It’s been the same story for New Orleans.
Once another promising season loaded with talent, it immediately began with a wave of injuries that the Pelicans could not recover from.
“When they are healthy, they are dangerous.”
Well, there are always wounded birds in New Orleans.
The Pelicans just completed their worst season since they were called the Hornets in 2005.
One silver lining is their young core when they are available to play. The talent on the roster has shown leaps of improvement and consistent play that solidified their spot in NOLA.
They have a knockdown shooter in Jordan Hawkins, two talented wings in Herb Jones and Trey Murphy, and two gifted bigs in Zion Williamson and rookie Yves Missi.
Jones and Missi anchor their defense while Williamson and Murphy take the scoring burden.
Zion Williamson – First overall pick (2019)
The question is, is Williamson still the franchise cornerstone?
In six years, he has logged zero playoff games.
He has missed 240 games in six seasons— essentially a part-time worker.
Williamson takes 96 percent of his shots in the paint or the restricted area.
He still needs to evolve his game. With his play style, most of his shots being around the rim isn’t the biggest problem— it’s him mostly driving left that is the red flag.
Williamson rarely shows a pull-up jumper, but going into year seven, this might be who he is as an offensive player.
Grade: C
Herb Jones – 35th overall pick (2021)
It’s been a tough year for Jones. In game four of the season, Jones had a right shoulder strain that kept him out for a month.
In January, Jones suffered a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder and was shut down for the season a month later.
Jones played in only 20 games, leading to the Pelicans ranking in the bottom five in opponent points per game (119.3), 21st in opponent 3-point percentage (36.5), and the fifth worst frequency of shots allowed inside six feet of the rim.
In 2023-24, Jones helped the Pelicans to an eighth-best opponent-point-per-game clip (110.7), the second-best opponent 3-point percentage, (34.9) and the fifth-best frequency of shots allowed inside six feet.
primarily PNR coverage: Theis at the level to keep the ball handler out of the lane
Dejounte tags the roller early
When Herb is the weak side defender on the wing, he’s always stealing that pass to the corner
Dejounte doesn’t even have to complete the X coverage pic.twitter.com/wVJexx9Y5g
— Pelicans Lead (@PelicansLead) December 16, 2024
The former Alabama product flexes his 2024 All-First Defensive Team nod, splitting two shooters on the weak side and showing his ability to cover ground to steal the pass.
Grade: A-
Trey Murphy – 17th overall pick (2021)
Murphy should have been a leading candidate for Most Improved Player. In the preseason, Murphy was projected to come off the bench.
He started in all but two games and averaged a career-high 35 minutes per game. Murphy went from averaging 14.8 points per game to 21.2. He’s averaging more points than some All-Stars like Darius Garland and Pascal Siakam.
The 24-year-old is averaging 15.8 shot attempts per game with shooting splits of 45/36/89.
With the departure of Brandon Ingram, Murphy projects to be a night one starter in 2025-2026.
Against the defending champions in crunch time, Murphy calls his own number for an isolation.
Murphy starts with a jab step and goes behind his back to get two feet into the paint. That’s a nice handle and floater for a 6-foot-8 forward.
Grade: A
Yves Missi – 21th overall pick (2024)
Missi is everything the Pelicans expected Jaxson Hayes would be when Hayes was drafted eighth overall in 2019.
Hence, that’s why some Pelicans fans were skeptical of drafting Missi. Along with having a similar draft profile to Hayes, Missi was expected to be a project player coming out of Baylor and started playing basketball at a late age.
He’s fifth among rookie centers in points per game (9.1), second in rebounds per game (8.2) and third in blocks per game (1.3).
Taking home Rookie of the Month honors for December, Missi has been way ahead of the curve.
The 20-year-old is a solid screener— a fundamental component to playing the five.
A healthy Jones with Missi emerging as a legit rim protector behind him will certainly boost the Pelicans’ defense back into the top ten.
And more importantly, it helps alleviate defensive responsibilities on Jones.
Grade: A
Jordan Hawkins – 14th overall pick (2023)
Hawkins was considered an immediate rotational player due to his catch-and-shoot ability, making him a perfect fit next to Williamson.
The former UConn national champion averaged 10.8 points over 23.6 minutes per game this season.
He has shooting splits of 37/33/82, all slightly worse than his rookie year.
More ATOs excuted:
-Hawk flies off a Boston rub / down screen and takes Missi’s DHO / pitch for a movement 3-pointer
-Green sets an on-ball screen for BI and then face cuts for a layup pic.twitter.com/HdmAV10LSt
— Pelicans Lead (@PelicansLead) November 5, 2024
In today’s league, Hawkins’ skill set should translate with ease. The key for Hawkins is to be a positive defender, allowing him to become a regular rotational player.
The former lottery pick has the potential to average north of 14 points per game and shoot between 38 and 40 percent from deep. Reaching these marks would give New Orleans a trio of dangerous shooters (Murphy and McCollum) around Williamson.
Jones, Murphy, Williamson, and Missi are expected to be in the starting five next season. It will be Williamson and Jones’ seventh and fifth seasons as starters, respectively.
With Dejounte Murray likely to miss the start of next season due to an Achilles injury, CJ McCollum should round out the starting unit.
Grade: C
Lost in the West
During the Anthony Davis era, the Pelicans were lost in the shuffle.
While they swept Portland in 2018, the Blazers consistently made the playoffs behind the backcourt of Damian Lillard (same draft class as Davis) and McCollum.
They were also dealing with teams like Oklahoma City (Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook), San Antonio with a young Kawhi Leonard, and the Grit and Grind Grizzlies for playoff spots.
It’s deja vu.
They also experienced deja vu with the season-ending injury to Murray.
On Jan. 26, 2018, former Pelicans All-Star DeMarcus Cousins tore his Achilles and was lost for the season. Cousins was 27 years old at the time.
Nearly seven years later, on Jan. 31, 2025, Murray tore his Achilles and was lost for the season. Murray is 28 years old.
New Orleans started the rebuild in 2019.
Memphis drafted Ja Morant second overall, right after Williamson. Every year since 2019, Memphis has finished higher in the West standings than the Pelicans, except 2024, when Morant played just nine games.
Oklahoma City also started rebuilding in 2019 when they traded away Russell Westbrook and Paul George. Since then, the Thunder have eliminated the Pelicans twice in the postseason.
Paolo Banchero (former number one overall pick) debuted in the playoffs as a sophomore, while Williamson has yet to play in the playoffs through six years.
San Antonio paired Victor Wembanyama (former No. 1 overall pick) with De’Aaron Fox, and they should be a top-six seed in the West in 2025-2026.
Two young stars, Anthony Edwards (former No. 1 overall pick) and Tyrese Haliburton, took their respective teams to the Conference Finals in year four. Haliburton did it in his first playoff run.
Houston started its rebuild in 2020 and is likely to finish with more wins and get a higher seed than New Orleans has achieved in the last six years.
While New Orleans has a good core of scorers — Williamson, McCollum, and Murphy and a solid backline of defense — Jones, Missi, and Murray, unfortunately, have to be available for play before they can even start thinking about battling Morant’s Grizzlies, Wembanyama’s Spurs and Alperen Sengun’s Rockets.
That’s just the division.
Then there are other young teams in the West’s bloodbath, such as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Thunder, Anthony Edwards’ Timberwolves, and Luka Doncic taking the torch for the Lakers.
They cannot even think about sniffing a conference finals appearance with the injury history.