What We Leaned From the Pelicans Offseason (and What Comes Next)

The New Orleans Pelicans head into the 2026-27 NBA season with far more questions than answers. After back-to-back sub-30-win seasons, many thought this would be the summer of change within the organization. Instead, the franchise made minimal moves and seemed content to let the season play out a bit before navigating the future.

Executive vice president of basketball operations Joe Dumars spoke with NOLA.com’s Rod Walker this summer to explain why the roster's core has essentially remained unchanged since the end of last season. “We were engaged in a lot of conversations with a lot of different teams,” Dumars said. “But at the end of the day, you’ve got to make a determination if this is the right deal or not. You don’t want to make a move for the sake of making a move. It has to be right for us.”

Jamahl Mosley and the case for running it back

Many detractors would point to any move as a viable way to improve a 26-win team, but the Pelicans don’t necessarily think so.

They believe that new head coach Jamahl Mosley can inject some life into this franchise, similar to how he did when he first took the Orlando Magic job in 2021. That Magic team won 21 games before he arrived, and by his third season, the team won the division en route to three straight playoff appearances. Defense is his calling card, and the Pelicans still have plenty of room to improve there, so any improvement could translate into wins on the court.

On the surface, New Orleans has talent on their roster. From Zion Williamson to Trey Murphy III, Dejounte Murray, Herb Jones, and others, the team has talent. But injuries have decimated it over the past few years.

Williamson’s injury history is well documented; he's played more than 30 games just three times in his career. Jones has missed 88 games over the past two seasons. Murray returned last season from a ruptured Achilles tendon, and even Murphy III has battled nagging injuries over the past few seasons. The wait-and-see approach may stem from hoping the roster gets healthy enough to show what it looks like at full strength. The issue for the Pelicans is that it’s the same mindset that the previous regime let go.

Pelicans know their margin for errror is small

There is also the small-market elephant in the room. Big-time free agents don’t come to places like New Orleans, so the draft and trades are the only way to improve the roster.

The Pelicans' nucleus of Williamson, Murphy III, Jones, Jeremiah Fears, and Derik Queen are all added through the draft. At the same time, New Orleans acquired other key players like Murray, Saddiq Bey, and Jordan Poole via trade. Bennedict Mathurin was the team’s biggest offseason acquisition after he signed a two-year deal with New Orleans, but his second year is a player option that he could decline to hit the free-agent market sooner next season.

For a franchise in one of the league's smallest markets, with ownership that seems unwilling to pay into the luxury tax to be uber-competitive, each move seems to clarify the direction of the future. The Pelicans fielded much scrutiny last offseason for trading an unprotected first-round pick to move up and trade for Derik Queen. Although he seems like a great selection, a move like that from a franchise like the Pelicans could set them back for years if it backfires. That isn’t something Dumars wanted to risk this offseason. He continued in his interview with Walker.

“The lack of moves being made right now is not from a lack of effort or us deciding we didn’t want to do anything. We’ve engaged with a lot of teams this offseason. But there was just no big deal that I felt was going to make us better for us to pull the trigger on.”

What comes next for the Pelicans

What’s next is dependent on the team’s success this season.

Most likely, Poole and his $30+ million expiring contract will be moved before the deadline. Trade speculation has been rampant around Herb Jones lately, and with younger, cheaper players on the roster, that could be a viable move for a player who has likely reached his peak potential.

Mosley will get a “feel-out” year with one of the league's youngest rosters, but with a franchise also hesitant to hit the big red button, it seems the Pelicans have limited themselves to playing the financial game, regardless of what the results look like on the court.

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