New Orleans Pelicans Round Out Gentry’s Coaching Staff With Addition of Phil Weber

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Published: July 5, 2015

The staff was already looking tremendous with the additions of Darren Erman and Robert Pack to Alvin Gentry’s crew, but it got even stronger today with the reported addition of Phil Weber. Weber was one of the guys I profiled as a possible assistant right before Gentry got hired, and like I said in that piece, he is a high energy guy who is a tremendous shooting coach. He also works with guys on balance and fundamentals – two key building blocks for a young team. Want to get a sense of Weber the person and his philosophies? This video basically sums it all up.

Weber is known as a positive guy (as you can see from the video) that will bring a lot of energy to the team. He played under the legendary Jim Valvano, who delivered a similar positive messages, including perhaps the most legendary sports related speech ever. He went on to coach in college before moving on to an assistant job with Phoenix, where he worked with D’Antoni and Gentry. From there, he moved on to New York with D’Antoni for four years before moving on to Miami.

Weber has done both player development and X-and-O coaching, so he can bounce between both roles. He also has some connections with some Pelicans summer league players, as he coached both Khem Birch and Larry Drew in the D-League last year. It will be interesting to see how involved he is with Summer League, which starts next week, but it can’t hurt to have a guy who is familiar with D-League players as Dell tries to round out the bottom of the roster with minimum players that have some upside.

The hiring of Weber likely means that the staff is set, as the Pelicans also kept player development coaches Kevin Hanson and Fred Vinson, along with bringing in video coordinator Elvis Valcarel. This staff is intelligent and energetic and has already been getting to work with Anthony Davis and others. While the roster has stayed essentially the same, there is reason for optimism because of the tremendous staff that Demps and Gentry have put together.

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  1. Pingback: Report: Pelicans add Phil Weber to Alvin Gentry’s coaching staff | Sports Kanga

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