NBA: New Orleans Pelicans and Indiana Pacers appoint new coaches

Stan Van Gundy has confirmed he has agreed to become the next head coach of the New Orleans Pelicans.

The 61-year-old will sign a four-year deal with the New Orleans Pelicans, according to reports.

The Pelicans, however, are yet to officially announce the signing but Van Gundy confirmed the reports on social media.

“I’m excited to join a talented New Orleans Pelicans team,” he posts on Twitter. “It will be an honor 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.”

The reports come one day after the Indiana Pacers came to terms with former Toronto Raptors assistant Nate Bjorkgren on their vacant head coaching position.

After the team fired Alvin Gentry in August, the vacant post had to be filled by someone qualified to take it up and the Pelicans met with Van Gundy last week for the head coaching position.

New Orleans lost six of eight games in the bubble to finish the season with a 30-42 record and 13th in the Western Conference.

Admirable young talent such as 2019 No. 1 overall pick Zion Williamson, 20, and NBA Most Improved Player, Brandon Ingram, 23 make for an intriguing coaching vacancy. They also have the 13th overall selection in the upcoming 2020 NBA Draft.

Van Gundy is a veteran in the NBA and has 12 years of experience as a head coach: three years in Miami, five in Orlando, and four in Detroit with his most successful run happening with the Magic, who he led to a 259-135 mark from 2007-12 while guiding the team to the playoffs each season. The 2008-09 Magic advanced to the NBA Finals.

Overall, Van Gundy has eight playoff appearances in his 12 seasons as coach in the NBA and his record is not bad with a 523-384 in his career so far. His last season was 2017-18 with the Detroit Pistons who he led to to a 39-43 record.

Van Gundy was also the president of basketball operations in Detroit.

New Indiana Pacers, on the other hand, have appointed Nate Bjorkgren as their new head coach and the former Toronto Raptors assistant went right to work Wednesday.

The 45-year-old explained his plan and he expects the Pacers to move the ball and take more 3-pointers.

He also wants the defence to be more disruptive while promising not to get locked into rotations and will be willing to take risks.

Perhaps most important, he believes there needs to be more communication between coaches and players.

Those are exactly the traits president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard hoped to find when he embarked on a coaching search two months ago and Bjorkgren became the perfect fit.

“There are people in this world who bring energy and you like being around them,” Pritchard says after introducing Bjorkgren on a Zoom call.

“I think the litmus test is when those guys call you, you can’t wait to pick up the phone. Nate has those characteristics, and when he went through his presentation he created a vision that I could physically see in my mind how he was going to coach. We knew he was the right guy.”

The first-time NBA head coach certainly presented a different kind of vision, wants to shatter the norms, prefers an evolving style that conforms only to circumstances.

Pacers fans may embrace this new style after watching years of stodgy, half-court basketball.

“We’ll be a fun team to watch,” he said. “You’re going to see a lot of movement on both sides of the ball, different guys handling the ball, pushing it up the floor. We want to utilize the 3-point line. My approach to defence is you change and change quite frequently, between quarters, after timeouts, during an 8-0 run, I think that’s the disruptive part.”

Bjorkgren developed his coaching style working largely with Raptors coach Nick Nurse.

“You have to adapt very early and quite often,” Bjorkgren says.

“You could be at a shootaround and two guys get called up and another is going overseas so you have to coach on the fly. You have to know the next guy will be there and that’s the part of the coaching, keeping everybody ready at all times.”