After making the playoffs (via the play-in tournament) with a 49-33 record in 2023/24, the Pelicans endured an injury-plagued ’24/25 campaign, going just 21-61 and finishing with the fourth-worst record in the NBA.
The poor results led to the dismissal of former head of David Griffin in April 2025. The next day, owner Gayle Benson agreed to hire longtime former Pistons executive Joe Dumars to lead the basketball operations department (Dumars was formally hired two days after Griffin was fired).
Reports in the fall indicated that Dumars had taken a hands-off approach to his lucrative new job, with new general manager Troy Weaver — Dumar’s first major hire — believed to be the driving force behind last summer’s trades. Still, it’s Benson and Dumars who are ultimately responsible for signing off on those moves, which were heavily scrutinized.
New Orleans’ first trade last offseason was dealing CJ McCollum, Kelly Olynyk and a 2027 second-round pick to the Wizards for Jordan Poole, Saddiq Bey (who missed all of ’24/25 due to a torn ACL) and the 2025 second-round pick that turned into Micah Peavy.
That trade was a mixed bag. Poole had a disappointing first season as a Pelican following a modest bounce-back year as a Wizard in ’24/25. On the plus side, Bey vastly outplayed his team-friendly deal in his return from a major knee injury, and Peavy showed some flashes as a rookie.
The second 2025 offseason deal was a major one, as the Pelicans traded last year’s No. 23 overall pick (Asa Newell) and an unprotected 2026 first-rounder — the most favorable of their own pick or the Bucks’ — to the Hawks to move up to No. 13 and select Derik Queen. The former Maryland big man had a promising rookie campaign, but obviously the opportunity cost was significant. There was a 90% chance that pick would land in the top eight and a 40% chance it would turn into a top-four selection. It ultimately landed at No. 8, with Atlanta selecting former Houston Cougars guard Kingston Flemings.
While it could take a few years to determine the overall results of that trade, it was the process of dealing the most favorable of two unprotected picks in what was widely viewed as a loaded 2026 draft class that drew so much negative attention.
The Dumars-led front office filled out last season’s roster with big men Kevon Looney (two years, $16MM including a team option) and DeAndre Jordan (minimum salary). They combined to play just 33 games in ’25/26, but provided examples of veteran leadership to a relatively young group.
While the Pelicans had better health luck in ’25/26 and their roster looked a little different, their on-court results were very similar. They finished just 26-56, registering the third-worst win percentage (.317) in franchise history and tying for the seventh-worst mark in the league.
Dumars spoke in general terms at his end-of-season presser about looking for toughness and competitiveness, rather than specific positions or skills, as the team sought roster upgrades this offseason.
“I would add more toughness to this team,” he said. “We have to be able to compete every night. We cannot get banged around, pushed around. We have to be physical and compete every night. There were some nights we did it, but too many nights we didn’t compete at a high enough level for me. You can’t get past that in this league. We have talent. But if you think you’re just going to roll talent out on an NBA court and that’s all you need to do to win, that’s not going to happen.”
However, Dumars also said he didn’t think the Pelicans were far away from being a winning team. And the 2026/27 roster projects to look extremely similar to the group that won 26 games in ’25/26.
The Pelicans re-signed Jordan to a two-year, minimum-salary contract that raised plenty of eyebrows around the league, considering the 38-year-old big man only made 12 appearances last season and hadn’t signed a deal covering more than one season in several years.
New Orleans’ other moves involved signing Kobe Bufkin, Christian Koloko and Caleb Houstan to non-guaranteed training camp deals and adding Trendon Watford on a partially guaranteed minimum-salary contract. The team also reached a two-year, $16MM agreement with Bennedict Mathurin, but that transaction hasn’t been finalized yet due to luxury tax and apron concerns, as our Luke Adams detailed on Saturday in a Front Office story.
Jordan Hawkins has been mentioned as a trade candidate and seems unlikely to be on the opening night roster. But he didn’t play a major role in his three seasons in New Orleans — moving him would be more about shedding salary to sign Mathurin.
Dumars discussed the Pelicans’ quiet offseason last month in an interview.
“When you’re presented with deals that you can do, you’ve got to make a determination if this is going to make you better and add what you need,” Dumars said. “The lack of moves being made right now is not from a lack of effort or us deciding we didn’t want to do anything. We’ve engaged with a lot of teams this offseason. But there was just no big deal that I felt was going to make us better for us to pull the trigger on.”
Finally, it’s worth noting that the Pelicans fired former head coach Willie Green after a poor start to last season and elevated top assistant James Borrego to interim head coach. Rather than promoting Borrego to the full-time job, the Pelicans hired defensive-minded Jamahl Mosley as their new top coach after he was let go by Orlando.
We want to know what you think. What do you make of the Pelicans’ relative lack of activity thus far this summer? Do you think they should have sought additional upgrades, or was continuity the right call? And what’s a realistic high-end outcome for this roster? Head to the comment section to weigh in.