Offseason Approach
Hire a coach and figure out a path forward
Actual Cap Space
-$56.5 million
Practical Cap Space
-$56.1 million
Projected Luxury Tax Space
$12.7 million
Under Contract (12)
Saddiq Bey
Jeremiah Fears
Jordan Hawkins
Herb Jones
Bryce McGowens
Yves Missi
Trey Murphy III
Dejounte Murray
Micah Peavy
Jordan Poole
Derik Queen
Zion Williamson ($33.7 million guaranteed)
Potential Free Agents (6)
Trey Alexander (restricted – two-way)
Hunter Dickinson (restricted -two-way)
DeAndre Jordan (unrestricted)
Kevon Looney (unrestricted – team option)
Karlo Matkovic (restricted – team option)
Josh Oduro (restricted – two-way)
Dead Cap (0)
None
Projected Signing Exceptions
Non-Taxpayer MLE ($15.0 million)
Bi-Annual Exception ($5.5 million)
Notable Trade Exceptions
Kelly Olynyk ($13.4 million)
Jose Alvarado ($4.5 million)
Projected First Round Draft Picks (pre-Lottery)
None
Notable Extension Candidates
Saddiq Bey (veteran extension)
Jordan Hawkins (rookie scale extension)
Karlo Matkovic (veteran extension)
Dejounte Murray (veteran extension)
Jordan Poole (veteran extension)
Zion Williamson (veteran extension)
Analysis
When writing these Offseason Previews, the approach is to try to balance what we think a team should do against what we think a team will do.
There is no larger gap between “should do” and “will do” in the NBA than the New Orleans Pelicans.
The Pelicans were bad team, despite being a lot healthier than most of their fellow lottery teams. They have a nice collection of talent, but that talent doesn’t really fit together, overlaps a lot and has struggled to find success.
That screams that what the Pels should do is trade away some of their veterans. This would allow them to rebalance the roster, find players who fit together, while potentially accumulating some additional draft capital.
Yet, the New Orleans front office leadership continually says that they like all of their players, and that there are no plans to trade anyone. And it doesn’t feel like the typical posturing that a team does to drive up the return for a player in a trade. Joe Dumars and Troy Weaver seem to genuinely like the group they have.
So, we could end things there, shrug, sigh and move on to the next team. But there are decisions to be made this offseason. We won’t skip over the Pelicans because they’re confusing and seemingly miles away from the approach we’d take. Instead, we’ll talk pros and cons of some of their bigger decisions this summer.
New Orleans has made noise about wanting to get into the first-round of the 2026 NBA Draft. Remember, New Orleans traded the better of their own pick and the Milwaukee Bucks to the Atlanta Hawks when they moved back into the 2025 first-round to select Derik Queen.
Let’s pause there to reflect on the Pels two rookies, Queen and Jeremiah Fears. Both had some really legitimate stretches of good basketball in their first years. Fears didn’t shoot well, but that’s not uncommon for rookie guards. He was able to use his speed to get by defenders to get to good shots, and that happened increasingly more often as the season went along. He also showed signs of playmaking, as well as competitive (note: competitive, not always good!) defense as the year went along. Overall, it was a very encouraging rookie season for Fears.
Queen was more of a mixed bag. At times he looked like everything a team could want in a modern offensive big man. He can handle the ball, he can pass and he can score. Despite being relatively ground-bound, Queen is a terrific rebounder. He has a nose for the ball and understands angles really well. Defensively, he’s going to have to work on being a strong positional defender, but he showed some decent timing with contests and blocks around the rim. He probably won’t be a plus defender, but Queen could eventually be an average defensive big man. Again, this was an encouraging rookie season.
Now, the downside…Fears isn’t a good fit with Dejounte Murray in the backcourt, and Queen isn’t a good fit with Zion Williamson in the frontcourt. That means that two prized young players, one who the Pels gave up a lot to get, can’t play with the team’s two highest-paid veterans.
Starting to get a sense of how wonky this roster construction is?
In an ideal world, New Orleans will find logical trades for both Williamson and Murray. They can then form the roster around Fears and Queen as building blocks. The Pelicans don’t need to give Williamson or Murray away. Williamson had a strong season and stayed healthy for the most part. Murray only played in 14 games, but he looked more or less like himself after returning from a torn Achilles. But if Williamson and Murray don’t make sense with the youngsters the team is invested in, then it makes sense to get moving on trading them.
Expect the team to at least listen on those two, despite their claims of no interest in trades. If the right deal comes along that gives the team some cap relief, along with draft picks and/or more young talent, the Pels should take it.
At the draft itself, getting into the first-round isn’t the worst idea. It’s a deep draft class. This is all about cost. New Orleans has all of their own picks moving forward (one is a best-of swap with them and Milwaukee, which is also top-four protected for the Pelicans to get both picks), so they’ll want to be careful. If they can get in the draft by trading a veteran, so much the better.
Let’s talk trades now. We already discussed Murray and Williamson. Those are the big ones, but there are others. New Orleans has fended off interest in Trey Murphy III for years now. He’s really good and on a very fair contract. He’s also going to be 26 years old at the start of next season. He can fit with a younger group, or the Pelicans could cash in now and really reset things. Trading Murphy would probably net the biggest haul of any potential deal. But there are reasons it makes sense to keep him.
Herb Jones carries high trade value too. He’s one of the best all-around defenders in the league. He’s shown the ability to do a bit more with the ball in his hands, and he’s a smart screener and cutter too. If Jones shot it better, he’d be a potential All-Star. As it is, he’s going to be 28 years old next season and has one more year before a three-year extension at $22.5 million AAV kicks in. This could be the window to move Jones for younger players and draft picks. Like Murphy, you can also see situations where Jones’ defense is needed in lineups led by Fears and Queen.
Yves Missi is a keeper at center. He’s got really good potential as a high-end backup center, at the least. Micah Peavy and Bryce McGowens are on small enough contracts that they should stick around to see how they continue to develop. The Pelicans should pick up their team option for Karlo Matkovic too. He’s shown flashes at times, and New Orleans can do one more year on a team-friendly deal before restricted free agency in 2027.
Saddiq Bey is fine, but his place on the roster should depend on what happens with the other vets. If everyone is back, Bey feels duplicative with this group.
Jordan Poole should be playing out his contract and offered up as a large, expiring contract in trades. There’s just nothing to be excited about there, and New Orleans gave up on playing him throughout the year.
As for extensions, there shouldn’t be any this summer. It would be crazy to entertain extending Williamson or Murray right now. A year from now, if everything goes perfectly and the team is competitive, then extensions can be discussed.
It would be even worse to extend Poole. And Jordan Hawkins hasn’t shown nearly enough to have earned a rookie scale extension.
Of the team’s free agents, New Orleans should decline Kevon Looney’s $8 million team option. That would open up enough room under the luxury tax to make some other moves. DeAndre Jordan is either at or near the end. Both veteran big men are valuable locker room guys, but the Pelicans don’t need both of them taking up roster spots. If they want to bring one back on a minimum deal, no issue. Anything more would be an overpay.
Of course, hovering over all this is hiring a new head coach. James Borrego did an admirable job in a tough spot after taking over for Willie Green. If he’s back, it should be with an understanding of what the team’s direction is. That’s also true for the others that New Orleans is reportedly considering. Most of that list includes long-time assistant coaches, who are looking for their first head coach job. While that usually indicates a rebuild is coming, it doesn’t always have to be that way. Jordan Ott was a first-time head coach and led the Phoenix Suns to the playoffs, for example.
Mostly, this offseason is about picking a direction for the New Orleans Pelicans. You can’t run it back with a 26-56 team with some minor tweaks around the edges of the roster. Not with the money invested in a handful of players, and certainly not with the ill-fitting nature of the roster. The Pelicans can try to be more competitive next season, but that would likely come with a more cohesive roster after a series of moves. Unfortunately, no better source than Joe Dumars has led us to believe that he’s not overly interested in moving any of his players. That could mean another long year is coming in New Orleans.