What a strange thing for Zion's family to get involved. It's one thing to give players a degree of power, but it gets much more complicated if you have snippets and soundbites from the players' families. Because the player has an impossible choice - he either refutes the reports (putting him at odds with his family) or he confirms the report (putting him at odds with his current team). You know the media is going to be asking Zion about what he thinks of the Pelicans. I'm sure the Pelicans want to keep Zion as happy as possible, as they don't want to repeat another Anthony Davis situation, but what if they also don't get to the playoffs next year with their new coach? Do they sack him too, in order to keep Zion happy? What if Zion's family says Zion 'hates' Ingram? Do the Pelicans then trade Ingram for scraps, in order to keep Zion happy? Absolutely ridiculous. Can't see how this ends well unless his family doesn't come out with more food for the media. I feel like SVG is the type of coach that a GM should hire on a team like the Nets or Clippers - a team that has legitimate championship aspirations that year or in the immediate season after his hire. Don't think SVG is the type of coach to mold a 20-23 year old burgeoning superstar who still has to develop parts of his game.
The SVG hiring was clearly a mistake. SVG was brought in to improve the culture, discipline and most importantly defense of the team. They were viewed as a very talented team expected to contend for the playoffs. Zion may have missed the last 6 games but the Pelicans finished the season 10 games under .500! Their defense was one of the worst in the league. Even with Zion playing this year, the team and SVG basically had the same record as they did the year before. Perhaps a team led by Zion, Ingram, Ball, Hart, Adams isn't that good or is fundamentally flawed in some ways. But everyone expected them to compete with the Grizzlies, Mavs, Suns, Nuggets as one of the rising young teams. Instead they competed with the Kings as one of the most disappointing teams. Griffin had to fire SVG since the team was clearly not responding to him at best and not even listening to him at worst. They have 2 more years get it together and do everything they can to improve and to keep Zion, probably a top 5 most valuable asset in the league.
In his defense though SVG did pretty well when the Magic built their team around a young Dwight Howard. When NO hired Stan I thought we would see the same type of offense with Zion as the anchor and Ingram around the perimeter. But just like @blahblehblah stated below: Their defense sucked hard.
now way stars like KD, Kyrie, and Harden are putting up with SVG’s militant style…he seems like the type that just annoys players and they quickly get tired of him
At this point, I'd almost rather see Zion in NYC than waste his career in New Orleans. The Pelicans are woefully underwhelming. To be honest, I doubt this franchise will be around in 20 years.
He has the reputation around the league of being a coach that isn’t going to lead a team to a championship. He has in the past panicked at the end of important games… it’s the reason that Riley fired him… Shaq has spoken about it. SVG is an excellent fundamentals coach but that’s about it.
He is still using the player food per diem every damn day, so I would say he is still in league. You can buy a lot of macaroni and cheese and oatmeal cream pies for $50 a day on the companies dime.
