Pelicans fire Willie Green: New Orleans coach ousted after miserable 2-10 start; James Borrego named interim

The New Orleans Pelicans are firing head coach Willie Green after a 2-10 start to the 2025-26 season, the team announced Saturday. Green, initially hired after a strong stint as an assistant under Monty Williams with the Phoenix Suns in 2021, was let go early in the fifth season of his tenure in New Orleans after a disappointing start that included an NBA-record three 30-point losses in their first six games.

Associate head coach James Borrego has been named interim head coach.

“After careful evaluation, we have made the difficult decision to make a change at head coach,” executive vice president of basketball operations Joe Dumars said in a statement. “I have the utmost respect for Willie Green, and I’m sincerely appreciative of his contributions to the Pelicans organization and the New Orleans community. We wish him and his family all the best in the future.”

Green’s time with the Pelicans began with a modicum of promise. He took over the team just two seasons into the promising career of Zion Williamson. New Orleans was, at that time, still loaded with draft capital from the Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday trades. They still had a wealth of young talent led by Williamson and Brandon Ingram, and a stellar 2021 draft class featuring Trey Murphy, Herb Jones and Jose Alvarado only raised expectations.

However, those talented young players all struggled to stay healthy for a New Orleans team that could never find a consistent lineup. During the one stretch in which the Pelicans could largely muster the same starting lineup, between early December of 2023 when they got C.J. McCollum back from an injury and March of 2024 when they lost Ingram to another one, they went 31-16 and looked like a real Western Conference sleeper. 

Ingram’s injury slowed the Pelicans down and then Williamson suffered his own in the Play-In Tournament afterward. The Pelicans haven’t been competitive since, getting swept out of the playoffs by the Thunder soon after before finishing 21-61 during an injury-riddled 2024-25 season. At the end of that season, David Griffin, the general manager who hired Green, was fired and replaced by Joe Dumars. Rather than bringing in his own coach immediately, Dumars allowed Green to start and season and attempt to prove that he was the man for the job long-term.

Ultimately, he couldn’t do so. The Pelicans lost their first six games by 107 points. Perhaps more distressing for the team’s long-term outlook has been Green’s reluctance to use rookie Derik Queen in meaningful minutes. Aside from a single, 34-minute outing against the Spurs that came with no other big men besides Williamson available, Queen has largely played between 10 and 20 minutes per game. Considering the Pelicans gave away unprotected control of their 2026 first-round pick to get him, the front office surely wants to see more of him this season.

Over the summer, the New York Knicks attempted to poach Borrego away to serve as the top assistant to their new head coach, Mike Brown. The Pelicans elected not to give the Knicks permission to interview him. Now, the former Charlotte Hornets coach steps in as the interim choice for the Pelicans.

Borrego in the short-term and whoever has the job in the long-term have their work cut out for them. The Pelicans have been in New Orleans since 2003 and have won only two playoff series despite drafting three superstar talents in Chris Paul, Anthony Davis, and Williamson, all of whom have been on the majority of their rosters in this span. The roster, between Williamson’s diminished production, limited shooting, an inexperienced frontcourt and all of the money tied up in the currently injured Dejounte Murray, needs serious upgrades if it is going to be competitive in the near term. Replacing Green will be just the start of what is likely to be a long and painful reboot in New Orleans.