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SUNDAY, 8:17am: The hiring is official, the team announced overnight. Gentry will take his new position after the Finals.
11:08pm: Gentry will receive a four-year contract, Spears tweets.
7:55pm: Although Thibodeau was rumored to be a candidate for the job, there was no communication between the Pelicans and him, Amick reports.
SATURDAY, 6:40pm: Alvin Gentry will be named the new coach of the Pelicans, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Gentry, the lead assistant under Steve Kerr with Golden State, will take over in New Orleans after the NBA Finals (Twitter link).
This will be Gentry’s fifth head coaching job in the NBA. He previously coached the Heat, Pistons, Clippers and Suns and has a career record of 335-370. Last summer, he signed a three-year deal to be an assistant with the Warriors. Gentry will replace Monty Williams, who led the team to 45 victories and a playoff spot, but was fired shortly after being swept by Golden State in the first round.
Gentry was in New Orleans Friday for his second interview with the franchise, writes John Reid of The Times Picayune. Other coaches who were rumored to be in the running for the job, according to Reid, were ABC/ESPN broadcaster Jeff Van Gundy, former Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau and ex-Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro. Wolves assistant Sam Mitchell was also interviewed, according to Sam Amick of USA Today (Twitter link), and only Gentry and Van Gundy received second interviews. The hiring of Gentry likely means that Thibodeau will be out of coaching for at least a year, tweets K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune.
Reid reported last week that Gentry saw the chance to coach young NBA first-teamer Anthony Davis as a career defining opportunity. Gentry has a reputation as an offensive-minded coach, leading Phoenix to a league-best 110.2 points per game during the 2009-10 season, and is reportedly very interested in the chance to mold Davis into an offensive force.
Mike D’Antoni and Luke Walton are intriguing possibilities to become the Warriors’ new lead assistant, tweets Tim Kawakami of The Bay Area News Group. D’Antoni has been out of coaching since resigning from the Lakers after the 2013/14 season. Walton is already an assistant on Kerr’s staff. Former Nuggets coach Brian Shaw would also be interested in the position, tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports.