Despite recent reports of friction between Stan Van Gundy and one or more players, the New Orleans Pelicans are backing Van Gundy’s tough love efforts to build a championship culture. Though Van Gundy admits the list of things he can improve upon before next season is longer than a tweet, he stands firm with belief that a proper offseason will see the New Orleans Pelicans in the middle of the playoff race instead of lingering on the fringes. The David Griffin-led front office now has a full 20-week offseason to build a roster more suited to Zion Williamson’s skills and Van Gundy’s style of play.

The reactions to Van Gundy’s hire were pleasant; the outsider reviews of his first season in New Orleans, not so much. In the days after being hired Van Gundy was viewed as an innovator in Orlando who was asked to do too much in Detroit. He was refreshed and ready for one final run at a ring with Zion Williamson. Van Gundy’s years in the media proved him an interesting and intelligent personality. Fans loved to hear his perspective as a media figure and likewise, media members enjoy Van Gundy’s soundbites when he is coaching.

Those same honest answers are sometimes not as appreciated as much in the locker room but player reactions will help the front office make decisions on future rosters. Those rosters will revolve around Williamson and Brandon Ingram, who says his relationship with Van Gundy is “OK.”

The casual “OK” is just part of Ingram’s personality, nothing that should worry Pelicans fans. Ingram added, “This is our first year together. He has a different coaching style than I’m used to seeing from most. But I was able to learn a lot of things from him this year and learn what he’s all about. And I think he’s all about winning. He has a different message than everybody else. He breaks down pretty much every detail of it. It’s all about winning. Our relationship will be even better because of this year, because of what we went through with COVID. I don’t know if we’ll have another year like this with what we went through with COVID. Him trying to get all his information in to make us a better team. Our communication will be really, really good for the good of our team next year.”

Communication and understanding come from practice and team video sessions. The Pelicans rarely had time for one session a week this season, if that. There was barely any time to develop feeling one way or the other in those moments. Van Gundy explained “I don’t think they got coached really hard this year because of the situation. Again, not making an excuse because all 30 teams were in the same situation, you just didn’t have the practice time. Early in the year, the early part of the year you were even limited in like, your meeting with individual players had to be under 15 minutes. Total. For the day.”

Any friction that caused negative vibes came from the mounting losses that resulted from winnable games. The message was being lost in translation in the middle of game action, and frustrations started to show toward the end of the season. With a full summer to slow down the teaching moments, Van Gundy is confident the Pelicans will soak in more of his scheme.

Williamson came to the affable Alvin Gentry after one year with Mike Krzyzewski. Brandon Ingram added Luke Walton in between those two coaching archetypes. Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jaxson Hayes have had three different coaches in as many years going back to college. Van Gundy’s meticulous nature and grueling practice full of small details was a substantial change for most of the roster. The lack of practice time only made the most demanding aspects of Van Gundy’s approach all that more pronounced. However, the players on rookie deals seemed to buy in more than some veterans.

New Orleans lost 14 games in which the Pelicans held a double-digit lead. Van Gundy and the players earned and lost those leads together. They must share the blame and Van Gundy has pulled no punches when being his own worst critic during post-game press conferences. Van Gundy admitted when he mismanaged timeouts or sent out illogical rotations that allowed the opposition to go on a run. He also had to address the obvious lack of effort on more than one occasion. While JJ Redick may have burned bridges at least Eric Bledsoe owned up to his mistake of not paying attention in the huddle before that last-second loss to the New York Knicks.

Redick and Bledsoe are veterans that could have tuned out the season once they saw contention was not a reasonable expectation. While the veterans may have been eyeing other opportunities or longing for their last home, the younger players all took great strides forward developmentally under Van Gundy’s guidance.

Griffin revealed Van Gundy was the only coaching candidate to embrace the successful Point Zion experiment. Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Jaxson Hayes, and Kira Lewis Jr. all proved to be capable rotation options going forward. Van Gundy finding a role for Naji Marshall may have saved the Pelicans over $10 million in free agency. Griffin has too much respect for Van Gundy to fire him after only one season and the financial consequences would need for Gayle Benson to sign off on any move.

Next summer could be quite different but Van Gundy has too much pride, knows this team has too much potential, to let him be what slows the progress of New Orleans Pelicans if it came to such a decision. That is not on anyone’s mind right now in New Orleans. The only task at hand is standing firm in the commitment to building the winning culture the Pelicans planned when Van Gundy was hired before the pandemic.

Griffin channeled a Van Gundy pull-no-punches answer when he alluded to that extra detailed work and committment from Williamson and Ingram commenting, “It’s one thing to be really good offensively. It’s another to hold your teammates accountable. In order to hold your teammates accountable, both of those players are going to have to become more focal to our defensive game plan as well. I think you're going to see that happen.”

It will happen with Stan Van Gundy directing the development from the sidelines.