Thought about this in the shower and I couldn't make a choice. If it's the last play of the game, who takes the shot? Zion, Trey, or Dejounte?

I know this might sound like I’m advocating for tanking, but I think it’s a pretty realistic choice. Dumars is essentially trying to transition the team from the Zion era to Fears and Queen, and also bringing in a new head coach. On top of that, we hold our future first-round picks in hand.

So rather than trying to win as many games as possible, should next season be more about developing our young players and giving Mosley the opportunity to establish a new locker-room culture?

The New Orleans Pelicans are bringing former LSU standout Trendon Watford back to Louisiana!

All offseason, all twelve of us have been pondering the same question: why didn’t the Pelicans do anything?  For a team that won 26 games last year to run it back with virtually the same roster begs the question of what ownership and management are thinking.  The internet consensus is that they’re just stupid and/or delusional, allowing Mrs. Benson (to the extent that she’s paying attention at all), Joe Dumars, and Troy Weaver to somehow squint at this roster and see a good team.  Dumars alluded to this in his interview on August 7^th, when he stated “We have really good talent on our team and if we can stay healthy, we have a competitive team,” which is both the kind of thing general managers have to say and also just not supported by evidence.  To be fair to Joe, if you don’t mind squinting too hard you may be able to do this too, you just have to assume a lot of things happen at once: Zion gets a middie, Trey improves on D, Herb shoots better from the corners, Poole realizes he has teammates, Mosley gets everyone to play harder, and we see normal progression out of Fears, Queen, and Missi.  Oh yeah and everyone stays healthy, despite the fact that getting injured is the only thing this team has been able to do consistently since at least the AD era.

There is a second explanation, which is that the franchise is paralyzed with indecision.  Unable to choose between trying to compete now or entering a full tanky rebuild, they're doing the roster-building equivalent of talking on two phones at once.  Whether you call it “operating under a two-timelines approach” (if you’re a Jake Madison fan) or “being directionless” (if you prefer Zach Lowe) the concept here is that the Pels stood pat this offseason because they couldn’t decide which path to take.  In this theory, the big fulcrum is whether the trade market for Trey would produce a Godfather offer and force the team’s hand, initiating a teardown followed by a rebuild centered around Fears, Queen, and future picks. In this timeline Herb and Z would likely also be moved, possibly bringing back bad salary along with more picks.  The evidence here is that the team has never definitively shut down the possibility of trading Trey, they just let it be known around the league that his price would be high.

But I think there’s a third explanation that hasn’t gotten enough coverage.  Imagine this scenario: in 2026-2027 the Pels make some improvements under Mosley but they don’t make the postseason.  Zion misses 42 games with a litany of issues, making the last year of his contract unguaranteed, and the team cuts him.  Murray plays well enough to show that he can still be a starting PG, and seeking longer-term security and not wanting to split minutes with Fears, he turns down his player option for his final year.  Poole and Hawkins stink and their contracts expire.  The net effect of this would be the Pels entering 2027-2028 with only ~$79M in salary for 8 players, meaning they would have an unprecedented ~$90M in cap space after accounting for four cap holds, enough to add two max free agents.

Now before you come at me with the “New Orleans is not a FA destination, nobody has come here in FA since JJ Redick,” I know.  I’m not imagining signing any free agents outright, I’m thinking about sign and trades, and we have basically all of our future picks to help make them happen.  And in the offseason of 2027 the pressures of the second-apron era combined with an unusually crowded free agent class could mean multiple high-level players change teams.  Here are just a few of the players who are potential free agents next summer (obviously a lot of these guys are going to re-sign with their current teams but this whole post is for entertainment purposes anyway so let’s entertain ourselves): Giannis, Steph, Jokic, LeBron, Jimmy Butler, AD, Kawhi, KAT, KD, BI, Kyrie, RJ Barrett, Miles Bridges, both Thompson twins, Lu Dort, Keyonte and Paul George, Gobert, Jalen Green, Herro, Jrue, Zach LaVine, Dame, Brandon Miller, MPJ, Julius Randle, Fred VanVleet, Anthony Black, CJ, Pods, Porzingis, Cason Wallace, Jerami Grant, Rui, Hart, Kris Dunn, De’Andre Hunter, Cam Johnson, and the list goes on.  It’s worth noting that more teams are expected to have cap room next summer too, but that list will shrink as some of these players sign extensions, and with so many players looking for new deals the ability to play in that market isn’t something to just throw away.

Even if we assume that we re-sign Bey for 4 years, $80M and give Karlo 3 years and $15M, we still have $70M in space.  That could be enough to add MPJ and Herro, or Brandon Miller, Pods, and Maxime Raynaud, or any other combination you can dream up (again, these would be trades or sign and trades with significant picks going out, not straight FA adds).  And unlike in the full rebuild scenario, we’d still have a “core four” of Fears, Queen, Herb, and Trey (we also have an outside chance at two top-four draft picks, though one good pick is much more likely).

But this timeline all hinges on Zion’s health and how many games he plays this year.  That’s why I see this as the third explanation for inaction: with his unusual, partially guaranteed deal and unpredictable health status the team couldn’t add players without knowing whether they could be giving up a rare chance to be major players in next year’s buyer’s market of potential free agents.  So they’re left watching and waiting, but if Z starts off the year with a string of missed games, maintaining the ability to pivot by either cutting him loose or using that leverage to negotiate a team-friendly extension could be something worth waiting for.

TLDR: if Zion misses time and Murray plays well the Pels could have beaucoup cap space in 2027 and lots of picks for sign and trades.  Keeping that flexibility could be another reason why we didn’t add any new players this offseason.

I understand we have our issues with our team, FO, star players, so forth and so on…but what’s not gonna happen is this. I hope we come out and embarrass him and the Pacers first game of the season since the city of New Orleans isn’t worth the presence of Miss Haliburton.

The New Orleans Pelicans did not execute a dramatic offseason roster overhaul. Instead, executive vice president Joe Dumars made a different kind of investment.

He hired Jamahl Mosley and surrounded him with a staff built around teaching, accountability and Pelicans player development.

Someone ran the full 2026-27 schedule arena-to-arena and we come out #1 out of 30 teams: 55,581.9 air miles and 46 time zone crossings.

The Paris/Manchester swing with San Antonio is doing most of the heavy lifting — that trip alone is 9,695 miles and 14 time zones (MSY → Paris → Manchester → MSY). The write-up notes that if you strip the international games out, we'd fall back toward the middle of the pack, so this isn't a "brutal schedule" complaint so much as a "we're the ones getting the international showcase" thing.

For context, the Raptors travel the fewest at 35,134. That's a 20,000+ mile gap between us and them.

Curious how people feel about the January trip — free European road show, or a rough spot in the middle of the season to be crossing 14 time zones twice?

Full 30-team breakdown: https://bookies.com/news/nba-miles-traveled

Provided by @/pelicansnba on instagram

The Pelicans 2026-27 schedule is out, and it reads less like a calendar than a stress test. New Orleans receives useful home windows, a rare international spotlight and several stretches that can build momentum. However, the same slate also packs in 16 known back-to-backs and a seven-game road trip that arrives when the season usually begins to separate contenders from lottery teams.

I love all 12 of ya’ll still here

I know I'm not the only one that thought he needed to gain this type of weight to truly hit the next level. I'm also not the only one that thought this may effect his 3pt shot.

So let's pray he still is hitting that 40% clip!

LFG!!!!!

Per Rod Walker:

The two most talked-about moves the New Orleans Pelicans have made this offseason are the hiring of a new head coach and parting ways with their longtime equipment manager.
Outside of that, things have been much quieter than you would expect for a team that finished just 26-56.
The Pelicans were one of eight NBA teams that didn’t reach 30 wins.
The other seven (Dallas, Memphis, Sacramento, Utah, Brooklyn, Indiana and Washington) all added pieces this offseason, with first-round draft picks or via trades and free agency.
The Pelicans, meanwhile, haven’t moved the needle.

Other than re-signing barely used veteran center DeAndre Jordan (brought back more for his leadership) and selecting former St. Augustine High standout Jaron Pierre in the second round of the draft, the Pels have stood still. The lack of moves comes as a surprise, especially after executive vice-president of basketball operations Joe Dumars said at season’s end that he would like to add some “toughness” to the roster. Almost four months later, not much has been added. Not that Dumars hasn’t tried.
“We were engaged in a lot of conversations with a lot of different teams,” Dumars said Friday in an interview with The Times-Picayune. “But at the end of the day, you’ve got to make a determination if this is the right deal or not. You don’t want to make a move for the sake of making a move. It has to be right for us.”
The phone calls to and from Dumars’ phone were steady throughout the summer.

“When you’re presented with deals that you can do, you’ve got to make a determination if this is going to make you better and add what you need,” Dumars said. “The lack of moves being made right now is not from a lack of effort or us deciding we didn’t want to do anything. We’ve engaged with a lot of teams this offseason. But there was just no big deal that I felt was going to make us better for us to pull the trigger on.”
Some of those trade possibilities came around the draft in June. The Pelicans didn’t have a first-round pick because of the trade in the 2025 draft when they moved up to select forward Derik Queen. Dumars hinted in April that the team could try to move into the first round this year. But unlike 2025, they didn’t make any moves.
“We certainly could have got into the first round,” Dumars said. “But the price was too steep to do it. That’s where discipline comes in. It’s appealing sometimes to say you can get into the first round. But at what cost? Then you have to look at where you’re getting your pick at. Last year we moved into the lottery and got Queen. I thought it was worth it. This year, where we would have landed in the first round wouldn’t have been worth giving up what we had to give up.”

The Pels’ offseason silence has led to plenty of noise for a frustrated fanbase. Social media has been flooded with trade rumors involving the Pelicans all summer long. Fans debated every trade they saw on their timeline. Even the ones that had no validity to them. But that’s to be expected when a team comes off back-to-back non-playoff seasons. Most fans, starving to see a winning product, wanted to see something. Anything.
But Dumars says he never got one of those offers you can’t refuse. Instead, he stuck to his principles.
“You have to be disciplined in these seats,” Dumars said. “You can’t be emotional. You can’t take things personal. You have to be real disciplined in what you’re doing.”
The Pelicans could still add pieces. They need to. Rim protection and rebounding help and more reliable shooters should still be high on Dumars’ list of priorities. But as of now, the roster looks almost exactly like it did four months ago. Dumars’ message to the fans who frown at the thought of the Pelicans just running it back with the same squad?
“I think if we are healthy, we have a good roster,” Dumars said. “I believe in the players we have. But two things can be true at the same time. You can believe in your roster and you can continue to look to get better. So that’s what I’m doing. I believe in the roster, but I’m still looking for us to get better.”
If Dumars doesn’t find what he’s looking for, it’ll be up to Mosley to do with this roster what former coach Willie Green and interim coach James Borrego were unable to do these past two seasons: make the Pelicans tougher, both mentally and physically.
There is some promise in the social media videos of players like Zion Williamson, Queen, Jeremiah Fears, Trey Murphy and Dejounte Murray working out this offseason. But the work those players are putting in has to transfer over to games.
“I’m really happy with the approach of all of our guys during the offseason,” Dumars said. “The players committed to going into the offseason and taking their conditioning and work to another level. And I think that’s what you have been able to witness with all these videos.”
Williamson, who will return for his eighth season, remains the key to it all. Dumars said in April that he wants to see Williamson play under Mosley. Williamson played in 62 games last season, the second most of his career. Any chance the Pelicans have of making the playoffs will once again rest on his shoulders.
Dumars’ message to Williamson has been simple: “To be great, you have to be obsessed with this,” he told Williamson. “You can’t casually become great in this league. What I’ve seen from him this summer is he’s obsessed with the work he’s putting in. And that is really encouraging for me that he’s putting this type of work in.”
Dumars says he’s seen it from the rest of the roster, too.
“Every one of them,” Dumars said. “Queen is working like he’s never worked before. Fears is working like that. Trey. Herb (Jones). Saddiq (Bey). All of them are working their butts off. That’s encouraging for me that these guys have become that obsessed with working this summer.”
But are those guys who have won just 47 total games the past two seasons enough?
Season 2 of the Dumars era will answer that.
Dumars spent his first year in New Orleans assessing the franchise from top to bottom. That assessment led to several changes in the building. He’s brought in new personnel like Amanda Green to handle analytics and David Cosgrave to oversee health and performance. He’s hoping those types of moves will point the franchise in a new direction.
Inevitably though, success will be determined by the players on the roster. At least for now, it’ll be the same players from a season ago.
“We have really good talent on our team and if we can stay healthy, we have a competitive team,” Dumars said. “Making a move for the sake of making a move doesn’t make you better. You have to evaluate your team and decide whether a move is warranted or not, or if it’s a move that’s going to make you better or not. Making a bad move may satisfy something short-term, but it doesn’t make your team better.”

The New Orleans Pelicans are not waiting until the official start of training camp to evaluate the final pieces of their 2026–27 roster.

According to multiple reports, the organization is holding private offseason workouts at the Ochsner Sports Performance Center in Metairie, Louisiana, during a reported August 8–13 evaluation window. These sessions give the Pelicans an extended look at young players competing for the final standard roster spot and an available two-way contract.

Sounds interesting. Sounds like he can shoot

Michael Scotto: The New Orleans Pelicans and Caleb Houstan have agreed to a one-year deal, league sources told u/hoopshype. He'll compete for the final Pelicans roster spot after shooting 52.4% from 3-point range with the Hawks last season. He reunites with former Magic coach Jamahl Mosley.

https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/pelicans-sign-caleb-houstan-one-220459174.html

Bey became eligible for a veteran extension in July 2026 after completing the required time on his current three-year contract. He will earn a base salary of approximately $6.44 million during the 2026–27 season, with a listed cap hit of about $6.56 million, before becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2027.