Pelicans Coach Green Talks Zion, Ingram, and McCollum on JJ Redick's Podcast

New Orleans Pelicans head coach Willie Green is usually a man of few words. He often displays a stoic demeanor in interviews and along the sidelines of games. Earlier this week, he was a guest on JJ Redick's "Old Man and the Three" podcast to discuss his playing career, coaching journey, and life's inspiration.

Here are a few highlights about his time in New Orleans with the Pelicans.

Willie Green on his playing days in New Orleans:

“The trade from Philly to New Orleans was tough. But after I got there I built a great relationship with Chris (Paul), David West, Monty Williams, who I played together with in Philly my rookie season. Mike Malone was on our staff, Jarrett Jack, all these great relationships, all those guys made it one of the best basketball years of my life. When you look back on your life, even the stuff that you don’t think is right or not fair ends up working out to be one of the best things that happen to you.”

Green on his mental state being a 1st year head coach and starting the season 1-12:

“I had to do a lot of praying (laughs). It was rough. I’m not going to lie. I kept looking at our guys in practice and said let’s just take some positives and then focusing on fixing one thing at a time. Let’s see if we can improve on one area. Figure that out. It might just be setting screens and so we would focus on just that week of setting screens. The next week we would add something else. I started to learn that this is how you build your foundation. You teach slowly but surely and you keep teaching, keep teaching. I never came down on our guys. They were working their tails off, they were competing, playing hard, playing for each other and I kept believing in them and believing in us."

Green on him not being able to coach Zion yet in a game:

“We talk about compassion and understanding, the humanity aspect of this whole situation. Nobody is more frustrated and disappointed than Zion is because he’s the one going through it. He got hurt trying to prepare for the season. He was in the gym. His weight was down and he was getting it in and he got hurt. What I try to get people to understand is that he is just 21 years old. I’ve had my discussions with him and he’s extremely frustrated….but I’ve told him and the team that’s part of life and there’s nothing you can do about that so let’s be there and try to support him and each other.”

Green on the importance of getting a veteran like CJ McCollum on a young team:

“CJ is extremely important to building the program that we want to build. He gets it. He’s another guy that had to go through adversity. He had the same injury as Zion. He had to navigate difficulties early in his career before he became the CJ he is now. That builds your character. He’s using his voice in the locker room slowly but surely. He’s helping me become a better coach and better person."

Green on where he thinks Brandon Ingram’s game goes from here:

“B.I. is better than advertised. He works extremely hard at his game. He’s a coach’s dream. I’m getting text in the middle of the night and he’s watching film, critiquing his game on what he can do better. Whatever happens he looks himself in the mirror first, never points the fingers, he’s a grinder. I can go on and on about him, but he cares about the game and his teammates. High IQ and he’s one of the best basketball players in the league and he’s only 24 years old."

After a 1-12 start, Green and the Pelicans have dramatically turned things around and are in prime position for a spot in the play in the postseason. The team is currently in tenth place with 13 games remaining as they hope to capture a playoff berth via a play-in game.