Stan

Van Gundy

In his lone season at the helm, Van Gundy guided the Pelicans to a 31-41 record, missing the NBA postseason. Many people questioned the hire when it was made last offseason, but Van Gundy’s past success in Orlando with Dwight Howard, was intriguing to help bring along Pelicans star Zion Williamson. According to Woj, the Pelicans will circle back with some candidates from a year ago, including Brooklyn Nets assistants Jacque Vaughn and Ime Udoka, Milwaukee Bucks assistant Charles Lee, and Lakers assistant Jason Kidd.

Stan Van Gundy is tightening up who gets minutes in his team’s opener on Wednesday. “I’m pretty happy all-around with our guys,” Van Gundy said, according to NOLA.com. “It’s a deep team. We’re probably not going to play 13 guys. We’ll probably play eight or nine. Other guys are going to get a look when there are injuries, foul trouble, things like that.” It’s a sure bet that Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson, Eric Bledsoe, Steven Adams, J.J. Redick and Josh Hart will take up seven spots. Everyone else’s minutes are up in the air.

He met with the team back on Oct. 13 and just today reached an agreement on a four-year deal. SVG has been a free agent coach since the Pistons let him go in 2018 but his previous work with the Magic was phenomenal. Expectations will be high right away in New Orleans, as the team has an impressive core of Zion Williamson, Jrue Holiday, Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram when he inevitably re-signs. Stan’s brother Jeff may get a head coaching job as well, as he’s currently a frontrunner for the Houston job.

Van Gundy has reportedly emerged as one of four finalists for the head coaching gig in New Orleans, with Tyronn Lue and Jason Kidd also reportedly being in the mix. His brother, Jeff, is in talks with the Rockets, so it’s possible our ears may not be blessed with the color commentary from the Van Gundy’s next season.

Although Larry Drew’s contract doesn’t expire until June 30, there is no indication that the Hawks plan to retain him and both sides have started pursuing other options. It would be a major shock to see Drew back in Atlanta despite the job he did with the Hawks this season because GM Danny Ferry wants to install his own regime after taking over last season. Nate McMillan is the other known candidate to have interviewed already, but the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that there are “others” who have yet to be officially interviewed. Yahoo! Sports previously reported the Hawks will pursue Van Gundy with an eye on landing Dwight Howard.

Van Gundy has been linked to several different openings, but he’s taken his name out of consideration. It is a family decision, according to Van Gundy. He’ll wait for the right opportunity to present itself and will have plenty of teams drooling over him whenever he decides the time is right to re-enter the arena.

Smith worked as Orlando’s GM during SVG’s tenure there, and he has spent the past two seasons as a coach in the D-League. The Pistons franchise also announced on Tuesday that Pat Garrity will be promoted to assistant general manager, and Bob Beyer will step in as the new associate head coach on Van Gundy’s staff.

That means we may not see too much of Stanley Johnson tonight, but besides that we should get a good idea of the rotation in the first half. Ish Smith should play next to the first unit a ton this month.

“I just didn’t think they put much into the game defensively,” SVG said. “We may have to address it lineup wise. I want to see more out of them, but if that first unit can’t improve defensively then we’re going to have to get some other people in there and put some of them on the bench.” While he didn’t mention any names, it would make sense for SVG to consider replacing Marcus Morris with Stanley Johnson in the starting lineup if he’s looking for more defense. This is definitely something to keep an eye in advance of their next game vs. the Spurs on Monday.

“It’ll change game to game,” the veteran head coach said. “Right now, we clearly haven’t got a settled rotation where we can count on solid play throughout the game, game to game, We don’t have that right now. So going to probably be a little back and forth and trying to figure it out. The answer is still all of those guys need to play better.” Expect to see Stan Van shuffling through his frontcourt options regularly as he tries to figure out the right mix.