The New Orleans Pelicans have reportedly had "serious internal discussions" around firing head coach Willie Green, per Brett Siegel's Clutch Points.

If the reports are accurate, which they seem to be, then the Pelicans cannot afford to wait around with this decision. It must come as soon as possible, if they hope to save the 2025/2026 season.

The expectation right now is that Green will get fired. However, since it didn't happen on Thursday (at the time of writing), it will now likely happen once the team gets back from their road trip on Sunday night/Monday Morning.

That means two more games of uninspired, directionless basketball. Those two games could effectively end their season.

From just a standpoint of making it to the playoffs, history says that these next two games matter immensely in terms of the odds of getting back to the postseason.

Here are the stats on teams starting 0-4, 0-5 and 0-6 and making it to the playoffs (in the three-point era):

0-4: 23 teams, Most Recent - 2024 Detroit Pistons
0-5: 11 teams, Most Recent - 2022 Los Angeles Lakers
0-6: 6 teams, Most Recent - 2004 Chicago Bulls

The worst start that a team has had in that timeframe was the 1996 Phoenix Suns. They fired head coach Cotton Fitzsimmons after an 0-8 start. Danny Ainge led them 40-34 the rest of the way, and they snuck into the postseason.

It's not that firing Green even guarantees that they will win the next few games. But the energy boost from having a new head coach and proving that this is an organization that believes in accountability certainly wouldn't help.

A slow start to the year would be much easier to stomach had Joe Dumars not gotten trade-happy with the assets of the team before the year began.

There is a universe where this team would be sitting at 0-4, ecstatic that the Indiana Pacers also started 0-4, preparing for a developmental year with two shots at the lottery in a stacked draft class.

Instead, both picks were traded, and they are now forced to hope to win this season. There is no point in playing losing basketball if the team does not have its own first pick. At this point, they would only be helping the Atlanta Hawks.

Dumars read this team wrong and thought that winning with Green at the helm was possible. Even sitting at 2-2 would have the conversations around this squad feeling completely different.

With no first-round pick and a core of 26-year-olds in place for the next few years, the only course left for this season is to try to win. Blowing it up at the deadline doesn't even feel viable because of that draft-night trade.

They must start winning games, and winning them now. The decision to wait until they return from this road trip could do a ton of damage.