The New Orleans Pelicans will once again have Zion Williamson at the center of the conversation, but the more interesting development might be what happens behind him. As Williamson tries to pull the franchise out of another rough stretch, the Pelicans need someone else to stabilize the middle. Yves Missi has a real chance to be that guy.
Missi’s first season in New Orleans showed why the Pelicans liked him enough to take him with the 21st overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. The Cameroonian center flashed a raw but promising game and finished his rookie year with NBA All-Rookie Second Team honors.
Then came the downturn. In his second season, his minutes, points, rebounds and starts all dropped.
Part of that had to do with how New Orleans chose to build lineups. After selecting Derik Queen in the first round, the Pelicans leaned into a bunch of small-ball looks with Queen, Williamson and/or Saddiq Bey. Those groups made life miserable on the defensive end, especially around the rim.
The results were ugly. New Orleans allowed 53.1 opponent points in the paint, which ranked 25th-worst in the league.
The trouble didn’t stop there, either. Opponents grabbed offensive rebounds against the Pelicans nearly 30% of the time.
That kind of interior leakage was hard to ignore, and it was clearly a problem the team needed to solve over the summer.
Instead, the offseason stayed pretty quiet. The Pelicans brought back now-37-year-old DeAndre Jordan on a surprising two-year deal and picked up the team option on former second-rounder Karlo Matkovic. Their biggest addition, Bennedict Mathurin, gives them another wing, but not one that changes the team’s rebounding or rim protection picture.
That leaves Missi as the lone true big on the roster, and that should put him in line for meaningful minutes under new head coach Jamahl Mosley. Mosley comes from a background that suggests he won’t shy away from playing bigger.
In Orlando, he regularly leaned on Wendell Carter Jr. and gave him heavy minutes. Carter Jr. is built more like a classic center, at around 270 pounds, and Mosley still pushed against the league’s small-ball drift by keeping him on the floor for nearly 30 minutes a night.
Missi probably won’t reach that number, but he should climb well beyond the 19.7 minutes per game he logged last season. The Pelicans need him to help firm up the interior, and they also need the kind of easy scoring he can provide as a lob threat.
There’s reason to think that part could take off. Missi led the team in pick-and-roll percentages last season among players who appeared in more than 22 games, rolling on 17.3% of his possessions even without a veteran lead guard.
Now he’ll have Dejounte Murray, who returned from a ruptured Achilles tendon injury last season and appears fully healthy. Murray’s ability to create in the pick-and-roll should give Missi a much better stream of clean looks at the rim.
That connection could matter on both ends. If Murray can keep feeding him, Missi has a path to becoming more than just a body in the paint. He’s got a chance to make a real impact, earn more time, and show that his game belongs at the next level.
Like a lot of young players, Missi’s first two seasons have come with both progress and setbacks. The difference now is opportunity. This season gives him a genuine opening to break through and prove he can be a starting-caliber center in the NBA.
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Rumors around Michael Porter Jr. have been easy for Pelicans fans to latch onto, especially with New Orleans always looking for ways to add more scoring punch around its core. But the latest read on the situation suggests Brooklyn has little interest in moving him right now, and that makes the chatter more wishful than realistic at this stage.
The Nets are trying to win next season, Porter Jr. is viewed as a key part of that effort, and his one-year contract only adds to the sense that Brooklyn will want to see where this goes before entertaining anything dramatic. For New Orleans, the more relevant takeaway may be that the front office seems content with the roster it has built, even if a different picture could emerge closer to the deadline if circumstances shift. [Read more 🡒]
Yves Missi Is Suddenly Putting Real Pressure On Pelicans Centers
Yves Missi spent the summer making his case far from New Orleans, and the Pelicans have clearly taken notice. While competing for Cameroon in the FIBA Basketball World Cup African Qualifiers, the young center helped push his national team to a 7-2 record and emerged as one of the most productive players in the second round, averaging 18.0 points, 11 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game.
For a Pelicans team still sorting out its frontcourt rotation, that kind of showing matters. The organization highlighted Missis performance on social media and continues to view him as a legitimate candidate for the starting center job, with his development and potential role now under review ahead of training camp. The questions around him are no longer just about upside, but how quickly that upside can turn into a real opening in New Orleans. [Read more 🡒]