You're Loomis and You have to decide if you're going to fire Monty, Demps... What do you do and why?
Here's my take: the pelicans were relatively healthy for almost the first half of the season. During that timeframe the team record was around .500. It's unfortunate that the team has been marred with injuries but the reality is this team mortgaged it's future to win now and there's a very good chance we're missing the playoffs. Giving up Noel for Holiday, a 1st for Asik, and getting an expensive Tyreke Evans clearly shows that Demps is in a win-now mindset not a gradual rebuild. Demps made some excellent moves by getting Qpon, Cunningham, and Cole. Monty has utilized Gordon making him a major offensive weapon as the season went on. Davis has reached superstar status. Most of the players were utilized well by Monty. The team is still rather weak when AD is on the bench. How will this get resolved? The team's defense is below average; how will this get resolved? Coaching? Roster changes? Improved team chemistry? Turnovers and efficient ball movement and effective shot selection have continued to cost us games. Injuries have probably cost us games. Tyreke playing hero ball and Anderson forcing awkward shots while killing ball movement have surely hurt our chances of winning. Monty has taught his players to be sportsmanlike and he has class. He's young and has shown signs of improvement. But the reality is he can probably get the pelicans to the playoffs but I just can't see him getting the team deep into the post season. He's helped this team win against very tough competition and he's been a good mentor to his players. I really like Monty but I'd be very reluctant to keep him. I'd keep him one more year unless I could find a better more experienced coach. That may be more difficult than some of you think.
The bottom line is we want to win a championship and we definitely have a shot with AD but we need changes now. I'd fire Monty and put Demps on the hotseat. Demps will need to make this offseason a real success by adding talent and making smart trades. Ryno, Gordon, Reke, and Jrue should all be trade pieces. I would only trade Jrue if we find an exceptional deal. This team has to add talent and keep it's depth. This can be accomplished. Give Demps one more year to make the final touches to this roster. It makes more sense to let Monty go and hire a new coach and reshape this roster.