NBA Fantasy Basketball | New Orleans Pelicans Season Preview 2025-26 | Zion SZN?

NBA Fantasy Basketball | New Orleans Pelicans Season Preview 2025-26 | Zion SZN?

I started today’s research on the New Orleans Pelicans, looking them up and seeing how bad they were last year. Uh 21 and 61. Surely there’s some improvements. Let’s see how we can target that for fantasy. [Music] I lied, Flanders. You said pre-show, you’re like, “Surely they can’t be this bad.” But 21 and 61 last year, the New Orleans Pelicans. Um, flamboyance aside, they were pretty bad at basketball last year. Um, what are you expecting from them this year? Uh, not much more. I think they they were [ __ ] last year, they’re going to be [ __ ] again this year. I’m just hoping for less [ __ ] is probably the the biggest upside here we’ve got. Yeah. And I think sometimes bad basketball teams can relay to some fantasy gold. And I’m pretty excited for maybe some minus one stats for some of their guys. maybe some minus two stats to properly get, you know, Jordan P um has come over to this team. Um you know, you start to see CJ McCullum, I suppose, the CJ McCullum era leave. Uh we’ve got to wait a little bit for Dejante Murray and we’ve got to pray and hope that Zion Wilson is healthy. Uh but Murphy’s a great option, too, as well. We just mentioned a heap of [ __ ] huge names, didn’t we? on a team that we’re not expecting to go that well at basketball, right? Yeah, exactly. They’re great individuals, but as a team, they just seem to not gel and and just not be able to make something work here. You’ve got names Trey Murphy, Zion, Jordan P, Herb Jones, DeJ, the Jonte Murray. How does that not work? And it just doesn’t cuz they’re just crap together. Yeah. Um, look, I get it. I’m I’m pretty excited to I suppose unpack this for fantasy. Um look, the big signing was Jordan Pool and they did have a uh a really high draft pick in which they drafted a Derek Queen which isn’t expected to start the season. Um he’s going to be a little bit off. Uh he’s somebody for me that I am going to be blackbooking. I don’t know if you’re a punter, but um but Sports Bet have a little blackbook and Derek Queen would be in mind when it come to fantasy and probably a Jeremiah Fears as well. Uh but the second that they went for Jordan Pool, I started to see Jeremiah Fears value sort of drop a little bit. Yeah, for sure. I think, you know, you’re not going to bring in Jordan Pool to run him off the bench. I think he got out of Golden State for that as well. He he was at Washington. He’s enjoyed his time there and I think he’s realistically just swapped with CJ a bit here. Um it’s low percentage, big counting stats, usage is up there. Um I think Jordan Paul’s usage is going to be a bit of an interesting one if you end up hunting field goal with your earlier picks here. He’s a great option to bring here. Counting stats are high. This guy, his usage doesn’t m like his usage was higher than what CJ’s was, but yeah. I I still think he’s a great option, say a fourth round if you’re punting for your goals. Also playing for Washington, which is one of the teams that were worse than New Orleans. Um, look, we’ve got lots of I suppose uh tools that we can use and Jordan P being the 72nd overall player, you’re like, cool, that’s fine. But if you take away field goal percentage, he was the 39th highest ranked player. Um, and 19.2 two points, uh, nearly three threes, four and a half assists, which I think he might get some better assists, if only because some of the guys on this team might make shots a little bit better than they did in Washington. Um, still gets a steal. The way that he gets steals is a little bit like James Harden gets steals. Not the best defender, but not too bad like in the passing lane, uh, getting steals off ball. like he’s not going to be a lockdown defender and get his steals that way. But Jordan P, I fully expect him to be the starting point guard to to start the year. And in 72 games last year, he was one of those guys that burnt you really on really early on in the year, but he was pretty good by the end of the year. Yeah. Yeah, he he was pretty good. I was I’d be pretty happy with him. He put like he shoots well from the line. Uh his three-point makes were good. assists were up there again. He sort of fumbles his way into some steals. Uh it’s typical guard stuff. It’s field goal percentage and it’s turnovers. Other than that, from a fantasy point of view, he he’s a guard. He’s a he’s a good solid guard that you can pick up in, you know, those third, fourth, fifth rounds. But I have no complaints about this guy really. And I’ve kind of seen him be going in the fifth round. And I’m just not sure you see too many guys that 20 points per game, three points, um, over a steel, like could get close to five assists if you believe in the little bit of a bump changing teams. Like he is a guy that I will be targeting. But I just think when I play fantasy basketball with a lot of guys, I just think that a lot of people have drawn a line through this guys this guy because they’ve been hurt before. I think Jordan Pool could be a little bit of a sleeper because of that. Yeah, he has his moments and I think you can’t discount him because of that. He does have those really really good moments and you you ride those highs and I think without uh Dejonte Murray for the start of the year, he’s going to ride that high and I think some early sort of stardom for him. He he can hopefully hold that. So, we just had a great discussion on Jordan P. Uh obviously the point guard. easy when you’re talking about uh basketball teams to start at the top. Uh but the best player in fantasy basketball for this team was Trey Murphy last year. Um he was the 27th ranked player and I genuinely think that I genuinely sorry know that he was the 27th ranked player because he doesn’t hurt you in any categories whatsoever. Um he’s currently on ESPN getting drafted at 75, 49 on fan tracks, 44 on Yahoo, which is a blend between all of them of 56 for the guy that was the 27th ranked player last last year. Just because New Orleans aren’t that well known, I think that you can get some really good value out of Trey Murphy. to put it into perspective and I love upside. Um, somebody like Zion Williamson has been drafted above Trey Murphy, but Trey Murphy showed on a per game basis that he was better for your fantasy team than Zion. Yep. Yeah. If I had the choice of Trey Murphy or Zion, I’m taking Trey Murphy every day of the week on that. He He’s going to play like he’s going to play more games than Zion. We’ll get to that later on. Um, but he’s not going to hurt you as bad as Zion will. Um, his like probably the biggest thing I’ve had to look at, look into his numbers, his jumper is broken. He shot 37% on jump shots last year. So that jump shot is broken. The layups and the dunks save him there on his on his field goal percentage to give him to 45 and 37% on jumpers is just shocking. But if the good news is though, surely from 37% you can only get better, can’t you? Like you can’t shoot worse than 37% on jumpers. So I he could go up from 45%. And he does play 35 minutes per game. So he does always have that opportunity. And maybe that’s why stats sneak up on you. Like you have a look, he was the guy that played the most for the New Orleans Pelicans last year in that 34.5 minutes per game. Like Zion when he’s healthy plays 30. Herb Jones, who I’m again excited about. I think that there could be some value 31.5. De Jante only played 28 in his games that he played like yeah look I do think that Trey Murphy offers offers an opportunity to I suppose really good fantasy heads. You’re not going out there and buying a Trey Murphy jersey, which you know, there’s so many people ranked in the top 30 that I would say 50 people in Australia have their jerseys or more. Trey Murphy, there’s probably four. Yeah. Yeah. It’s one of those things. He’s not a name. He’s not the name that you’re going to sit here and grab. And like the home leagues, he is going to be a draft steel. I have no doubt. Cuz home league guys aren’t going to want him. they’re going to want. They’ll take Zion O over him because it’s Zion Williams and I have him in my team. I don’t have Trey Murphy. So, that is a great steal there. If you’re playing in some of your more uh expert leagues and you got some guys that are really switched on and do a lot of this, then you know, you not going to be as big of a steal. But, I still reckon there’s better upside here with with him over a lot of other names that sit around there. Mate, let’s let’s skip the small forward position because I’m excited about that as well. Uh and just have a chat about Zion. um pretty consistently getting taken in the in the 50s and I get it. He was the 64th ranked player last year. Um he is a polarizing character. Shoots at 55% but then you’ve got to punt your free throws cuz he shoots that at 65%. How you can score from the field at 55% and not be able to make a free throw I won’t work out but that’s a discussion for another day. um only made.1. So let’s put that into perspective. He only made a three in one in every 10 games. Um has a really high turnover. So I feel like Zion is perfect in the right build. And when you’re talking about Philly, for example, you’re like if Embiid plays 50 games, you’re cool with taking him. Well, Zion played 49 games last year, so I do think that he is a guy that you could take, but you have to be so careful with punting free throws. Maybe not punting threes just as well as you’ve got them elsewhere, but punting turnovers as well. Like Zion’s a guy for a very specific build. Yeah, that’s the thing. I can’t believe some of like I haven’t looked at our draft boards here and I think uh Mellie’s incredibly high on him and I’ll leave him sit where he is there and a lot of us have got him sort of sitting in the 50s. Mellie’s got him significantly higher than that and I’ve got him significantly lower in the 70s there. But I can’t see like how are we going to how are guys going to take this guy top 40, top 50 like he’s not going to play which is going to be the biggest problem. He’s proven he can’t really stay healthy. Even in a game like in 23 24 he played 70 games he was ranked 75th. Like his points really weren’t that different. Nothing else is that different. He hasn’t changed over the years and changed the way he plays. He’s no more dynamic. And even on his best time he was 75th when he played 70 games. I feel like he’s a polarizing character which is why he gets taken. And I am willing to take him in the 50s, but I have to already have a guy that’s awful at free throw percentage. I feel like getting a guy that’s awful in turnovers is relatively easy because we’re picking guys at high usage. I usually ignore turnovers, but like if you’re in the first couple rounds taking, you know, blosser taking guys that you expect to get three three point makes per game, it does get really hard to even find value in Zion Williamson. And I think that look, I’m never going to talk you out of taking a guy that you’re super high on for all our listeners, but knowing that he’s dog [ __ ] at free throws, dog [ __ ] at three points maids, and he’s going to turn the ball over due to that high usage and why he scores 24 points per game is something that you just need to take into account. I think a Trey Murphy who’s getting taken around the same spot, 22 points per game, 3.23 points, um 86 from the uh from the line, will get as many steals as Zion. We’ll get a few less assists, but a few less turnovers is a better option. And if you can leave anything from this podcast is probably maybe that everybody’s sleeping on Trey Murphy and Zion Williamson’s a big name that you should probably let go through to the keeper. Zion’s a name and you can’t buy into anything else other than the Zion name really. Uh I have accepted the fact of where I have him on my draft board. I will not own Zion Williamson in any of my various leagues this year and I am 100% okay with that. I’m with you. Let’s go back to small forward because this is a guy that I have found myself taking in in a lot of drafts. Um Herb Jones 132 on Yach who 134 on ESPN and 117 on fan tracks. I do think like fan tracks when it comes to Mox has a lot of experts in. So that is the one that I do get a little bit hung up on. But Herb Jones last year like as an as a ranking was the 93rd overall player. It makes no sense apart from the fact that nobody watches the Pelicans play basketball. I would go out there and say that if we’re Australians, if you’re looking at KO, if you’re in America and you’re looking at ESPN and everything, New Orleans aren’t going to play a lot of games. He was the 93rd overall player last year. Doesn’t score a lot of points, which isn’t sexy, but when you get steals, when you get blocks, when you get assists, when you can get rebounds, when you shoot the free throw percentage, well, he is a guy that you can take at 100 to 110 and he doesn’t hurt you anywhere and could just be that stagnant piece in your fantasy team to help you win your league. Yeah, I think the value for this guy and I think it’s not going to be the same comparison or it well could be, but this guy’s got a two plus steel game like steel season coming ahead of him for like you can’t not. It’s we seen the same with Dyson last year. He ended up going at three which was just unheard of. You know, the records that that set was outrageous. But this guy’s going to be a sleeper. He ranked 76 in 23 24 and now this guy’s fallen into the 120s, 130s, 140s. Like this guy at 100 is value. This guy at 90 is probably where I’d be wanting to grab him. And like last year he shot poorly at 43%. If he can get himself back to the 47 to 50% that he was at, bringing the steals up, which I expect him to come up with, you know, some good minutes into him now. I I see this guy being, you know, a 75 guy potentially. Yeah. And it’s honestly only because it’s not sexy, right? Yeah. It’s not sexy. And he played 20 games last year. He wasn’t sitting. Anyone who played last year didn’t look around and go, “Oh, I’ve had her. How good was Herb Jones?” Because they only had him for 20 games last year. You either had him and got burnt or you didn’t care about him because he didn’t play. Yeah, I do think that that presents value. Um, let’s have a chat about the center position before I really start to target into um, Dante, which is the elephant in the room being the being the real point guard on this team and being injured. I don’t know how you feel about this. I haven’t talked to you about it before, but they’ve signed Cavon Looney. Um, I think Derek Queen’s a little bit better power forward than he would be center from what I’ve seen from I mean I’m looking at draft tapes and you know a couple of things like that. I’m looking at VZ Missy thinking that he could be the starting center to start the year. Uh, unless they decide to go with the old head of Looney. I’m not very excited about drafting him. I don’t think I will draft him, but I do think that he will be the starting center. Uh, and he’s not going to hurt you. The thing is with these offensive weapons and like Jordan Pool is going to demand so much usage, the only thing I can see somebody like Missy doing is getting 10 rebounds per game, just picking up the scraps, right? Yeah. Uh, that’s the biggest thing. like he’s not a name I’m even going to consider. I might try stream some boards with him. It’s about it. He’s going to punish my free throws, punish my three-point makes, but if I’m streaming say a three-point make and a board guy, he’s going to be a board guy that I’ll look at, but that’s about it. And and the blocks quite nice. 1.3, he did 27 minutes a game last year. Played 73 games. He’s great for deeper leagues, but other than that, I’m I think he’s going to be the starter. Um, I think come maybe later in the year, uh, I reckon we’ll probably see Derek Queen roll into that lineup a bit. And I think, as we said, the Pelicans going to be [ __ ] So, they’re going to try something and you get a high draft pick in Derek Queen. You bring him in. Why not try him? Bring him in, give him some starting starting minutes in Feb, March, see what goes on there. They might run both of them for all we know. Look, to be honest, like we’re talking about Derek Queen as a high draft pick. They took Jer Jeremiah fears a lot higher, but I just don’t see a pathway for him to be a super fantasy relevant player. Unless you think like Zion plays the center. Like every time that Zion hits the floor, he’s going to be playing 30 minutes per game, right? Um Trey Murphy, Herb Jones, unless there’s a big injury, I think that he is going to be they both of them are going to be 30 minute per guy minute guys. Like I really need to see some injuries before I see a pathway for Jeremiah fears to be Yeah. Yeah. even an option. Yeah. But he he’s stuck behind Paul Murray and then it’s him coming at the point guard. Look at the two guard options they’ve got. Freddy Murphy could probably run it. Herb Jones through there as well. Like they’re not, you know, the best options you’ve got, but it’s still going to limit Fier’s options. Jose Alvarado still floats around and that guy just loves robbing everybody of minutes when he really probably shouldn’t. They have these guys that float around. He He robs the offensive team, too. He does get those steals. So, yeah. Oh, exactly. And that’s he he brings something. So, he just robs people of stuff. So, I think as much as Jeremiah fears is the great upside, I just don’t love where he sits in the depth chart for this. Um, he’s a great stash and dynasty, but we’re not playing that here. We’re playing reddraft. I would be Yeah, I not this year for me, I don’t think. Not with the inclusion of Paul. And I get drafting Jeremiah fears at the seven. Uh, I think that he was probably the seventh best player when they go to go to get it. But when push comes to shove, until they decide that they’re tanking, until that they get three maybe season ending injuries, I can’t see this guy playing 28 minutes a night. And I think that Jeremiah Fierce needs that to have fantasy relevant in a 12 team nine cat league. Like I’m in some weird leagues that go, you know, 220 players deep. Once we get that far, I’ll probably look at Jeremiah Fierce, but until then, um, honestly, you could even see like Jordan Hawkins getting minutes. Jeremiah Fierce could probably play the two. Um, if a Trey Murphy decides to play the three, if a Herb Jones is injured, if Zion’s, you know, playing the four, I could see him get some minutes at the two, but it’s just not solid enough for me to bank on him. No, not at all. I I think there’s great upside here. The only thing I’d be considering is that I’d almost look to maybe grab him as a streaming option come through the All-Star break because I think he might slide off Waverw Wise come post Allstar break and I wouldn’t mind having him on my list to see what they do post Allstar. And we’re going to be doing a daily podcast. So when he comes in as a daily, you know, streamer, we’re gonna say get him. um if an injury happens, you follow us all on on Instagram, you follow us all on Twitter. Uh you’re going to know what to do. So yeah, so follow follow Flanders, follow me. Um the last elephant in the room, and I’ve been leaving it to last, is Dejonte Murray. Uh we’ve dropped his name a lot. We think that he is the true point guard on this team. Uh expected to come back in November. I think that this is a top 30 guy that you can take at 100. If you have definitely if you have a two IR league, I would take him earlier. Uh but if you have a one IR league, it’s worth stashing him at 100. When I look at the other guys that I’m interested in taking at 100, that top 30 upside to miss maybe four, five weeks of the season, I’m going to back myself to be able to stay competitive. maybe jag one or two games and when some of these guys come back in I am going to be cooking. Yeah, I I think there’s there’s that great option there for him. I don’t I don’t see the top 30 upside. Um I I see top top 50, top 40, but I still think if you’re picking him, you know, deep, you picking him round eight, round nine, that that’s probably about where he’s his market value should be. And if you’re getting in there, that’s great to stash. Yep. Um, little bit of a recap to start the year. We think Jordan Pool, Trey Murphy, Herb Jones, Zion Williamson, VZ Missy will be starting. Uh, we’re not very interested in Cavon Looney despite him being a signing, maybe in him being a good locker room guy with championship experience. Derek Queen is on our watch list. He is a guy that we think if you do get an injury, we could see him start some minutes at the five. uh if there’s an injury at the four, he could play there. Um Jeremiah Fears is a guy we’re interested in but not willing to pull the trigger on. Dejante Murray should be taken about the 100. Uh in IR leagues, you can drag him in there. I don’t really get excited about Jose Alvarado. Uh Sadique Bay, I will never draft that man again. And Jordan Hawkins is a streamer if there is an injury. And that is the New Orleans Pelicans. Yeah, pretty much, mate. Nothing new nothing new to that one there. Pick the right guys. Don’t pick the wrong ones. Have fun with that that one. But I think we covered it pretty well. No, mate. Uh it was great to talk about the New Orleans Pelicans and uh we’ll see you on the next podcast. Cheerio. See you guys.

New Orleans Pelicans Fantasy Basketball Preview 2025/26

The Pelicans are full of questions heading into the new season — and we’re breaking down what it all means for your fantasy draft.

🏀 Topics Covered:

Is this the season Zion finally breaks out and plays a descent amount of games?

Can Dejounte Murray return and provide us with top 40’s value again?

Will Jordan Poole mature enough to enhance his game on his 3rd team in 3 years?

What roles will Trey Murphy and Herb Jones have for the upcoming season?

From draft ranges to sleeper upside, we’ve got you covered with everything you need before you hit that draft button.

👉 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and drop your takes in the comments — where are you drafting Zion, Dejounte, Poole, Murphy and Herb?

Become a member for access to our draft board rankings and exclusive articles here: https://linktr.ee/insightfantasysports

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