Yahoo Sports Sources: Pelicans meeting with Warriors' Alvin Gentry about coaching job
New Orleans Pelicans president Mickey Loomis and general manager Dell Demps are meeting with Golden State Warriors assistant coach Alvin Gentry on Monday night in San Francisco, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Golden State granted permission for Gentry, the associate head coach, to interview for the head-coaching vacancy between playoff series, sources said.
The Warriors play the Houston Rockets in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals on Tuesday in Oakland.
Gentry is selling the idea of bringing an offensive system to New Orleans that would benefit star Anthony Davis, in part the way he did for NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry under Steve Kerr with the Warriors, league sources said.
Gentry was 140-131 in three-plus years as the Phoenix Suns head coach, including a trip to the Western Conference finals. He was fired in 2013 after the Suns gutted the team in a rebuild.
New Orleans has an interest in Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, but that intrigue belongs more with Loomis than Demps, league sources told Yahoo Sports. Thibodeau is waiting for the Bulls to initiate conversations about his future with the franchise, sources said. He has two years left on his contract.
Loomis is an executive with the New Orleans Saints, and Thibodeau's tough-minded approach has an especially strong appeal to that part of the organization. Nevertheless, it is believed Demps is less inclined to want a strong-willed coach in the job, especially after so many internal battles with former coach Monty Williams. Demps was the driving force in pushing out Williams as coach, sources said.
New Orleans has also been making calls on former Houston Rockets and New York Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, league sources said. New Orleans has an interest in former Oklahoma City Thunder coach Scott Brooks too, sources said.
New Orleans fired Williams on Tuesday after a 45-37 regular season and an opening-round playoffs sweep by Golden State.
ESPN first reported that Golden State had granted permission for Gentry to talk to New Orleans.
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