As training camp approaches, the New Orleans Pelicans are staring at the same problem that haunted them last season: they still don’t have a clear offensive identity.
The arrival of new head coach Jamahl Mosley changes the voice in the room, but not much else about the roster. New Orleans is still working with a group that won only 26 games a year ago, and the biggest issue from that season remains front and center.
The clearest hole was in the middle. The Pelicans needed a real center to pair with Zion Williamson and Derik Queen, but they never made that move.
Without a dependable starter at the five, New Orleans had trouble protecting the paint and finishing defensive possessions with rebounds. A legitimate big would have given the Pelicans a chance to punish smaller lineups late in games.
Instead, the team kept things mostly the same. New Orleans brought back veteran center DeAndre Jordan and is banking on a major step forward from third-year center Yves Missi to handle big minutes inside. That leaves the roster in an awkward spot: the Pelicans have plenty of wings and guards, but not the kind of shooting that lets them stretch defenses and play a clean, modern spacing game.
That problem showed up in the numbers last season. New Orleans ranked near the bottom of the league in three-point attempts, makes, and percentage.
Trey Murphy III stands out as the one dependable perimeter threat, but beyond him, the team doesn’t have much consistent outside shooting. That puts even more pressure on the Pelicans to finish at the rim or hit midrange shots, and that’s a tough way to live when opponents can simply trade threes for twos.
Mosley now has the job of sorting through a crowded backcourt and wing rotation that includes Jordan Poole, Dejounte Murray, Herb Jones, Murphy III, Saddiq Bey, Jeremiah Fears, Micah Peavy, and others. The challenge is finding combinations that hold up on both ends.
Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars has already made one thing clear: he wants Williamson and Queen to share the floor a lot. That makes the other three spots on the court even more important in shaping whatever identity this team is going to have.
If there’s a simple answer, it starts with better shooting. Poole is coming off one of the roughest seasons of his career, shooting just 37% from the field, his lowest mark since his rookie year. Murray, meanwhile, has hit only 33% of his career three-pointers, which makes long stretches with the two of them together a shaky proposition.
There’s also a belief that Poole, and the contract attached to him, could be moved before the deadline. If that happens, it would open the door for more growth from Jeremiah Fears, who gives the Pelicans a different kind of burst.
Fears brings downhill speed, and that points toward another adjustment New Orleans may need to make: playing faster. Mosley leaned into pace more than ever with Orlando last season, when the Magic finished 14th in pace after spending the previous two years in the bottom five.
That kind of approach fits the Pelicans’ collection of ball-handlers and slashers. Mosley and his staff will need to create easier advantages on offense, because the current roster isn’t built to win with size alone.
So New Orleans is back where it’s been too often - trying to make up for a lack of interior presence by piecing together a workable offense around its guards and wings. The roster has talent. Now the staff has to turn that into a real identity before the season starts.
In Other News...
Pelicans Just Got Hit With A Brutal Long Term Reality Check
The Pelicans are staring at an unflattering stretch in Grant Hughes latest three-year power ranking for Bleacher Report, where New Orleans lands near the bottom of the league. It is the kind of check on a franchise that reminds everyone how quickly optimism can fade, especially for a team trying to balance present-day uncertainty with whatever comes next.
Still, the picture is not completely barren. New Orleans has youth on the roster, plus expiring contracts that could open up flexibility in future moves, and it also holds the rights to a draft pick from the Milwaukee Bucks. If the lottery breaks its way, that asset could become an important piece in the effort to speed up a reset the Pelicans badly need. [Read more 🡒]
Pelicans Still Have One Shooting Problem That Could Linger All Season
The Pelicans offensive picture still has one familiar blemish as the season approaches: the three-point line. New Orleans went from one of the NBAs best perimeter shooting teams in 2023/24 to a far less reliable group last season, and while Trey Murphy remains a major reason defenses have to stay honest, the roster still needs more players who can make opponents pay from deep.
Saddiq Bey, Jeremiah Fears and Herbert Jones are among the names that could help change that if they settle in quickly and start hitting early. For a team that wants more spacing around its core, the hope is that enough of those supporting pieces can give New Orleans a steadier outside threat before the issue becomes a season-long drag. [Read more 🡒]