John Hollinger still hates the Pels

quote:

---

New Orleans Pelicans (32-50)

Despite the serial mismanagement of the past several months, it’s possible to construct a scenario where the on-court version of this season’s Pelicans ends up being somewhere between halfway decent and genuinely good.

Mix in a healthy Zion Williamson (I know, but humor me) with a slew of tough wings such as Trey Murphy, Herb Jones and Saddiq Bey, throw in some buckets from Jordan Poole and add Dejounte Murray at some point during the season. Sprinkle in Jose Alvarado mayhem and whatever rookies Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen can give them, and maybe you have something.

Unfortunately, “healthy Zion Williamson” is doing a lot of lifting in this scenario, and despite encouraging reports on his offseason conditioning, there’s no reason to believe he can stay on the court for the majority of the season. He’s played more than half the schedule just twice in his six NBA seasons and has rarely betrayed any commitment to improving that trend line.

Even if Williamson plays at an All-Star level for the bulk of the schedule, the Pelicans have other issues. This is the worst center situation in the West, with veteran tourniquet Kevon Looney imported to try to limit the bleeding. Second-year pro Yves Missi had his moments as a rim runner but was clearly overmatched as a starter last season; ditto for undersized sidekick Karlo Matkovic.

The Pels are also likely to lean on their two lottery picks, Fears and Queen, through the lumps of an NBA rookie season. While the trade for Queen was disastrous in terms of asset management (the Pels gave up an unprotected 2026 first-rounder to move up in the draft), the rookie forward has some interesting shot-creation chops thanks to an unusually advanced handle for a player of his size.

But Queen, who will miss the start of the season because of a wrist injury, is not notably athletic and has struggled to stay in shape, and his shot isn’t threatening enough to play next to another non-spacing big — something that is all but a requirement as long as Williamson is the franchise centerpiece.

That particular issue goes beyond Queen. The Pelicans have zero stretch bigs on the roster after trading Kelly Olynyk and CJ McCollum for Poole and Bey; their only way to play four-out is to use either Murphy or Bey at power forward and have Williamson play center.

On the sideline, Willie Green is back despite murmurs from late last season that he’d lost the locker room. The Pelicans are near the luxury-tax line and won’t go over it; more disconcerting is that they’re also at the projected 2026-27 tax line after acquiring Poole’s $34 million obligation. While the Pels can regain some wiggle room by declining options on Looney and Jordan Hawkins, they’ll have to refill the roster spots with exception money; the Pels won’t have a pick in the 2026 draft thanks to the Queen trade.

Maybe those constraints are a good thing, as they might prevent the new front office led by Joe Dumars from doing any further harm. Once upon a time, the Pelicans had a bounty of draft picks from the Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday trades and a possible generational building block in Williamson. Now they have a thin, capped-out roster of pieces that don’t seem to fit.

---