Pelicans May Not Have the Worst Record, But They Are Having the Worst Season in the NBA

The New Orleans Pelicans are 25-54 for the season with three games left before a critical offseason. After losing eight straight, the Pelicans have guaranteed that they will finish the season with one of the eight worst records in the league. On paper, there are teams with significantly worse records than the Pelicans. In reality, however, New Orleans has had the worst season of any team in the league.

There are ten teams in the league that are out of the postseason race. Every single one of them, other than the Pelicans, has pulled the plug on their season and is tanking to maximize lottery. That means that almost a third of the league has been actively trying to lose games since mid-February.

The Pelicans stand in a completely different spot than the rest of the league. They are the only non-postseason team that owes their first-round pick outright. So, they are the only team with no incentive to tank.

As a result, the Pelicans have been trying to be as competitive as possible. They are playing their veterans significant minutes, sometimes at the expense of their young prospects. Despite this, wins have been hard to come by.

Pelicans' Inability to Crack 30 Wins Despite Not Tanking Is Embarrassing

New Orleans will finish the season with 28 wins at best. In today's NBA, trying to win as many games as possible, but not even winning 30 is almost hard to do. The Pelicans are about to accomplish that, all while losing their likely top-ten pick to the Atlanta Hawks.

If all things were equal and every team was trying to maximize their win total for the season, the Pelicans would have almost certainly finished the season below the Utah Jazz, the Memphis Grizzlies, Dallas Mavericks. Where the Pels would have ranked compared to the Wizards, Pacers, Nets, and the Kings if they were all trying until the end is up for debate.

The worst part of it all is that the Pelicans were healthier than anyone could have realistically expected this season. Zion Williamson played over 60 games. Not counting Dejounte Murray, who started the season recovering from a ruptured Achilles, no rotation player on the team missed more than 20 games other than Herb Jones.

Almost every single lottery team has a good excuse for its record. Whether it's intentional tanking or injuries, most of the non-postseason teams have a reason for being bad. They will also all have a lottery pick to show for.

The Pelicans, on the other hand, were straight-up bad. A poorly fitting roster that was worse than the sum of its parts, not helped by any individual standout performances or solid coaching. And they don't even have a lottery pick talent coming in to be excited about for the future. It's hard to come up with a more disastrous campaign than the one the Pelicans just had.