New Orleans Pelicans 2024-25 season preview: One step away from a major threat in West

The 2024-2025 NBA season is here! We analyze the biggest questions, best- and worst-case scenarios, and fantasy prospects for all 30 teams. Enjoy!

NEW ORLEANS PELICANS

End 2023-24

Off-season moves

• Additions: Dejounte Murray, Javonte Green, Daniel Theis, Yves Missi, Antonio Reeves, Karlo Matković

• Deductions: Jonas Valančiūnas, Larry Nance Jr., Dyson Daniels, Naji Marshall, Cody Zeller, EJ Liddell

• Complete roster

The big question: Can the Pelicans make the roster meaningful?

Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram and Dejounte Murray all made All-Star teams. CJ McCollum is one of the best players of the past decade not to make an All-Star team. Herb Jones and Trey Murphy III are two of the best 3-and-D wing prospects in the game.

The Pelicans should be great. In the current composition they will not be championship candidates.

Why? For starters, they have no real center. They signed Jonas Valančiūnas to a sign-and-trade deal for a protected second-round draft pick in the top 50. They drafted Yves Missi, a 20-year-old project, and signed Daniel Theis, a 32-year-old journeyman. These are not options for a serious team.

Ideally, they would have traded Ingram for a center this summer. He has been available for a while and will be a free agent at the end of the season. Potential suitors are wary of paying top dollar for a player who hasn’t won a playoff series in eight seasons, though I think more highly of his abilities than most. He was great in his first playoff appearance and terrible last spring. Its true value lies somewhere in between.

Regardless, New Orleans has more problems than the absence of a center and the presence of a weak forward. Its rotation makes no sense. On paper, a lineup of Murray, Jones, Murphy, Ingram and Williamson could be a great small-ball quintet. In practice, playing their top five together for extended periods puts unwelcome pressure on Williamson, whose injuries have slowed a potentially historic rise.

McCollum could be an electric sixth man. He has the game for immediate offense. But he has told reporters: “I’m not going to volunteer (for the bench), but if that’s what the coach wants to do, then that’s what he wants to do.” And they pay him to be a starter. Except Murphy, who is still waiting on his rookie-scale contract extension, is better and wants to start, too. One of them will be unhappy.

There’s a world where Murray and Williamson are great as a pick-and-roll tandem, where Jones and Murphy open the floor for them, and where McCollum — the 33-year-old president of the NBA’s players association — relishes his role as reserve. What a beautiful world that would be, if only there were a center.

However, there are few options available. Clint Capela is not the answer. They certainly kicked Jarrett Allen’s tires. A trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers makes sense. Nicolas Claxton would be a good fit, but why would the Brooklyn Nets want to pay Ingram at the start of their rebuilding process? Take a look around the competition. Now that Karl-Anthony Towns is in New York, the list of available (quality) centers is narrow.

Theis once started for a Boston Celtics team that reached the conference finals. He could turn back the clock. Or Missi could develop faster than expected. It’s more likely that if the Pelicans feel they can do some damage in the playoffs for the first time in their history, they will shop a little harder and have the available capital to do so. They own all of their own first-round draft picks, plus the rights to a few more. Wait a minute, and we have our answer: the Pelicans don’t even consider themselves serious contenders.

At best

Williamson is a superstar. And healthy. Nothing matters if it doesn’t. Murray is emerging from Trae Young’s shadow and resuming the production he enjoyed on the San Antonio Spurs. Jones or Murphy, or both, border on stardom, or at least become stars in their roles. Everything falls into place. McCollum walks to the couch. Ingram gets a rim protector and the Pelicans are not only fighting for their first playoff series win since 2018; they are in danger of reaching the conference finals for the first time ever.

When everything falls apart

Williamson has never finished a season healthy, and this is no different. They keep Ingram, and he walks, or they trade him for nothing. McCollum slows Murphy’s development and the team chemistry falters. Jones is the 34% shooter he was in the first two seasons of his career and not the 42% shooter he was last season. Missi is a miss. Theis is too. And the Pelicans are back in the play-in tournament mix, a level or two below the Western Conference’s elite, having learned nothing from another season.

Fantasy twist

The Pelicans are loaded with fantasy potential, but Murray’s arrival puts an end to the use of ball-dominant players like Williamson, McCollum and Ingram. Speaking of Ingram, an extension isn’t likely and it will be a challenge for the Pelicans to trade BI’s expiring $36 million contract. Ingram’s inclusion in the sixth round of the draft is a decent value to start the season considering Murphy is out for a few weeks with a hamstring injury.

One of the more underrated selections near pick 100 is stock specialist Herb Jones, who also made strides in improving his efficiency across the board last year, shooting 50% from the field, 42% from 3 and 87 % of the line. He is a value pick. My sleep center, Karlo Matković, is behind Daniel Theis and Yves Missi on the depth chart. I think Matković provides the necessary athleticism, floor spacing and defense that New Orleans needs long-term. Just remember the name, even if it’s not worth drafting right now. — Then Titus

Schedule 2024-25

The under is a safer bet considering what the rotation looks like at the start of the season and how Williamson has finished every year of his career. But I want to believe they will find their missing piece; I want to think that Williamson will stay healthy one of these years because of this team should be nice. I’ll take over.