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New Orleans Pelicans: Should Monty Williams Stay?

By Owen Sanborn

Mar 27, 2015; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Pelicans head coach Monty Williams against the Sacramento Kings during the second half of a game at the Smoothie King Center. The Pelicans defeated the Kings 102-88. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 27, 2015; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Pelicans head coach Monty Williams against the Sacramento Kings during the second half of a game at the Smoothie King Center. The Pelicans defeated the Kings 102-88. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports /
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Monty Williams is not the best coach in the NBA. Pretty crazy statement, I know.

Hell, he probably isn’t even in the top 20, as ESPN’s front office rankings showed us this week.

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(Take those rankings with a grain of salt as ESPN’s own Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith did on First Take yesterday morning. Skip also leaped to defend Scott Brooks so much that you thought he may actually be the illegitimate 15th man on the Oklahoma City Thunder, so you can take his opinion with a grain of salt as well.)

You could argue that failing to make the postseason this year should end the five year coaching tenure of Williams with the New Orleans Pelicans. That’s fine if you are of that camp. Williams can struggle to handle late game situations correctly, and may occasionally run a stale offensive system. It is not easy to refute those claims.

HOWEVER, I do not believe that Williams has been given the proper chance to be evaluated and therefore am in favor of him patrolling the sidelines as head coach for a sixth season.

For one, the Pelicans have undergone a series of devastating injuries to Anthony Davis, Ryan Anderson and Jrue Holiday over the past two seasons. Tyreke Evans has really been the only consistent player — health wise at least — but it took him awhile to initiate himself with New Orleans.

Despite all of their injury woes (which are completely out of Williams’ control), the Pelicans still sit with a 38-34 record in the Western Conference. THE BEST WESTERN CONFERENCE IN THE HISTORY OF EVERYTHING; as some would say.

For all of the hating that is put on Williams, it is difficult to not be impressed by the juggling act he did with the roster this season. This team should not be 38-34 with the amount of games missed by key players, yet here they are anyways. Some of that has to be due to coaching, doesn’t it?

Secondly, the Pelicans roster is pretty damned young! Davis is a supremely well-documented 22 years young. Tyreke Evans is just 25, while Eric Gordon is 26 and Jrue Holiday is only 24 (for those of you wondering, Luke Babbitt is 25).

That is a young core that needs to go through a maturation process in order to start making some noise in the playoff picture. The reality of that happening grows increasingly more difficult because they are unable to stay on the court together for more than ten game stretches a season.

A lineup featuring all four of those players only made 11 appearances in the 2014-15 campaign, and yet somehow they have been flirting with stealing the eighth seed away from the Thunder and Phoenix Suns all season.

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    • The players seem to respond well to Williams. He coached Davis during his stint with Team USA this past summer and has been an integral part of Davis’ development as an all-world NBA alien. Although Williams and Evans initially clashed, they seem to have reconciled their differences and it has shown with Evans’ quality play this season.

    Most stellar of all of his accomplishments has been talking Gordon into taking on a smaller role in the offense and transforming into one of the most formative three-point bombers in the game.

    Now, just because the players seem to be fond of Williams does not mean his job his 100 percent safe. All you have to do is look at Golden State with Mark Jackson and Golden State with Steve Kerr to see that the right coaching can have an immense amount of influence on a talented team.

    Unlike Jackson, Williams has not been dealt the cards of a deep roster with a slightly better avoidance of injury. I believe he deserves another chance to make the postseason with this roster next season.

    Only question now is whether or not the front office feels the same.

    Next: Our Latest NBA Mock Draft

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