New Orleans Pelicans at a CROSSROADS | Fans Unsure About Team’s Direction

New Orleans Pelicans at a CROSSROADS | Fans Unsure About Team’s Direction

Fans are middle of the road on the Pelicans. Not bad, not great, just truly mid. The team could be really good, they could also be really bad. We just don’t know yet. Let’s break it down in today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans. Let’s go. [Music] You are Locked On Pelicans, your daily New Orleans Pelicans podcast, part of the Locked Onet. your team every day. Welcome to another edition of Locked On Pelicans, the daily podcast covering your favorite team, the New Orleans Pelicans in NBA, part of the Locked On Network. Your team every day, available wherever you get your podcast and available on YouTube. I’m your host, Pelicans Insider, credential member of the media, JakeMadison, Nola Jake on Twitter. Here with you on this Wednesday. It’s the middle of the week and fans are feeling mid on this Pelicans team. We’re going to continue breaking down the fan survey that I had out for the past two weeks. I’ve got some interesting results I think on the overall direction of this team, the ceiling of this team, kind of everything around the team. This is a lot of your responses on scales of 1 to five, 1 to 10 questions here. So, we’re going to break it all down in today’s episode of Locked On Pelicans. And of course, thank you for making Lockdown Pelicans your first listen today and every day. We are here Monday through Friday, the number one Pelicans podcast, covering everything you want to know about this Pelicans team. So, please subscribe wherever you get your podcast. And join over 11,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well. And become an Everyday. That means you listen Monday through Friday to the Locked On Pelicans podcast. And if you’re an Everyday, let me know in the comments down below. And don’t forget, you can watch us every single weekday at 10:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. on the GF Coast Sports and Entertainment Network. Same place you watch your Pelicans play, which is a very cool thing to be able to say. Quick note, I’m still on vacation. This was pre-recorded over the weekend. So, if there’s any breaking news, not that I’m expecting any, we will address it. Come back on Monday. Um, when I’m back to kind of doing the shows the day before here, even I need a little bit of break. So, if there’s breaking news, maybe you’ll get a a short or something like that from from the beach here. So, it’s Wednesday. It’s the middle of the week and fans are feeling mid on the team. What does that mean exactly though? Let’s get into the fan survey results to really kind of look at some of that here. You know, across most of the survey, if a question was on a scale of 1 to five, on a scale of 1 to 10, like truthfully, y’all landed like squarely in the middle. You heard me talk about it a little bit in yesterday’s show with Zion Williamson of do you feel he can be healthy? And it was just a 2.4 out of five, right? you know. So, let’s start with one of the first questions that I asked in this survey. It was the first question. Compared to last season, do you feel the Pelicans are much better, slightly better, about the same, slightly worse, much worse? About 75% of responses said the Pelicans are about the same, slightly worse, or slightly better than last season. You know, only a quarter combined was much worse or much better. Much worse was 7.4. Much better was 14.4%. The rest of it, again, it’s about 75% basically saying they’re about the same. Slightly better is a good thing. That was 43.1% of the vote. About the same was 20.3% and slightly worse was 14.9%. But, you know, 43%, let’s call it 50% here, said, you know, slightly better or about the same, right? Those three things are pretty close in my opinion here. It just feels like you know a lot of people this feel this team is stuck. David Griffin was let go, fired, brought in Joe Dumar who has massively changed the roster, don’t get me wrong, but were these the type of moves that like truly elevate a team? And I think the answer to that is like eh probably not, right? You know, confidence in making the playoff is 2.4 four out of five. An average of 2.4 out of five. So again, right in the middle here. And then it’s continued when I asked you how many wins you thought the team was going to have this season. And the average to that number was 40.2. So we’ll round down and call it 40 wins. So they’re 40 and 42. Slightly under 500, right? Wh Why is everything kind of in the middle now? Maybe the team is just Yeah. like a mid-lean team, you know, 40 and 42 is probably enough to get you in sniffing distance of the playin tournament here. So, that kind of checks out and we’ll get into what the team ceiling is in the next segment here. But, I think a big part of the reason for why people are kind of rating this team squarely. There we go. Down the middle is there’s so much uncertainty here, right? There’s new pieces, new players. Will Zion stay healthy? you know, the rotation is going to be a little bit different right now. You know, could they exceed expectations? Yeah. Could they underperform? Also, very, very possible. That unknown, I think, is pushing people to respond in the middle because you truly don’t know. One of the questions that I asked, I actually kind of loved all I loved all the responses to all of this truthfully. You know, when I said, “What excites you the most about this season other than Trey Murphy?” Like the number one thing was like the uncertainty. We’re literally there’s I just was scrolling at all the answers. The unknown, the uncertainty, right? Like nobody knows exactly what this team is going to be. National media thinks they’re going to be something. We’ve talked about that last week on the show responding to ESPN’s, you know, uh projections in NBA offseason stuff, you know, but so many people responded like, “I don’t know what’s going to happen.” So, one that is kind of exciting like when you don’t know good or bad, it’s going to be interesting. There’s definitely that for certain, right? Here’s another response. The uncertainty here. Um, another one. The uncertainty like that was like a a very big theme coming out in all of this that like maybe, you know, playing without any pressure or expectations. There’s kind of like an uncertainty to that like response as well here. You know, no one exactly knows what the team’s going to be. We talked about this for those who listened to yesterday’s show about Zion Williamson the everyday here you know know that if people think if he plays 65 plus games this team can be very good over a third pick that they could win a first round series and lose in the second round. You know their range of outcomes for this year is like probably the widest of any team. You know, that’s why I’ve said like I I don’t know if they’re going to be as bad as people want to make them out to be. And that’s why maybe it’s okay of trading for Derrick Queen and giving up a unprotected first round pick next year if you know you think they’re going to be good. If they make the playoffs, you’re kind of justified in that deal all of a sudden. I think so. That’s what makes this kind of interesting. And I think you’re seeing, you know, that uncertainty in this kind of really reflected in the survey results. It goes to something that I’ve been talking about a lot that we’ll get into a little bit more later in the show of, you know, the Pelicans aren’t stuck in my opinion. They just haven’t picked a path. Whether that’s the path to being really good or the path to being really bad and going through a rebuild, they haven’t made that yet. They’re not just stuck and torn between things. They’re waiting for the right time to make the decision. That to me is smart, but it does kind of mean we don’t know what they’re going to pick just yet, right? And that’s what kind is kind of interesting here. You know, some of the quotes from y’all the fans here said, you know, quote, “I like the new guys, but it feels like the same team, not worse, not better, right?” I think a lot of people are quitting Jordan Pool a, you know, basically kind of being equal to CJ McCullum or like, you know, a slight upgrade, let’s say, even if it’s not significant. And so, that’s not the kind of move that makes you look at it and go like, “Oh, yeah, there’s a difference maker there.” Pool has a bunch of fans, so I know y’all think he’s going to be a differencemaker, but I’m responding to couple hundred responses here when it comes to all this. Looking at, let me pull up the questions about Jordan Pool here. I don’t know where where it just went. How do you feel about the Pelicans inquiring Jordan Pool? 46.5% said somewhat positive. 16.3% said neutral. Um, no one said somewhat. A few people said somewhat negative. Some people said very negative. That’s a combined 8 1/2% and then about 28.7% said very positive. But the majority there is somewhat positive, right? Like it’s not a paradigm shifting move. You know, someone else said, “I’m cautiously optimistic, but I don’t expect miracles.” Another one said, quote, “We could be really good, we could be really bad. I just don’t know yet.” And that uncertainty, I think, is feeding into why people are kind of projecting the Pelicans right here down the middle. But let’s talk ceiling, right? You know, a few fans are either extreme optimists or pessimists, but overwhelming the mood is just mid. And that mid midness reflects kind of everything. But it it ties into the ceiling, too. Let’s talk about that. That’s coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked On Pelicans. 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So, let’s talk the midness ceiling here of this team. 50% sorry 57% think the Pelicans peak this season is the play in tournament or a firstround exit right like that’s not a title contender that’s a team with potential but very limited expectations right some anecdotes echo that kind of cautious tone here from the survey we’ve got talent but I don’t see enough firepower to go deep I’d be happy just sneaking into the playoffs that’s probably realistic I think the team can uh can surprise, but don’t expect anything beyond round one. Like that’s a group that feels there’s something to this team without the expectations being high, right? And I even think that that other one here of I think this team can surprise, but I don’t expect anything beyond the first round is really like in response to expect, you know, the outside expectations the national media put on. You know, you just saw it on ESPN’s projections. They projected 26 wins, right? 26 and 56. It’s not a good number whatsoever. So, if you can get into the playoffs, like that’s a surprise in my opinion. Then, you know, people are just feeling that there wasn’t a lot of change, enough turnover with everything to truly kind of elevate this team. You know, whether it was them trying to kind of fix their salary cap, which they’ve not quite done, you know, maybe it’s just there’s not a lot of faith. If you listen to the Zion Williamson show one, go listen to that if you haven’t. Right. In terms of his health out of one through five, 2.4. There’s just not a lot of confidence in this team that there is something like special here. They might be look non-special teams make the playoffs all the time. That’s a normal thing here. And I think that’s what a lot of people kind of feel about this franchise where they are right now. that might be good enough to get into the postseason, but there’s not like a title contender lurking here or anything along those lines. You know, when you look in the question of like what is your confidence in the overall direction of the franchise right now, it’s also a 2.4 out of five. Like literally everything was coming down the middle. Fans like like the direction of the team slightly, but just aren’t fully sold. Even with, you know, the changes the front office made with this roster, right? you know, there’s that sense of uncertainty like maybe, you know, and I so I think people are kind of tempering their expectations when it comes down to it. Like it’s truly just a mid feeling on this franchise here when it comes down to everything, right? Like when you look at it in terms of, you know, the question of how confident are you in the team’s overall depth compared to other Western Conference teams? One through five, what do you think the average was? 2.4, four, right? Like that’s that’s crazy here to see. Sorry. The overall direction of the franchise was a 1 through 10. 4 and a half is what the average was when it comes to it. You know, it’s kind of crazy to see like how middle of the road like virtually everything is when it comes down to to everything. Like even to stuff with like the game day experience and ownership and things like that. It’s like truly a like bizarre bizarre thing. Look, I’ll preview something that we’ll talk about on Friday. On a scale of 1 to 10, how do you feel about the Derrick Queen trade? Average was 4.68. So like 4.7. You know, again, everything is right in the middle. And I think it has to do with that uncertainty. Another question for Friday. How confident are you uh in Joe Dumar’s? 2.6 out of five. So it’s a little bit higher there, which is interesting to see. But in general, you’re looking at things kind of just squarely down the middle with this franchise here. You know, no one’s really projecting them to be, you know, a major playoff contender or things like that. And when you look at the kind of the ceiling from it, you know, that’s what’s kind of disappointing. You want to see a high ceiling when it comes down to it, but you’re also not really getting that. Where did the playoff question go? What do you think the Pelicans ceiling is this season? Right. First round exit was 32.2%. The play in tournament was 26.2%. You know, ceiling being again the highest that you can achieve. Second round exit was 29.2% but basically 50% more than 50%. Is saying playing tournament or first round exit. So either losing in the fir you know in the playing tournament or losing in the first round. That’s where people kind of view this team. Now, here’s the thing about that that I find kind of interesting. That’s arguably the worst place to be in the NBA, especially for the Pelicans, say this this year, maybe not. There there’s this purgatory, this no man’s land, particularly with, you know, standings now in the playing tournament of, you know, where you’re you’re getting to the playing tournament, but say either making it into the playoffs or losing in the playin tournament every single year. That means your draft pick is going to fall somewhere in the like 12 to 16 range. So, you know, your lottery pick before the projected like jump and stuff like that. You know, that’s not great. If you look at the star players and where they’re drafted, they’re predominantly in the top five. There’s some outliers, don’t get me wrong, but normally those guys are going in the top five. So if you’re picking 12 every single year, it sounds nice, but that’s not usually enough to get kind of like the differencemaking kind of player that you need. And so then you’re stuck being kind of a mid team. The Chicago Bulls are like the perfect example of this over the past couple of years. This is a team that just is kind of there, right? Like that’s where they are. They’re not picking high or anything like that year after year if they even if they own their own first round pick or something like that. They picked 12 in this draft, right? Um they picked who was it in 2024. Where were the Bulls? 11. I’m going through all the all the old things. 2023, the Victor Wimyama draft. Where were the Bulls? Bulls didn’t have a first round pick in that draft. That was probably from one of the trades, right? Like you see that and they’re always a team that’s like barely at 500 squeaking into the playin tournament and losing or losing in the first round and they have no direction. We rightly rip them for not having a direction. Their direction is let’s get like a couple of extra home games of playoffs, make some money and just never like bottom out to kind of do what you almost need to do to kind of go through a rebuild and get that kind of cornerstone player. The Pelicans don’t need to do that. If you have Zion Williamson who’s healthy, he’s a cornerstone guy. Can be when he’s healthy. We discussed it yesterday. Monday, we discussed Trey Murphy can be that guy in the face of the franchise, too. So, this doesn’t matter as much for the Pelicans because they kind of have those blue chip players, whether it’s Derek Queen, Jeremiah Fears, who they feel fit that bill as well. You have those guys, but being kind of like a perpetual playin first round exit team is not a great spot to be in. And look, if Jeremiah Fears doesn’t pan out, if you know, you trade Zion or he stays injured, whatever, like that’s where this becomes a problem and eventually you just can’t kind of keep doing like middle of the road anymore. And so that’s not a great thing for New Orleans to try and be. So there’s kind of that sense of like you get stuck, you stagnate. I don’t think the team’s there right now. They could be that, but I don’t think they’re there right now. And I do think that is an important distinction, but I get why people feel that way. And it is worth acknowledging you don’t want to be there in the first place. So let’s talk about where like this team is and kind of what this like mid feeling truly means. That’s coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked On Pelicans. And thank you for making Locked On Pelicans your first listen today and every day. We are here Monday through Friday, the number one Pelicans podcast covering everything you want to know about this Pelicans team. So, please subscribe wherever you get your podcast and join over 11,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well and become an everydayer. That means you listen Monday through Friday to the Locked On Pelicans podcast. And if you’re an everydayer, let me know in the comments down below. And look, I just appreciate you listening whenever you tune in to Locked on Pelicans. Um, but shout out the everyday. Shout out the international crowd as well. And just everyone for tuning in to Locked on Pelgans for your second listen. It’s Locked on NBA seven days a week, twice a day actually on the Locked on NBA podcast. I’m on there every Friday. We’re covering Euro Basket and all the biggest stories around the association right now. Make Lockdown NBA your second listen today. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. So, everyone’s just feeling kind of mid on the team here, you know? Let’s talk about what that means a little bit. Right? As I said in going back to the beginning, I think there is a sense of uncertainty around the team. You have a new regime coming in in Joe Dumar’s changing the front office, changing some of the roster, but some pieces not being changed just yet. We’ll talk more about Willie Green in tomorrow’s show and on Friday as well. But, you know, it takes time to just do a whole overall o overhaul of the franchise. And I think, you know, if that’s what Joe Dumar is planning on doing, you know, that usually takes a season or two to try and kind of get to that point. So, I do think that is worth keeping in mind when looking at this team, right? And truthfully, you know, we mentioned the Joe Dumar’s like how much confidence do you have in him one through five and it was a 2.6. So, it’s a little bit higher there, right? Like there is something to that. You know, when I asked what excites you most about the season for the ride in answers. Looking at one response right now that was new front office, like they’re at least kind of going in a slightly different direction than they were before. That’s something they just haven’t veered into, you know, they haven’t pulled the wheel to go down that path fully yet. They’re still trying to decide and are at a bit of a crossroads. One of the options uh for what excites you most about the season was listening to Locked On Pelicans. So shout out that person is really nice um for everything right you know so that unknown is there but there is also just a feeling of okay it’s going to be different and that’s good right here’s another one Joe Joe Dumar’s being a straight shooter and not a politician is what excites that person the most about this upcoming season I think you know there’s one that says just a fresh start after all the injuries last season right a slight different direction to kind of change the narrative around the franchise was needed and people are kind of seeing that but again what is you know when you say the new direction what exactly is the new direction because based on where it stands right now as of now seems like it’s about the same again is the roster better or worse than a season ago and everyone’s like it’s kind of the same maybe slightly better maybe slightly worse but not like much better not much worse or anything like that so that feeling is is kind of existing and it’s going to exist until the Pelicans pick a path Right. They’re doing the two timelines approach as of just just for this moment, but they won’t be doing two timelines hopefully the whole season because then I think you do neither of them well, right? You know, maybe they just need to develop young guys. And if you see them kind of going all in in the development of Jeremiah Fears and Derek Queen and those guys playing well, you start to feel maybe better about the direction of the team because the future of the team is going to be in those guys’ hands when it comes to it. Maybe Zion’s healthy, looks incredible, and the team kind of is like, “Let’s go make a big move and add something to this.” You know, they they still have the ability to do so. And if they do that, you’re going to look at this team and be like, “Oh, wow. Zion’s him again.” You know, 51% of y’all still believe he can be a franchise cornerstone. So there is like once they pick the path, I think these type of questions that are coming in right in the middle start to skew more one way or another. If you believe, you know, if they kind of go to Jeremiah Fears and Derek Queen as the future and start prioritizing development and you feel those guys are going to be good, you’re going to be like, I like where this team is headed. I feel good about the future of this franchise. You know, if Zion’s coming in and lighting it up, you’re going to be like, you know what? I feel good about the playoffs here. I feel good about him as kind of the franchise cornerstone and building around him. And then it’s going to impact how you feel about Joe Dumires. And these questions, if we were to ask this in a year, a year from now, I think will look very, very different once we kind of just, you know, everything’s hypothetical right now. Jordan P being the big addition here to the squad or one of them, you know, how’s he has potential to very fit insanely well next to Zion Webs. truly does, you know, but we’ve got to see it in action, right? Will Trey take that leap that we’re hoping for? It’s just as as we talked about in the beginning, so many unknowns with this franchise currently that it’s tough to like get a read on it, right? I would have done the same thing of like kind of shooting down the middle if I were answering these questions for everything. I, you know, they could be good. They really could be. They also e easily could not be good. And until we kind of have a a better answer to that question, yeah, everything’s going to kind of be in the middle. This team’s going to kind of feel mid and maybe feel stuck. But like I said, I I don’t think they are stuck. So while fans are mid on the team, mid on the ceiling, mid on the direction, do I sound hip by saying mid, you know, once that uncertainty starts to fade away, which will start to happen once we see them play games, then things change a little bit, right? And then all of a sudden it’s not about them being kind of in the middle. They have a direction and we can start looking at that and kind of evaluating them based on the path that they want to go down rather than the two timelines approach and like how do you evaluate this one or how do you evaluate this one the other one if they’re not fully committed to anything like that. So they it feels like they’re stuck even though I don’t actually think they’re stuck and I think they’re just waiting to choose. Do you agree? Do you disagree with that? Let me know in the comments down below on YouTube. So, that’s going to do it for this episode of Locked on Pelicans the show. Tomorrow, we are going to look at ownership, arena, Willie Green, a number of other things here too, comparing kind of everything. It’s going to be a really interesting episode. Make sure you tune in to Locked On Pelicans tomorrow. But that’s going to do it for this episode of Locked On Pelicans. As always, I’m your host Jake Madison, Nola Jake on Twitter. This is the Lockdown Pelicans podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, I appreciate y’all so much for listening and I’ll be back with you all tomorrow.

Are New Orleans Pelicans fans stuck in NBA purgatory? Recent survey results reveal a surprising “mid” sentiment among the fanbase.

Jake Madison breaks down the data, exploring why 75% of fans see the team as only slightly better or worse than last season. The discussion covers middling expectations for the upcoming season, including a projected 40.2 win average and tempered playoff hopes. Madison analyzes the implications of being a perpetual play-in contender and examines the uncertainty surrounding Zion Williamson’s health and Joe Dumars’ front office decisions.

Tune in for an in-depth look at the Pelicans’ current standing and potential paths forward in a competitive Western Conference.

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