickly agree to ‘huge contract’ in free agency

The New Orleans Pelicans won’t let Brandon Ingram be a free agent for long as they will reportedly offer him a huge contract this off-season.

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Brandon Ingram’s impending restricted free agency will be priority number one for the New Orleans Pelicans once the off-season officially opens up in the coming month. While it’s been more of a backburner topic for the team with Jrue Holiday’s potential trade market the main topic for now, part of the reason it’s been a non-discussion is that it’s largely been considered a foregone conclusion Ingram returns.

The Athletic’s Will Guillory said as much recently in an appearance on The Pure Hoops podcast. When asked about his impending free agency, Guillory indicated the Pelicans and Ingram were on the same page (h/t AHN Fire Digital).

“As far as BI goes, I mean I heard basically throughout the entire year that it was just a matter of time before they gave him his big contract. I think they feel really good about his fit with this team and the growth he showed last year. As a shooter, as the guy who was willing to take on the responsibility of being that No. 1 scorer, the guy who has that kind of burden every night, I think they love his fit next to Zion [Williamson].

So I think he’s going to get a huge contract. And they’re going to take care of that really quickly.”

At the end of the season, Ingram noted that New Orleans would be one of his top teams entering the off-season. During the season, Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin noted that both Ingram and Lonzo Ball had expressed a desire to return.

Ingram’s max contract figure will take a bit of a hit given the likely drop in the salary cap this off-season given last season’s struggles for the league. But it appears that won’t stop the two sides from reaching an agreement quickly in free agency, allowing the Pelicans to move onto other focuses.

Patience pays off as New Orleans Pelicans introduce Stan Van Gundy as new head coach

The New Orleans Pelicans waited two months while Stan Van Gundy waited two years before coming to Tuesday’s introductory press conference.

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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Pelicans’ David Griffin finishes 13th in Executive of Year voting

New Orleans Pelicans Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin finished 13th in the Executive of the Year voting.

After trading Anthony Davis for a bevy of assets last summer and still nearly qualifying for the playoffs in the Western Conference this season, New Orleans Pelicans Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin earned just three votes for the Executive of the Year award.

Los Angeles Clippers President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank took home the award, receiving 10 first-place votes. Sam Presti of Oklahoma City, another executive who traded away superstars, was second while gaining four first-place votes. Miami team president Pat Riley also earned four first-place votes.

Griffin received just one second-place vote and two third-place votes, tying with the likes of Bob Myers of Golden State and Jeff Weltman of Orlando.

Griffin made a handful of big trades last off-season, dealing Davis for Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart and a host of first-round picks, including the No. 4 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. That pick would then be traded to Atlanta for the No. 8 and No. 17 picks in the 2019 draft.

In free agency, Griffin added Redick to the roster to complete a roster makeover. While injuries ultimately derailed the season, the Pelicans were in the fight for the eighth seed until the final days of the regular season in the bubble.

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Could the potentially longer off-season help Lonzo Ball’s contract negotiations?

Lonzo Ball and the New Orleans Pelicans could negotiate a contract extension this summer and it could hardly come at a better time.

With each passing day, the 2020-21 NBA season seems to be pushed back further and further. Once slated to start in early December, Adam Silver appeared on CNN on Tuesday and gave a “best guess” that next season wouldn’t start until the turn of the calendar.

There will be some interesting ripple effects as the league grapples with when next season will begin. The NBA Draft has already been pushed back a month to November as the league tries to navigate the unnavigated. A start date for free agency has also yet to be determined, though it typically comes in the week after the draft, which is currently slated for Nov. 18.

But an aspect that has slid under the radar so far is upcoming contract extension negotiations. Lonzo Ball, along with teammate Josh Hart, can each sign extensions anytime between the official start of the 2020-21 season and the day before the first game of the regular season.

Both have interesting cases for extensions. Hart is a 3&D forward in a shooting guard’s body. How much does a team pay a guard who can rebound and hit threes but is just 6’5″ with a 6’9″ wingspan?

And if Hart’s extension will lead to some questions, Ball’s will lead to plenty of long nights. Much of Ball’s game is unquantifiable but impactful. He’s an enigmatic figure on the court who is either seen as a key piece of the Pelicans core or an expendable player in the final year of his rookie deal.

The case has already been made for Ball to receive an extension and what those figures may look like. However, there may not be a better off-season for Ball to be up for extension discussions.

Ball switching agencies from Roc Nation Sports to Klutch Sports and Rich Paul was the first warning shot across the bow. Klutch has gained a reputation for getting its clients paid and Ball’s timing could hardly have made his intentions any clearer.

There’s nothing wrong with Ball wanting to get paid, but it could lead to some lengthy discussions between Paul and the Pelicans. If the two sides come in at very different figures, those negotiations could drag on. And what better off-season to potentially have lengthy negotiation discussions than in one where the end date is still undetermined.

Paul’s history with Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin will certainly work in Ball’s benefit in the negotiations. While Paul leading Anthony Davis’ exit out of the franchise will leave fans with a bitter taste in their mouths, Paul and Griffin have had a long history of working together in Cleveland.

On top of the obvious client in LeBron James, Paul also represented a number of his Cavalier teammates. JR Smith and Tristan Thompson, both Klutch clients, negotiated large, multi-year deals with the Cavaliers while Griffin served as the general manager.

All of it adds up to what should be fascinating negotiations. While there is an incentive to have negotiation talks wrapped up this summer, the Pelicans can simply take the same route they are this off-season with Brandon Ingram as he’s set for restricted free agency.

No matter how it’s sliced, Ball’s negotiations could hardly come at a better time for the Pelicans and Paul.

Pelicans Coaching Search: Could the Pelicans nab Mike D’Antoni?

If the New Orleans Pelicans aren’t looking to change their playstyle too drastically, Mike D’Antoni could be an upgrade over Alvin Gentry.

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Name: Mike D’Antoni
Age: 69
Experience: 14 years as head coach in Denver, Phoenix, New York, Los Angeles, Houston; two years as assistant in Denver and Phoenix; one year as associate head coach in Philadelphia
Coaching record: 672-527 in regular season, 52-51 in playoffs (as of 8/30/20)

Overview

If Ty Lue is the hottest name on the free agent coaching market, Mike D’Antoni might be the same for currently-employed coaches. The bizarre situation in Houston sees D’Antoni and the Rockets one game away from a spot in the Western Conference Semi-Finals and also the head coach in his final days and weeks in charge.

At the start of the season, which feels like ages ago, D’Antoni sought a contract extension that Rockets owner Tillman Fertita wasn’t as interested in. The result was the two sides breaking off talks with seemingly no hope for reconciliation.

For now, D’Antoni will head into coaching free agency when the Rockets season comes to an end. Like Lue, D’Antoni has a relationship with David Griffin, the Pelicans Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations, as he coached the Phoenix Suns during Griffin’s time in the front office.

Griffin had the chance previously to hire Mike D’Antoni in 2014 after firing Mike Brown in Cleveland. But D’Antoni, who at that point had just stepped down as the head coach for the Lakers after two tumultuous seasons, was not considered for the job.

Since then, D’Antoni has been at the forefront of the small ball revolution and guided Houston to the brink of the NBA Finals in 2018. Like Lue, though, D’Antoni will likely be looking to lead title-contending teams, maybe even more so than Lue given he’s over 20 years his senior.

But with a roster crafted to fit that of Gentry, a former assistant of D’Antoni, it’s perfectly suited to play D’Antoni’s small ball style. Would that plus his relationship with Griffin be enough to persuade him to go to New Orleans?

Coaching style

Even before this season’s trade deadline, D’Antoni was known as one of the pioneers of the small ball, pace-and-space movement. During the 2017-18 postseason, the Warriors went out of their way to credit D’Antoni for leading the way into the new era of basketball.

Since the 2016-17 season when D’Antoni took over in Houston, the Rockets have ranked first in three-point attempts each season and have twice been top three in pace. With James Harden leading the way, the team has moved entirely modern in its approach offensively, shooting almost exclusively from behind the arc or at the rim.

In comparison to the Pelicans, it’s not all that different, though New Orleans certainly took many more mid-range shots this season.

While the degree to which D’Antoni was bystander or active voice in the matter is unknown, the Rockets committed fully to the small ball strategy at the trade deadline by not playing a true center and instead opting entirely for spacing and shooting.

The result has been nearly 50 three-pointers a game and a rejuvenated team that has made a run in the playoffs. The sustainability of that approach is up for debate but it’s further proof that D’Antoni isn’t afraid to challenge the norm and push the envelope.

With the Pelicans, he’d have a roster that would largely fit his needs. Zion Williamson as a center may happen but three-pointers at a high rate would certainly happen. For a team that’s already heavy on guards, D’Antoni would best be able to utilize the roster.

How he’d fit with Lonzo Ball

D’Antoni’s offensive system has long been predicated on heavy amounts of pick-and-roll and spot-up situations. In Houston, those numbers have dropped as Harden’s isolation-heavy style has shaped the offense but the remnants are still there. This season, the Rockets’ pick-and-roll usage has dipped to lowest in the league but the team is still sixth in terms of points per possession, per Synergy.

But Lonzo Ball is hardly a pick-and-roll maestro. While it was his second most common offensive action this season, he finished in the 11th percentile with just 0.581 points per possession. He was actually decent on passing out of pick and roll actions, ranking in the 66th percentile on his passes.

That also means he ranks in just the fourth percentile while taking it to the basket after dribbling off the pick, an area he still struggles with and an area defenses shade him toward. Of the 182 single-covered ballscreen actions this season for Ball, over half of those saw the defense going over the pick, more than twice as many times as they went under the screen.

The solution could be as simple as not having Ball be the one to run ball screens and have him spotting up, an area he was much better and much more improved at this season. Plus, the Pelicans have other ball screen options in Brandon Ingram and Jrue Holiday, both of whom were far more efficient in pick-and-roll actions this season.

A lineup with Ingram, Holiday, Ball, Williamson and JJ Redick, which played just six minutes together this season, could be one more frequently used under D’Antoni, for example.

D’Antoni’s arrival would certainly change the way Ball would have to play, but it may not be for the worse.

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Pelicans Coaching Search: Would Ty Lue sacrifice win-now move to build in New Orleans?

Ty Lue will be one of the hottest names on the coaching market but will a previous relationship with David Griffin be enough to sway him to New Orleans?

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Name: Ty Lue
Age: 43
Experience: 4 years as head coach in Cleveland; four years as assistant in Boston, Los Angeles; one year as associate head coach in Cleveland
Coaching record: 128-83 in regular season, 41-20 in playoffs, 1 NBA title

Overview

David Griffin’s claim after firing Alvin Gentry that the Pelicans are the most attractive job in the NBA will likely be put to the test if they’re interested in Ty Lue. Currently the hottest name on the coaching market, Lue will be a highly sought-after name for many teams with openings, namely in the Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers.

Both franchises are in vastly different mindset than the Pelicans. Both have a pair of superstars and are focused on competing not for playoff spots but for titles. Lue has an NBA title in Cleveland, leading LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love over the Warriors in 2015-16. He also led the Cavaliers to two more Finals appearances the following years before being fired six games into his first season without James.

While the Sixers and Nets can offer a different situation, what they can’t offer is a relationship that David Griffin and Lue built in Cleveland. Together, the two crafted teams around James to repeatedly make trips to the Finals. Only after Griffin left was Lue fired.

Is a connection and relationship with the front office enough for Lue to sacrifice a chance at a title for multiple seasons as the Pelicans continue to build to that stage?

Coaching style

While the Cavalier teams under Lue were juggernauts offensively, Lue is generally regarded as a defense-first head coach. Lue was able to craft offenses that heavily relied on the brilliance of James and Irving but were wildly successful.

His work defensively, though, could be summed up in how his teams often flipped a switch in the postseason. In his last full season with the Cavaliers, the team went from 21st in the league defensively at a 109.7 defensive rating to the fourth-best defense heading into the Finals.

For the Pelicans, defense was often optional this season as they ranked 21st in defensive rating. It was a lack of defense that cost the team a chance at the playoffs inside the bubble. Lue would certainly be able to step in and help on that end of the court. Offensively, his pace and space approach he used with the James-Irving-Love Cavaliers wouldn’t differ all too much from Gentry’s system this year.

He would provide the team with both a player-friendly coach and one that holds the team accountable. He would command respect after spending nearly every year in the NBA as player or coach since 1998-99.

How he’d fit with Lonzo Ball

It’s hard to look at exactly how Lue-run offense would help Ball given how the Cavalier teams were constructed. Irving is nothing like Ball and in the one season Cleveland did not have Irving, James had a 31.6% usage rate.

Lue has been one of the top assistants in the league for longer than he’s been the head coach. He has experience in the development of players, but he’s also been fortunate to find himself with title-challenging teams rather than rebuilding ones.

Assuming he would apply his pace-and-space offense to New Orleans, it would suit Ball’s playstyle as an up-tempo guard. But the last time Lue had a young point guard to help mold, his tenure lasted all of six games in the 2018-19 season.

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Report: Ty Lue more likely to join Philadelphia 76ers, Brooklyn Nets than New Orleans Pelicans

One of the first names linked with the Pelicans’ head coaching vacancy in Ty Lue appears to now be an unlikely candidate to take the job.

After firing head coach Alvin Gentry within hours of landing back in New Orleans after leaving New Orleans, the Pelicans have been largely silent on the coaching rumor front. Given Pelican’s executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin’s comments following the firing, it should not come as a total surprise.

One of the small handful of names linked to the Pelicans initially was current Clippers assistant Ty Lue. Known for his time with the Cavaliers, Lue led Cleveland to the title in 2016. He was fired after a slow start to a LeBron James-less season and, though he was heavily linked with the Lakers job last off-season, ended up sitting alongside Doc Rivers in Los Angeles this season.

But his time as an assistant will likely be short-lived. In Marc Stein’s weekly newsletter for the New York Times on Monday, he mentioned the buzz around Lue relative to the current job openings in New Orleans, Philadelphia and Brooklyn.

The latest rumbles in N.B.A. coaching circles suggest that the Nets or the Philadelphia 76ers are more likely landing spots for Lue than New Orleans despite his Griffin ties.

Stein does mention that Griffin and Lue were seen meeting just prior to the Pelicans leaving the bubble following the seeding games. Given his experience, Lue would always be more closely linked to veteran teams than the rebuilding one the Pelicans have.

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David Griffin, the executive vice …

David Griffin, the executive vice president of basketball operations for the New Orleans Pelicans, was spotted before the Pelicans’ exit visiting with the Clippers’ in-demand assistant coach Tyronn Lue. Griffin and Lue have a history, as the former general manager and coach of the title-winning Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016, so the sight of former work colleagues spending time together on a campus that housed 22 N.B.A. teams is not notable in itself.

Alvin Gentry on Pelicans’ poor play in the bubble: ‘Somebody has to answer for that and it’s usually the coach’

After a dismal eight-game stretch in the bubble, former New Orleans Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry understood the consequences that would follow.

Few teams suffered as of an on-court setback due to the pandemic than the New Orleans Pelicans. With one of the easiest schedules in the league paired with momentum on their side and out of favor of Portland and Memphis, the Pelicans looked prime to be the main contenders for the eighth seed in the playoffs.

The league’s temporary shutdown sapped all that momentum away and spit out a Pelicans side at the end of the summer that hardly resembled its spring predecessor. The end result was head coach Alvin Gentry losing his job after the team returned from the bubble.

Gentry talked about the team’s play on either side of the lockdown during his appearance on ESPN’s First Take last week.

“I thought we were playing really good basketball before the pandemic…Up until that point, we had the toughest schedule in the league and our last 18 games were going to be the easiest schedule in the NBA. So, obviously you still have to play and win those games but we liked our situation from the standpoint that we felt like we were playing good basketball and we were going to have an opportunity of making a run at the playoffs, regardless of what.

“We did not play well in the bubble and, obviously, somebody has to answer for that and it’s usually the coach. That’s not a surprise to me. As I said, you sit down and you talk, I had a discussion and we moved on from each other and that’s fine.”

The difference in an 18-game schedule that was the easiest in the league versus the eight-game schedule they were given in the bubble that was also easiest is the wiggle room available. In the bubble, the Pelicans had a minimal margin for error.

On top of that, the obvious case of losing momentum after stopping play for three months comes into play, too. The Trail Blazers, for example, were able to regroup, bring players back from injury and eventually make the playoffs while the Pelicans lost all their momentum and floundered.

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