Keeping James Borrego is important so the New Orleans Pelicans don’t repeat the same mistake

Keeping James Borrego is important so the New Orleans Pelicans don’t repeat the same mistake

Pelicans assistant coach James bgo is rumored for another head coaching job and I’ll tell you why the Pelicans need to do everything they can to keep him and avoid repeating a previous mistake they made with Chris Finch it’s the Friday episode of Locked on Pelicans let’s go you are locked on Pelicans your daily New Orleans Pelicans podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day welcome to another edition of locked on Pelicans the daily podcast covering your favorite team the New Orleans Pelicans in NBA part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day available wherever you get your podcast and available on YouTube I’m your host Pelicans Insider credential member of the media Jake Madison at Nola Jake on Twitter here with y’all on this Friday we are going to look at kind of like staff stuff around the Pelicans James bgo rumored to the Cleveland Cavaliers after they fired their head coach the Pelicans need to keep it if just anything to not repeat a previous mistake they made with Chris Finch I’ll explain in today’s show yes we will also talk about Jana Austin as well and that moved there and why I don’t really think it impacts too much and I’ll explain it’s coming up in today’s episode of Locked on pelicans and of course thank you for making lockon Pelicans your first listen today and every day we are here Monday through Friday the number one Pelicans podcast covering everything you want to know about this Pelicans team so please subscribe wherever you get your podcast join over 10,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans brought to you by LinkedIn jobs which helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to faster post your job for free at linkedin.com lockon MBA that’s linkedin.com lockon MBA to post your job for free terms and conditions apply so let’s get into the biggest news I think around the team right now and that is James bgo who is already linked to and interviewed for it sounds like the Los Angeles Lakers head coaching job is now linked to the Cleveland Cavaliers and their open head coaching job after they fired JB bicker staff yesterday I think this is kind of big and let me ask you this I’m gonna ask you a question what does bgo interviewing for two playoff teams their head coaching job say about him as a head coach that seems good right that Lakers job is very high-profile the Cavaliers have a good team they were fourth in the East and they’re all interested in interviewing him and maybe having him be their next head coach that says he’s a good coach right that says he is a good coach just based off of that letting him leave or having him leave would be a negative thing that Lakers job I don’t know if it’s actually that good of a job the Cavaliers you might be trading away Donovan Mitchell though this move was reportedly made to keep Donovan Mitchell happy and have him sign an extension but keeping a guy that’s thought of very highly around the league in BGA would be a really smart thing here when you look at head coach Willie Green who has a lot of flaws not entirely bad but has a lot of flaws having strong assistance around him is an important thing one of the things you hear with the Lakers and JJ reic is they need to hire good assistants around him to help him same thing for head coach Willie Green who’s still you know growing in learning on the job so having good assistance offensive assistance in James brego around him I think is a really important thing that might not stop bgo from taking a head coaching job though but I will say this you know if you can throw more money at bgo keep him here as the lead assistant which is his role here I think that’s a smart thing if just to avoid a situation that happened in the past and that’s with Chris Finch who was an assistant on Alvin Gentry’s coaching staff and Chris Finch is now the head coach of the wolves team that’s really really good he’s kind of like half coaching right now because he got hurt but he’s there and he’s done a very good job with the Minnesota Timberwolves and that’s something that the Pelicans messed up previously if you go back to the 2019 2020 season Zion’s first year in the league you know and the shutdown with covid and everything we also heard a lot of rumors during the season that they weren’t happy with head coach Alvin Gentry and a lot has been reported on it uh particularly by Christian Clark of n the times picku and we’ll touch on something he wrote later in the show you know about that David Griffin wasn’t happy and David Griffin kind of had to inherit had to inherit Alvin Gentry because Gail Benson wanted to keep him and then when he could probably justify firing him he wanted to fire him and bring in tyo who was out of a job who he worked with in Cleveland won a title there but Lou didn’t want to come here so they kept Alvin Gentry but clearly they weren’t convinced by Alvin Gentry That season one thing the Pelicans did not do and I even talked about this if you’re an everyday like a long time everyday I talked about this back then when when Chris Finch got that Minnesota timber Wolf’s job and left right the writing was on the wall that he was going to leave after that season because if they didn’t like Alvin Gentry and Chris Finch had been a rumored head coach and candidate for other positions why not fire Gentry and Elevate Chris Finch to an interim and give him a trial run and they never did that which tells you what they thought about Chris Finch as a head coach and looking back back on that now that is entirely an incorrect thing you then hired Stan Van Gundy that was a disaster fired him after one year and then you brought in Willie Green whose first year was good and has been you know a rocky not Rocky but a bit of an up and down and mixed bag tenure here I don’t think he’s one of the worst five coaches in the league though but you didn’t think that highly of Chris Finch and you just let him go and now look at what he’s doing and oh boy could you have used that on this team at least in the meantime who knows if Chris Finch would have ended up like he did right but you would have avoided that Stan Van Gundy year potentially and that set New Orleans back a little bit you can’t avoid that same type of thing here with James bgo this is someone they brought in who thought a very highly around the league if you like him if you think his offensive philosophy is smart and what you want to put in and they’re hoping to put in a new offense next year after abandoning his because of the way Brandon Ingram played but if you trade Brandon Ingram you can do that don’t let that guy go then you know if Willie Green goes in on somewhat of a hot seat and I don’t think it’s scalding or anything like that but I think it’s definitely a little bit warm that there’s got to be some changes from him and some growth from him you know if that’s the case keep bgo here so that if you do decide to make a midseason decision and fire Willie Green you have James bgo ready to go whether that’s to be your interim head coach or long-term head coaches unclear and you don’t need to decide that right now but you at least have someone who can take over and I think that’s important don’t make the same mistake they made with Chris Finch I’m not saying you should fire Willie Green I’m not saying Willie Green can grow or can’t grow or anything like that but have it as insurance if you can pay him more if you need to that I think is worth really keeping an eye on and if the Pelicans make the playoffs again breo’s still going to be rumored for other jobs and linked to other jobs but this is a guy they should absolutely be trying to keep and then here’s the here’s the kicker when it comes to the Cleveland Cavaliers if he goes there does that rule them out or complicate a Brandon Ingram trade based on how this season went it definitely might let’s talk about that coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans today’s episode of lockon Pelin is brought to you by LinkedIn jobs when you’re hiring for your small business you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role and that’s why you have to check out LinkedIn jobs l jobs as the tools to help you find the right Professionals for your team faster and for free don’t stretch your staff thin by having them cover multiple rules you’re losing money if you’re doing that you’re stressing them out maybe you’re going to be hiring for more positions then just get the right people in quick LinkedIn jobs isn’t just another job board LinkedIn has a vast network of more than a billion professionals which makes it the best place to hire it gives you access to professionals you can’t find anywhere else and Linkedin does all of that while making the process easy and intuitive hiring is easy when you have that many quality candidates so easy in fact that 86 86% of small businesses get a qualified candidate within 24 hours so 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the locked on podcast Network your team every day subscribe wherever you get your podcast go see Ross Jackson next for your second listen and become an every day I don’t know if I said that in the beginning that means you listen to lock down Pelicans lock on tanks Monday through Friday it’s exclusive Club of people who only listen Monday through Friday be coming every day if you are let me know in the comments down below I love seeing all the comments that go every day or here when people come up to me at the arena and around the city it’s pretty awesome so I love that so let me know if you’re an everyday let’s go back to James bgo potentially going to the Cleveland Cavaliers this is where things get real interesting say they hire him that’s a loss right like this is someone that could replace Willie Green they need that kind of experience on the bench more on that actually in the next segment too a little bit and I think you know just losing smart basketball people good basketball people is not what you want to do so try and avoid that but also if he goes to the Cavaliers and I literally did a show on this yesterday for the every and the every dayers know that does that rule them out as a trade a potential trade partner for Brandon Ingram Ingram going there makes a lot of sense they they need size and scoring on the wing they absolutely need that they just don’t have it and in the East where you’ve got Jason tum Jaylen brown right some of these other players out there you you need wing scor and you need that type of uh position they don’t have it and that’s the type of thing that’s going to hold them back I think long term but if bgo goes there after the weird year that we had here with maybe him and Ingram not really being the best fit he’s not going to want to trade for Brandon Ingram now he’s not the front office that’s Kobe Alman who is in charge of all of that but if he has a say in it or gives them the Intel that you wouldn’t get elsewhere about kind of what went on behind the scenes here that probably takes them out of the running that means no Donovan Mitchell no Darius Garland no Jared Allen no Evan Mobley right they’re going to trade one or two of those players away this offseason but you’re hoping that you do that and trade Brandon Ingram well if they don’t want brandan Ingram Jared Allen who seems like a great fit here for the Pelicans how do you make that deal happen how do you make that deal happen then I don’t know if they really actually want CJ McCullum but I don’t know if you get a deal done and then all of a sudden that kind of kills you in other trades you know we’ve heard Jake fiser of Yahoo say he may be braining maybe has a really wide Market you’ve got the 76ers who I think are also going to be very interested in him as well and having more teams that want him mean you can drive up the price right this is leverage this is negotiations having a team that makes sense for him out of the running because of who their head coach is that’s not great and look Ingram should have loved what they were doing here didn’t though you know when I talked to him on media day before the before the season started right before training camp started I asked him if he had talking to bgo about what they wanted to do and Ingram was like yeah he’s going to put the ball in my hands he was excited about it they abandoned bargo’s offense after like two months because it just bi didn’t want to do it if bargo’s got ideas of how the offense should be and how he’s going to coach right you as a front office person even if you want Brandon Ingram need to at that point like think of your head coach and make sure you give him players that are going to work now there’s also a flip side to this that if bgo doesn’t get that job maybe it does really help trading him there because that then they remain an option and this also could be conjectured maybe maybe bgo has a better idea of how to use Ingram or wants him right like we’re kind of trying to read between the lines here we we’re going to do that a little bit I’m or I’m going to say in the next second segment like we shouldn’t be doing that and so I think when you look at this this situation kind of go either way but there’s still a lot of unknowns but it it does feel like if this team is very kind of intent on trying to trade Brin and Ingram because they don’t see the fit here that was also assuming that bgo was going to be here next year and who knows that you know if you traded brain Ingram this past off season and brought in someone else if you could have run that bgo off off that they wanted now they finished 11th in offense but I don’t think it was a particularly good 11th when it comes to that so you’ve got to keep that in mind you really need to get a maximum return on Brandon Ingram I don’t like you know when we talked about the Orlando Magic and what a trade would look like there I wasn’t excited about that y’all in the comments weren’t excited about that either right and so you don’t want to trade brain and for like pure depth right you want to trade him for a Difference Maker acquire a Difference Maker and really shake it up you know one of the worst thing I don’t think it’s the worst thing because I do think there’s a possibility that Brandon Ingram returns ideally on an extension you would imagine so I think when you also look at it you know if it takes the Cavaliers out and you can’t get a deal done because you’ve lost some negotiating leverage with the Atlanta Hawks with the Detroit Pistons magic 76ers you know and who knows if actually all those teams are interested I don’t think the magic truly are I’m starting to kind of not know if Detroit really wants to do it either although I think they could you might end up with brand Ingram back here that could then be okay if bgo isn’t if those two were like oil and water and just didn’t mix maybe that does open things up to find another mind to bring them in to have them kind of figure out the offense where everyone can kind of coexist and you get the right fit between brain Ingram and and Zion Williamson and to Ingram’s credit his comments at you know the end of season media availability do seem to indicate that he knows that a lot of this is on him I don’t think he’s looking around kind of like blaming other people a ton a little bit Yeah but maybe not a ton and I think he’s going to do some introspection this offseason but I want as many trade Partners but you know that you could potentially get for brand in because I want to get the most return for him this team has to think like that you know some of the picks are dwindling a little bit you don’t have the same kind of War chest of assets and all of that though they’re still in good position with a lot of that compared to other teams you know especially if you kick that Lakers pick back a year but you’ve got to make the most of what you have and the assets that you have and that involves Brien Ingram and more teams that want him the better when it comes to something like that so for a variety of reasons a variety of reasons I want to keep bgo here in New Orleans and think he can do some really really good things you know I was if you if you’re in every day and you remember I was a little bit skeptical about him coming in and what he could do and I think there’s still reasons to be skeptical about him but when you know everyone wants him I think that says something right like that says something when basketball teams other teams want your guy says something about him and what he’s capable of doing or how you know the regard that you think or just his basketball acument in total I want to keep that guy I want to keep that guy just because I don’t have full 100% faith in head coach Willie Green keep smart assistants on the staff to really kind of do their job and help things the defense has been very very good um based off of what they’ve done this year with the coaching you know the past couple of years and that has to do with assistant coaches and you know jiren Collins kind of running all of that keep smart assistants and let them do their job well and I think that goes really really far I’d like to keep that and then if you have to move on from head coach Willie Green you’ve got bgo right there and if you can get a killer offense man it would be so much fun to watch and I think this team could go pretty far then we’ll see though none of this matters though if Zion Williamson isn’t playing right like that’s the biggest thing here and that’s going to tie into what we’re going to talk about here next in today’s episode of lock on pans Jana Austin being Let Go by the team is reported by Christian Clark of nola.com the times pyun is that a big deal I don’t think it is I don’t think this matters almost at all and we’ve got some precedent to kind of explain why and it gets into kind of team building philosophy and there’s a lesson to be learned from game one of the Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves Western Conference Finals that’s coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans right now though I’m excited to tell you about eBay Motors I work on all of my cars and they’re all running right now at least the old one is because of eBay Motors eBay Motors is everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to Peak Performance whether it’s old whether it’s new they’re going to have all the parts that you want or need to keep it running or make it go faster sound louder look cooler LED headlights roof racks exhaust kits supercharged whatever it is speed power style eBay Motors has you covered and with over 122 million parts for your vehicle you’re always going to find exactly what you’re looking for and with eBay’s guaranteed fit your part is guaranteed to fit your ride every time or your money back because with eBay Motors you’re burning rubber not cash with all the parts you need at the prices you want it’s easy to make your car the MVP and bring home a huge win so keep your vehicle running over at ebaymotors.com eligible items only exclusions apply eBay guaranteed fit only available to us customers and thank you for making lock on Pelicans your first listen today and every day we are here Monday through Friday the number one Pelicans podcast covering everything you want to know about this Pelicans team Please Subscribe wherever you get your podcast join over 10,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well become an every day that means you listen to Locked on Pelicans Monday through Friday so let’s start to wrap up the show and this was the news that dropped from Christian Clark beat writer for nola.com the times pikun saying that the Pelicans were partying ways with Jana Adams an assistant athletic trainer who had worked very closely with Zion Williamson and immediately everyone was tweeting like is this a bad thing what’s going on here why are they doing this I don’t have any more insight into this right now than what Christian said and I’m not overly worried about it I don’t think this is like a big thing at all because because we’ve been here before right let’s go back a year the Pelicans parted ways with assistant coach Teresa Witherspoon who worked very closely with Zion Williamson Zion Williamson during that year he missed the entire season talked about how she really helped him through a lot of like the personal stuff and was there for him they were very very close they got rid of her they fired her right and everything was fine everything was fine it didn’t upset him it didn’t have him require a trade if anything he was more bought in than he had ever been before and while he was healthy this year and Jan Austin definitely played a factor into that if they feel that you can upgrade from that that’s the way to go you know the thing with Teresa Witherspoon that I’ve been told from inside the organization was like they just didn’t think that highly of her as a coach right like they didn’t think she was that good of a coach so they wanted to get someone else who was a better Coach kind of simple as that to them it’s about getting the best people in the building not people that are you know friends with others or close with others right and I think one of the more important things is not who they put in the building but it’s more about who Zion puts around himself on the Gilbert Arenas podcast during Summer League last year he talked about that that he was surrounding himself with I think his word was wisdom didn’t want to call him older people because they’d be offended said wisdom he started to put the right people around him and that helped him get to where he needed to be it wasn’t necessarily what the pel were doing but the work that he was doing and his you know Camp right all of that and that’s what seemed to get him moving forward that’s the more more important thing than kind of like peripheral people on on the training staff or the coaching staff it’s more about Zion right you know ultimately that’s what this is about that’s ultimately what this is I I can make this job so easy at times I joked about it on lockdown MBA the other day when I did it on Thursday this week instead of Wednesday it’s about your best players playing and playing well look at game one between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Dallas Mavericks they got the Dallas got 64 combined points between LCA donic and Kyrie Irving right and for the Minnesota Timberwolves Anthony Edwards did not have a good game like at all and if he doesn’t have a good game they’re they’re going to lose and it’s really as simple as that you have to just have your best players available and playing well simple it’s that simple all the other stuff we can talk about the end of the roster 10th ninth 12th men it doesn’t matter if Zion’s not playing we can talk about coaching doesn’t matter if Zion’s not playing those things can give you a slight Edge but they’re not the difference makers right if Zion’s putting the right people around him and that makes him available in the best version of himself who cares who’s on the Pelican staff it’s all about about that right that’s just general the team building you know I I learned that lesson early on in my career here of like don’t overthink the little things my career being you know as a broadcaster writer all of that stuff you know we can analyze all of that and that can be fun and great don’t get me wrong but it’s really about your main players they are going to be the ones that take you far or not right go back a couple of years to the Miami Heat making the finals with Jimmy Butler in the bubble just carrying a team that had no business being there it’s about him doing that right when he doesn’t play they lose to the Celtics in the first round does that mean spoler is a bad coach all of a sudden no it’s just he didn’t have his best players available right that’s what it comes down to with most of this same for the Pelicans and Zion Williamson bgo is important yeah but with this team you know with with Zion healthy for the most part of the year they were good they were good 49 wins is not a joke when you look at this franchise and the history of this franchise this ranks as the third most wins they’ve ever had right that’s what it was no tied for the second most wins that they’ve ever had tied for the second most wins that they’ve ever had that tells you something that tells you tells you a lot right it’s about your main players Teresa Witherspoon not being on the team did not tank the season at all didn’t really impact anything we probably forgot about it most of the you know at the beginning of the year when they started winning games that’s going to be the case going forward all of these things around the edges pale in comparison to the best players being available and playing to their ability Timber was W games if Anthony Edwards was scoring 19 points on 16 shots and not getting into the paint at all that’s what happened in game one and the MAV are going to win if LCA donic just torches that drop coverage that the Minnesota Timberwolves ran against him if he doesn’t and that worked we’d be having a different conversation here it comes down to that you can get edges in other little areas but it’s about your main players playing well or not playing well and being available or not being available you know that Series against the Oklahoma City Thunder could have looked different if Brandon Ingram just had good games played better right made his shots if the Pelicans had just made open three-pointers that could have looked entirely different they they were unable to do that we don’t need to overthink some of this stuff because I think that definitely happens here or we just want to kind of like just get upset or something but ultimately I think this is like much ad do about nothing here so we’ll see what happens but I don’t think Zion’s going to you know he might not like it but he’ll get over it’ll be fine and everything will be good going in next season as long as he’s healthy so that’s going to do it for this episode of Locked on Pelicans this week of locked on Pelicans appreciate yall listening as always I’m your host Jake Madison at Nola Jake on Twitter and I’ll be back with y’all on Monday this is the locked on Pelicans podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day

The New Orleans Pelicans have been here before and this time they need to make sure they keep James Borrego. Jake Madison talks about how Borrego is linked to the Cleveland Cavaliers and that it reminds him of when Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch was an assistant on the Pels. Plus, how does this mean Brandon Ingram to the Cavs is off the table? Plus, should we make anything of the Pels shaking up the training staff?

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