New Orleans Pelicans interim coach James Borrego impressed players and earned respect. Did he do enough to earn the full-time role?
The New Orleans Pelicans have a big decision to make this offseason as they have to hire the next head coach of the franchise, giving Joe Dumars a great chance to build this out as his team.
After going 2-10 in the first 12 games last season, the Pelicans decided to fire Willie Green after just over four years at the helm. Green went 150-190 overall, making the playoffs twice but failing to win a series.
They promoted James Borrego to the interim head coach position, and he led the team for the rest of the year, winning over the respect of the players and fanbase.
As the search for the next head coach heats up, it's time to look over some potential candidates. The logical place to start: Borrego himself.
There are a couple of rumored candidates, but Borrego is the only one confirmed to be in the running by the front office. He did enough over the final few months of the season to at least earn consideration for the full-time head coach position.
From the time that Borrego took over through the end of the year, New Orleans ranked No. 16 in the league in offensive rating with 114.2 and continued to struggle on defense ranking No. 23 with 117.1. Still he at least had the team closer to the middle than their record with a -3.0 net rating, 21st in the NBA.
The team really looked at its best when they were healthy and had a full array of options at their disposal. The rookies got to be rookies and come off the bench. Dejounte Murray came back strong. Zion Williamson had a very promising year of health.
Still, it didn't amount to enough wins to make a push for the play-in. That's not all Borrego's fault, as they really didn't get a huge healthy sample size because of poor injury luck.
If Dumars decides to go elsewhere, it'll always be a big what-if. It also probably wouldn't spell the end of Borrego's time as an NBA head coach, because he's very respected.
He was in the running for the New York Knicks' job before they landed on Mike Brown. He's a disciple of arguably the greatest coach of all time in Gregg Poppovich.
Players seem to really buy in on him as a leader. If they are running it back with this core, not trading Williamson or any others, it would be smart to go with a guy who has proven to be able to get this group to compete together.
Still, it could be too much for Dumars and co. to pass up to be able to get one of their guys into the building, as they've clearly made that a priority this offseason.