Stan Van Gundy will be the next head coach of the New Orleans Pelicans

Van Gundy tweeted on Wednesday "I'm excited to join a talented New Orleans Pelicans team”. "It will be an honour to work with our players and to work for Mrs Benson and David Griffin, Trajan Langdon, their staff and the great people of New Orleans. I can't wait to talk to our players and get the process started."

Van Gundy who formerly coached Miami Heat, Orlando Magic and Detroit Pistons has now gained the seventh position in coaching pelicans franchise history. Brian Elfus, the representative of van Gundy and the pelicans agreed on terms for the several years deal on Wednesday morning.  

As New Orleans’s office steered the coaching hunt, Van Gundy’s stature as a mentor of the game stood out in his 11 plus seasons as an NBA head coach- mentoring that will turn out to be key as New Orleans tries to leap with a young roster.   

Van Gundy’s team consistently stood out on the defensive side. In all the 11 seasons where he led as a head coach, his teams were in the top half in defensive rating in the NBA for 10 times, that includes his last three seasons in Detroit. His teams were in the top 10 in eight of the seasons in defensive rating.   

His Detroit’s four seasons that includes a dual-title as coach and president, and personnel decisions predominantly in NBA draft – played a part in restricting the team’s success. Van Gundy's 44 victories elevated the Pistons out of several years in the lottery to the playoffs in 2016. Van Gundy, 61, has a regular season record of 523-384 (577) and a playoff record of 48-43 (.527) in the NBA. His magic led to the 2009 NBA Finals.  

Van Gundy received a Pelicans team that did not achieve well during the NBA restart, subsequently having the most effortless way, schedule-wise, to make the end of the season games. Rather, New Orleans completed thirteenth in the Western Conference after going 2-6 in Orlando.

Nevertheless, the future seems bright for the young Pelicans.

Zion Williamson, last year's no 1 pick as well as most improved player of last season’s Brandom Ingram is the core feature. Jaxson Hayes, 2019’s lottery pick and the no 17 picks of 2019 Nickeil Alexander-Walker also included.  Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart could be extended by New Orleans once the league year starts, both of them have taken steps forward in their improvement in the last playoffs. 

There is No. 13 pick in the upcoming 2020 draft and also three second-round picks with No.'s 39, 43 and 60 in New Orleans. It is the beginning of the Pelicans' assets i.e., future draft. They also own the Los Angeles Lakers' which is picked in either 2021 as protected 8-30 or 2022 as unprotected, 2023 as pick swap and other years which are either 2024 or 2025, while New Orleans can defer a 2024 pick and alter one year.

To mingle in with young talents, the Pelicans lean on guards named Jrue Holiday and JJ Redick, and Van Gundy leads Redick to play in Orlando.

Van Gundy is expected to guide and help the young Pelicans through their increasing pains and into the regular playoffs. New Orleans has made the playoffs in only two seasons out of the past nine seasons with a single series win in the first-round sweep of Portland in the 2018 playoffs.

There was no success which caused Anthony Davis to path his way out of the town to Lakers before last season. This fault did not allow New Orleans to accelerate and rebuild themselves because of --a haul that David Griffin, who is the Pelicans' executive vice president of the basketball operations team, said which will help get New Orleans over the prominence.