Stan Van Gundy Is Out After One Year As The Coach Of The New Orleans Pelicans

One year after emerging from the NBA’s coaching carousel with Stan Van Gundy at the helm, the New Orleans Pelicans have decided to make yet another change. According to Andrew Lopez and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Van Gundy is out after one year in New Orleans. The report was confirmed by Will Guillory of The Athletic.

Guillory and Marc Stein of the New York Times brought word that Teresa Weatherspoon, who was an assistant last season, is expected to be a candidate for the position, while Wojnarowski reports that a handful of the candidates who were linked to the job last year will pop up in this search.

The news of this comes after a rough season in New Orleans. While the team was expected to take a leap and compete for a postseason berth, the Pelicans went 31-41 under Van Gundy, making them 11th in the conference and forcing them to miss the play-in tournament by two games. In the aftermath, there were rumblings that Van Gundy and members of the Pelicans’ roster did not see eye-to-eye, and Wojnarowski reported on Wednesday that this felt like something of an inevitability.

The Pelicans are among the most interesting vacancies on the market due to the team’s young core centered around Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram. The team joins Boston, Indiana, Orlando, and Portland as teams in need of a new coach.