The New Orleans Pelicans have spent the offseason making noise by not making noise at all.
While other teams around the NBA have been busy reshaping their rosters, New Orleans has stayed put after finishing 30 games under .500. That silence would be easier to understand if the Pelicans were sitting on a deep stash of young talent, but that’s not the reality here. They do have Derick Queen and Jeremiah's Fears, yet beyond those two, the roster is light on high-end lottery talent and heavy on a mix of random veterans.
There is still some name value on the roster. Zion Williamson remains the headliner, and Trey Murphy III is there too.
But Williamson comes with the obvious injury risk, and Murphy III has also been mentioned as a possible trade chip. The whole thing has started to look less like a team building toward something and more like a club drifting without a real plan.
That lack of direction matters even more because of how the NBA draft lottery now works. The Pelicans are one of the worst teams in the West, but they can’t afford to be one of the three worst teams in the league.
Under the current lottery setup, finishing that low doesn’t help - it hurts. So the target should be somewhere in the four-to-11 range in the NBA standings, which is at least attainable given how little they’ve done this summer, even if it’s far from guaranteed.
The biggest issue is that New Orleans doesn’t seem to have a coherent path forward. The team was shopping Murphy III, but reportedly wanted at least three first-round picks in return.
That price tag was never likely to get a deal done. Strong teams aren’t handing out three first-rounders for him, and weaker teams have no reason to make that kind of move.
Williamson’s market, meanwhile, appears to be empty. He did manage to play 54 straight games at one point last season, which at least showed he can stay on the floor for a stretch. But his production is down from his peak, and that has dragged his trade value with it.
So the Pelicans are left in a tough spot: unable to move their two best players, unwilling to make meaningful additions, and still searching for a direction. Right now, they look stuck.
In Other News...
Pelicans Add Big Man With Real Questions Around Final Roster Battle
Christian Koloko is getting another NBA look in New Orleans, with the Pelicans agreeing to a one-year deal with the 2022 draft pick as he tries to carve out a place on the roster. After bouncing through multiple stops last season, the 7-footer now enters camp with a chance to show he can still provide size and rim protection, even as the team continues sorting through the back end of its big-man depth chart.
The path to a spot is not simple. Koloko is no longer eligible for a two-way contract because of his NBA service time, so this is essentially a camp invitation with real stakes attached, and he will have to beat out other non-guaranteed options while New Orleans already has most of its standard roster set. For a player whose career has already taken a winding route, this is another chance to prove there is still a place for him when the final decisions get made. [Read more 🡒]
Pelicans Linked To A Guard Swing Fans Will Instantly Debate
Bennedict Mathurin has already shown why he would be an easy sell for a team looking to add another scoring guard, and New Orleans has apparently been in that conversation before. Marc Stein reported the Pelicans were the club with the strongest trade interest in Mathurin at last years deadline, a note that fits with the way the roster has been built around finding more shot creation and perimeter juice.
The appeal is obvious enough that fans can picture the basketball fit right away, but the path to getting him would not be simple. Any serious pursuit would likely require New Orleans to piece together salaries from other moves or work through a sign-and-trade setup, and the debate is only sharper because a move like that would overlap with what Jordan Poole and Jordan Hawkins already bring to the guard rotation. [Read more 🡒]