A Preventable Disaster: How Pelicans' Indecision Torpedoed a Season Before It Began
A locker room that quit, a staff bracing for the axe, and a firing that changes nothing
According to sources, there is growing sentiment the New Orleans Pelicans will relieve head coach Willie Green of his duties upon returning from their current West Coast road trip, just six games into the NBA season. This move, while now appearing inevitable, will be far too late. The Pelicans’ organization, from the locker room to the front office, is suffering the consequences of an offseason of denial and dysfunction that has all but incinerated the 2025-26 campaign before it truly began.
As I reported back in April, Green had already lost the support of the players and held little backing from front office members. David Griffin had attempted to move on from Green during the previous season, but was shut down by Governor, Gayle Benson, ultimately losing his own job in the process.
Benson, known for her personal affinity for Green, mandated to her new lead basketball executive, Joe Dumars, that the head coach be retained. Dumars complied, but framed the decision to keep Green as his own. Dumars categorically denied any mandates and publicly projected belief in Green.
This was the original sin, and its consequences are now catastrophic.
By retaining Green against the overwhelming evidence that the players would not respond to him, ownership wasted the single most critical period for building a team: training camp and the preseason. This is when systems are installed, roles are defined, and trust is built. Instead, the Pelicans used this precious time to reinforce a broken foundation. They forced a coach onto a team that had already stopped listening, ensuring that when the real games began, the collapse would be immediate and total.
The players have, for anyone watching, visually quit on their coach. After a 34 point trouncing in Denver, it is abundantly clear the effort is non-existent for the Pelicans. The body language is deafening, as core players appear openly disengaged. This isn’t a slump; it’s a surrender.
Unfortunately, the toxicity extends far beyond the court. Multiple sources describe the morale within the organization as being at an all-time low. Many employees are on contracts that expire after this season. They are now operating with the grim understanding that this is a lost year. The impending coaching change is seen not as a turnaround, but as the first act of a coming house cleaning. With the team losing and the season all but written off, employees fear that when the year ends, they will be left searching for new homes. This has created a pervasive sense that nothing they do this year matters. The mission for many has shifted from winning games to survival.
The parallel extends directly to Benson’s other team, the Saints. Across the hallway, Head Coach Dennis Allen had clearly lost the locker room for much of the past two seasons. Player effort was inconsistent, and the team’s performance was well below its talent level. Yet, ownership retained him, ignoring the visible evidence that the message had grown stale. It was only after a near public mutiny from players when the Saints started 2-7 in 2024, that a change was finally, reluctantly, made.
The message from ownership is clear: in both buildings, you can lose the players, but as long as you have the affection of the owner, your job is safe until the situation becomes utterly untenable. This approach doesn’t just cost games— it wastes entire seasons and demoralizes the entire organization from the stars down to the interns.
Nevertheless, the attention now turns to Joe Dumars. By publicly denying the mandate and presenting the decision to retain Green as his own, he willingly accepted the blame that was always coming. He became the face of a decision he did not truly make, and now, he will be the face of the failure that resulted from it. His credibility, so crucial for a new executive, has been severely damaged in such a short time.
Dumars, to my knowledge, intends to promote Associate Head Coach James Borrego. However, it is important to understand that Borrego, a qualified coach in his own right, will not solve the Pelicans’ deeper, systemic issues. This is a team with glaring problems in roster construction and a profound lack of depth. While I firmly believe that Borrego will bring fresh energy and revamp the stale offensive structure, the ample roster issues remain. The roster is marred by a lack of shooting, improper big-man depth, and a dearth of playmaking.
Dumars wanted to create a roster 11 to 12 players deep that competed hard every night. With Green now set up to take the fall, the first scapegoat will be gone. The spotlight will now shine on team’s ill-fitting roster and reflect back on the front office.
The Pelicans could have made this choice months ago. Instead, they chose to delay the inevitable. In doing so, they have potentially torched 82 games just six into the schedule, demoralized their entire organization, and cemented a reputation for dysfunction that will linger long after Willie Green has cleaned out his office. The firing was always coming, but the true failure was the refusal to act when it actually mattered.
