The fallout from the Pelicans’ awful season is underway.
Less than 24 hours after wrapping up a 21-and-61 campaign, the Pelicans have fired David Griffin as executive director of basketball operations.
“After considerable thought and evaluation, I have decided to relieve David Griffin of his duties as executive vice president of basketball operations,” Pelicans Owner Gayle Benson said in a statement announcing Griffin’s firing. “This was a difficult decision, but one that I feel is necessary at this time to bring a fresh approach to our front office and build a culture that will deliver sustainable success, on and off the court.
“I am committed to hiring the right person to lead our basketball operations department and deliver an NBA Championship to our city,” Benson continued. “That is what our fans deserve. I am truly appreciative of David for his leadership and many contributions to the Pelicans organization and the New Orleans community over the last six years. We wish David and his wife, Meredith, and their family all the best moving forward.”
Griffin had served in that role for six years, almost to the day — he was hired April 17, 2019.
Jake Madison, the host of the Locked On Pelicans podcast, says this move was not unexpected.
“They’ve been running it back for the past couple of years and haven’t seemed to have any sort of breakthrough,” says Madison. “And while a lot of that’s on the players — trying to make the Zion Williamson era work, him only playing 30 games this year, really not ever being available for this team — the front office is always going to take the fall for that sort of thing.”
Madison says Griffin’s firing is a clear message from Pelicans ownership.
“This is a message from ownership that failure is not tolerated here,” Madison says. It seems like they had been complacent for the past couple of years, but this season was particularly bad and some sort of change needed to happen.”
One big question-mark at this time is the status of Head Coach Willie Green.
Madison says that decision may ultimately be in the hands of whoever Griffin’s successor is.
“They’re going to hire someone to be their lead basketball decision maker and let that person make a decision on the head coach and then maybe the rest of the roster,” says Madison.
The roster was the big issue for the Pelicans this season, with the team losing a whopping 369 man games to injury.
25 players suited up for the Pelicans this season, and Coach Green started 46 different starting lineups in the 82-game season.
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