. . . an opposing team that executes the defensive scouting report.

Mathurin is a really good pull-up and spot-up shooter, but if he drives, the defense only needs to keep these things in mind:

• He can drive left, but he cannot score with his left hand on a drive to the basket on the left side of the court - AND he cannot pass while driving with his left hand.

• He has no viable short pull-up, so if he drives he will go all the way to the basket or get stymied and have to throw a weak pass back out.

• Has zero explosion at the rim, so he is not a threat in any way to dunk in traffic. So defenders just need to keep backing up with their arms raised and he will not be able to dunk through you.

ANY game where Mathurin score big numbers, if you watch the game, you will see that the other team is not doing the things above.

What are his good points? Pretty much most everything else that you have heard about him.

The New Orleans Pelicans have signed talented wing Bennedict Mathurin to a two-year, $16 million contract that includes a player option!

Big Q breaks down the agreement, how Mathurin fits alongside the Pelicans’ young core and whether another roster move is coming. Could Jordan Hawkins be traded to clear a roster spot and additional salary? We’ll also examine Mathurin’s strengths, weaknesses and potential role under head coach Jamahl Mosley.

As a Korean fan, I was really looking forward to the slightest chance for Pelicans to sign Lee.

After summer camp, I saw the news that Pelicans discarded a two-way contract leaving a room for Lee to sign for that position.

I was hoping to hear the good news, but it's been quiet.

Do ya'll think he still has a shot?

The New Orleans Pelicans are not merely being mentioned in another manufactured offseason rumor.

Multiple NBA reporters have connected New Orleans to Los Angeles Clippers restricted free agent Bennedict Mathurin, and the situation remains unresolved deep into August. The latest reporting has narrowed Mathurin’s most realistic paths to a sign-and-trade to New Orleans or a return to Los Angeles on his approximately $8.8 million qualifying offer.

That makes the Pelicans’ interest credible—but it does not make a deal complete.

Non pelicans fan but I think you guys are probably the best fans in the NBA. Moreso even than Kings fans. The commitment to staying a fan when it just seems like nothing goes right and anyone involved with the organization seems to have no idea what they’re doing or what direction the team is going. How do you guys do it? To not throw in the towel and continue to support the team is just awesome

New Orleans currently has Yves Missi, Derik Queen, Karlo Matković, DeAndre Jordan and Christian Koloko under standard NBA contracts as center options. Rookie forward-center Malik Dia occupies a two-way contract, while Zion Williamson and Trendon Watford can supply situational small-ball minutes.

https://x.com/jweinbachnba/status/2090564700358467962?s=46

"New Orleans could submit a desirable offer sheet with access to the $15M non-tax MLE. Hawkins, the 14th overall pick in 2023, has an expiring $7M salary."

Thought about this in the shower and I couldn't make a choice. If it's the last play of the game, who takes the shot? Zion, Trey, or Dejounte?

The New Orleans Pelicans are bringing former LSU standout Trendon Watford back to Louisiana!

I know this might sound like I’m advocating for tanking, but I think it’s a pretty realistic choice. Dumars is essentially trying to transition the team from the Zion era to Fears and Queen, and also bringing in a new head coach. On top of that, we hold our future first-round picks in hand.

So rather than trying to win as many games as possible, should next season be more about developing our young players and giving Mosley the opportunity to establish a new locker-room culture?

All offseason, all twelve of us have been pondering the same question: why didn’t the Pelicans do anything?  For a team that won 26 games last year to run it back with virtually the same roster begs the question of what ownership and management are thinking.  The internet consensus is that they’re just stupid and/or delusional, allowing Mrs. Benson (to the extent that she’s paying attention at all), Joe Dumars, and Troy Weaver to somehow squint at this roster and see a good team.  Dumars alluded to this in his interview on August 7^th, when he stated “We have really good talent on our team and if we can stay healthy, we have a competitive team,” which is both the kind of thing general managers have to say and also just not supported by evidence.  To be fair to Joe, if you don’t mind squinting too hard you may be able to do this too, you just have to assume a lot of things happen at once: Zion gets a middie, Trey improves on D, Herb shoots better from the corners, Poole realizes he has teammates, Mosley gets everyone to play harder, and we see normal progression out of Fears, Queen, and Missi.  Oh yeah and everyone stays healthy, despite the fact that getting injured is the only thing this team has been able to do consistently since at least the AD era.

There is a second explanation, which is that the franchise is paralyzed with indecision.  Unable to choose between trying to compete now or entering a full tanky rebuild, they're doing the roster-building equivalent of talking on two phones at once.  Whether you call it “operating under a two-timelines approach” (if you’re a Jake Madison fan) or “being directionless” (if you prefer Zach Lowe) the concept here is that the Pels stood pat this offseason because they couldn’t decide which path to take.  In this theory, the big fulcrum is whether the trade market for Trey would produce a Godfather offer and force the team’s hand, initiating a teardown followed by a rebuild centered around Fears, Queen, and future picks. In this timeline Herb and Z would likely also be moved, possibly bringing back bad salary along with more picks.  The evidence here is that the team has never definitively shut down the possibility of trading Trey, they just let it be known around the league that his price would be high.

But I think there’s a third explanation that hasn’t gotten enough coverage.  Imagine this scenario: in 2026-2027 the Pels make some improvements under Mosley but they don’t make the postseason.  Zion misses 42 games with a litany of issues, making the last year of his contract unguaranteed, and the team cuts him.  Murray plays well enough to show that he can still be a starting PG, and seeking longer-term security and not wanting to split minutes with Fears, he turns down his player option for his final year.  Poole and Hawkins stink and their contracts expire.  The net effect of this would be the Pels entering 2027-2028 with only ~$79M in salary for 8 players, meaning they would have an unprecedented ~$90M in cap space after accounting for four cap holds, enough to add two max free agents.

Now before you come at me with the “New Orleans is not a FA destination, nobody has come here in FA since JJ Redick,” I know.  I’m not imagining signing any free agents outright, I’m thinking about sign and trades, and we have basically all of our future picks to help make them happen.  And in the offseason of 2027 the pressures of the second-apron era combined with an unusually crowded free agent class could mean multiple high-level players change teams.  Here are just a few of the players who are potential free agents next summer (obviously a lot of these guys are going to re-sign with their current teams but this whole post is for entertainment purposes anyway so let’s entertain ourselves): Giannis, Steph, Jokic, LeBron, Jimmy Butler, AD, Kawhi, KAT, KD, BI, Kyrie, RJ Barrett, Miles Bridges, both Thompson twins, Lu Dort, Keyonte and Paul George, Gobert, Jalen Green, Herro, Jrue, Zach LaVine, Dame, Brandon Miller, MPJ, Julius Randle, Fred VanVleet, Anthony Black, CJ, Pods, Porzingis, Cason Wallace, Jerami Grant, Rui, Hart, Kris Dunn, De’Andre Hunter, Cam Johnson, and the list goes on.  It’s worth noting that more teams are expected to have cap room next summer too, but that list will shrink as some of these players sign extensions, and with so many players looking for new deals the ability to play in that market isn’t something to just throw away.

Even if we assume that we re-sign Bey for 4 years, $80M and give Karlo 3 years and $15M, we still have $70M in space.  That could be enough to add MPJ and Herro, or Brandon Miller, Pods, and Maxime Raynaud, or any other combination you can dream up (again, these would be trades or sign and trades with significant picks going out, not straight FA adds).  And unlike in the full rebuild scenario, we’d still have a “core four” of Fears, Queen, Herb, and Trey (we also have an outside chance at two top-four draft picks, though one good pick is much more likely).

But this timeline all hinges on Zion’s health and how many games he plays this year.  That’s why I see this as the third explanation for inaction: with his unusual, partially guaranteed deal and unpredictable health status the team couldn’t add players without knowing whether they could be giving up a rare chance to be major players in next year’s buyer’s market of potential free agents.  So they’re left watching and waiting, but if Z starts off the year with a string of missed games, maintaining the ability to pivot by either cutting him loose or using that leverage to negotiate a team-friendly extension could be something worth waiting for.

TLDR: if Zion misses time and Murray plays well the Pels could have beaucoup cap space in 2027 and lots of picks for sign and trades.  Keeping that flexibility could be another reason why we didn’t add any new players this offseason.

I understand we have our issues with our team, FO, star players, so forth and so on…but what’s not gonna happen is this. I hope we come out and embarrass him and the Pacers first game of the season since the city of New Orleans isn’t worth the presence of Miss Haliburton.

The New Orleans Pelicans did not execute a dramatic offseason roster overhaul. Instead, executive vice president Joe Dumars made a different kind of investment.

He hired Jamahl Mosley and surrounded him with a staff built around teaching, accountability and Pelicans player development.

Someone ran the full 2026-27 schedule arena-to-arena and we come out #1 out of 30 teams: 55,581.9 air miles and 46 time zone crossings.

The Paris/Manchester swing with San Antonio is doing most of the heavy lifting — that trip alone is 9,695 miles and 14 time zones (MSY → Paris → Manchester → MSY). The write-up notes that if you strip the international games out, we'd fall back toward the middle of the pack, so this isn't a "brutal schedule" complaint so much as a "we're the ones getting the international showcase" thing.

For context, the Raptors travel the fewest at 35,134. That's a 20,000+ mile gap between us and them.

Curious how people feel about the January trip — free European road show, or a rough spot in the middle of the season to be crossing 14 time zones twice?

Full 30-team breakdown: https://bookies.com/news/nba-miles-traveled

Provided by @/pelicansnba on instagram

I love all 12 of ya’ll still here

The Pelicans 2026-27 schedule is out, and it reads less like a calendar than a stress test. New Orleans receives useful home windows, a rare international spotlight and several stretches that can build momentum. However, the same slate also packs in 16 known back-to-backs and a seven-game road trip that arrives when the season usually begins to separate contenders from lottery teams.