New Orleans, La – On Tuesday, Stan Van Gundy spoke to local media for the first time in his introductory press conference as head coach of the New Orleans Pelicans.
Van Gundy discussed several topics, including what excited him most about coaching a young team.
“I don’t think it’s all that much different (coaching a young team as opposed to a team of veterans). I think the one thing is, and I’ve already talked to our players, and I don’t want them, or us, to ever use youth as an excuse. I think sometimes you can start with ‘oh, well we were young, and that’s why we turned the ball over three times in the last two minutes of a tied game’. Listen, they’re all great players, and they came into this league young because of their talent, but it’s time to play and compete, and I don’t want to use that as an excuse, but, as far as the coaching, what makes it different is there’s a lot of teaching to do and to bring these guys along. The NBA game is different than the college game in some ways, and learning all of those things. There has to be more teaching, there has to be a real emphasis placed on their development. They are far from finished products at this point in their career, no matter how good they are and we have to keep that in mind every day,” Van Gundy said.
To hear more from the Pelicans head coach, click on the video above.
