The New Orleans Pelicans just added another scorer, and that’s exactly why Atlanta should be paying attention.
Bennedict Mathurin is headed to New Orleans on a two-year, $16 million deal, a price tag that looks tidy for a player who was a vital part of Indiana’s run to the NBA Finals in the 2025 NBA Playoffs. Rick Carlisle leaned on him as a plug-and-play, three-level scoring weapon, and when Mathurin is rolling, he can punish defenses with real burst and legitimate shot-making.
But there’s a flip side, and it’s the part the Pelicans are going to have to live with. Mathurin is built almost entirely around scoring.
When the shot is there, he can take over. When it isn’t, the rest of his game doesn’t offer much cushion.
His defense is shaky, his playmaking is prone to mistakes, and his frame doesn’t give him much of an edge on the boards.
That one-track profile is what makes this move feel so familiar in New Orleans. Mathurin looks like the latest version of the Brandon Ingram mold there: a score-first wing whose value comes mostly from putting the ball in the basket. And the Ingram era, for all its promise, never really turned into much of a headline-making success.
The bigger issue is the roster around him. The Pelicans still appear committed to building around Zion Williamson, even after the trade chatter that hovered over last season and, really, every season before that.
Beyond Zion, the picture gets messy fast. Dejounte Murray is still on the roster, though his injury concerns were once Atlanta’s problem.
Trey Murphy and Herb Jones continue to surface in trade talk. And the center rotation of Yves Missi and Derik Queen doesn’t exactly scream balance, with Missi’s empty offense and Queen’s lackluster defense.
For Atlanta, the math is simple. The Hawks own the worst of the Pelicans’ and Bucks’ 2027 first-round picks, and the more New Orleans loses, the better that pick looks. The Bucks, after trading Antetokounmpo to South Beach this summer, aren’t expected to be a playoff team in a crowded Eastern Conference, which only adds to Atlanta’s optimism.
So while the Pelicans try to make sense of another score-first addition, the Hawks can sit back and watch the pick situation improve. Unless New Orleans suddenly flips the switch, Atlanta could be staring at top-lottery territory for a second straight year.
In Other News...
Hawks Face A Veteran Roster Crunch They Cant Avoid
Atlantas roster is already at 17 players, and the front office has a familiar summer problem to solve before training camp arrives in 2027: trim the group down to the 15-man limit without undercutting the depth it has built. It is the kind of decision that usually lands somewhere between basketball fit and financial practicality, and the Hawks are clearly spending time weighing both as they sort out the shape of the bench for the coming season.
Buddy Hield and Corey Kispert have emerged as the names to watch in that conversation, each for different reasons tied to role and contract value. Atlanta does not appear to have a simple answer here, which is why the roster crunch has become more than a bookkeeping exercise. The Hawks are still evaluating whether the cleanest path is to cut or move one of those veterans, and the next step will say plenty about how aggressively they want to manage the back end of the roster. [Read more 🡒]
Hawks Deadline Idea Would Address A Problem Fans Know Too Well
The Hawks interior defense has been a familiar sore spot, and a proposed deadline fix has them looking at a big man who could help clean up the paint without costing them a headline-grabbing return. In the hypothetical scenario, Atlanta lands Jay Huff from Indiana, a move built around the idea that his length and rim protection would give the roster a different look on the back line while the Pacers consider a modest reshuffle of their own.
Any such deal would come down to whether both sides see enough value in the exchange to pull the trigger, since Atlanta would be chasing a targeted upgrade rather than a full-scale overhaul. The appeal is clear for the Hawks: a chance to address a problem fans have watched drag on for too long, with the trade talk centered on fit, timing and whether this is the kind of under-the-radar addition that can actually make a difference. [Read more 🡒]
Hawks Look Smarter For Avoiding Anthony Davis Risk
The Hawks did their due diligence on Anthony Davis before the deadline, but they ultimately steered clear of the kind of deal that can reshape a franchise for all the wrong reasons. Age, injury history and contract uncertainty all weighed against the idea, and Atlanta instead kept its focus on the roster it has been building around after its recent playoff success.
Washington made the move and now has to sort through the next layer of risk, because Davis is eligible for an extension and the price tag would be enormous. If the Wizards do not satisfy his contract expectations, the possibility of a messy follow-up looms over the deal, which is exactly the kind of complication Atlanta chose not to inherit. [Read more 🡒]