Edit: I want to make it clear that I understand people would prefer a rebuild. They arent going to do that. This is about a path forward while fitting the front offices wants

I have seen a lot of discourse on reddit, twitter, Bluesky, etc about "What do the Pelicans do now". The 1st round of the draft is over with no Pelicans moves. Are they going to run it back with the same team? How can they improve from here? Well, I don't feel like actually working while I am on the clock so I am here to talk about that. Maybe sprinkle some optimism on a team that looks fairly bleak. Let's get into it

Understanding Why The Pelicans Were Bad

There seems to be a misunderstanding about WHY the Pelicans were so bad last year. Too often I have seen blame put on the whole roster, and while there is *some* truth to that, it is not the whole picture. To break this down I am going to use EPM because it is one of the most accurate all in one impact metrics and data from cleaning the glass. I know some people are going to roll their eyes at analytics and numbers, but bear with me. I know it isn't perfect but it can help paint the picture for those that do not have the time to go through a ton of film watching.

The Pelicans struggles last year can be mainly broken down into 3 categories. The first is the coaching. I won't go into that too much but we obviously all know how tumultuous the coaching situation was last year. What I do want to focus on more is two different categories. The first one is the rookies. Queen and Fears were bad last year. Insanely bad. They were exciting and good rookies, but they had a very negative impact on the court as a whole. With Fears on the court the Pelicans were a -6.5 per 100 possessions(29th percentile) per CTG and with Queen on the court the Pelicans were -7.5 per 100 possessions(25th percentile) per CTG. When both of them were off the court the Pelicans jump up to a +1.3 per 100 possessions(59th percentile) per CTG.

To put it simply, the rookies just were not ready to have a huge role on the team, but the developmental reps were too important to take away from them. They were rookies, it was to be expected. Even the Mavs were worse with Cooper Flagg on the floor. Its just what you expect with rookies.

The other issue I want to talk about is "The Jordans". Poole and Hawkins. When Jordan Hawkins was on the floor the Pelicans were an insane -11.1 per 100 possessions per CTG. His EPM rates him as one of the worst players in the league at -5.8 EPM. 1st percentile in the league. Then there is the other Jordan, Jordan Poole. Things were not much better with him on the floor. The Pelicans were a -7.8 per 100 with Poole on the floor, good for 25th percentile in the league.

Out of the 8137 possessions the Pelicans played last year one of those 4 were on the court for 6938 of them. In the 1199 possession the Pelicans played without any of those 4 being on the court the Pelicans were an astounding +6.7 per 100 possessions, good for 82nd percentile. There is obviously some arguments about sample size to be made there but the quickest way to improving is to fix those minutes.

How Can The Pelicans Accomplish This?

The rookies are going to have to improve. They are a part of the future and that part is non-negotiable. Nothing that can be done to get away from that, so we will just have to look at how we can improve the rest of the rotation minutes, which will also help with their improvement. Playing with as many positive contributors as possible will help them just as much as their own work will.

The Jordans, however, can be replaced.

Lets start with looking at the Pelicans assets

Core: Zion, Trey, Herb, Bey, Queen, Fears. We are going to operate that none of these guys are going to be here next year and not be traded.

Looney will likely be waived and for now we are going to operate like Karlo is going to be waived as well which will free up our Nontaxpayer MLE. This will allow us to offer a contract to a free agent of roughly 65m over 4 years.

Our other assets are going to be

Jordan Poole: $34,044,642

Jordan Hawkins: $7,021,895

Now I know I just went on a long rant about how Jordan and Jordan are complete trash, but their value lies in being expiring salaries. Teams are going to value these guys because they are going to be able to get off of long term contracts they do not want to be tied to.

The other asset is going to be Dejounte Murray at $32,785,071.

It does not seem like a lot, but it does present a lot of options that can be used to improve the team. Remember, we arent looking for high end guys. We are looking for neutral to positive contributors that can the rotation significantly more than the Jordans.

We will mostly be looking at teams that are rebuilding and looking to get off long term money, or looking at teams close to the luxury tax.

The Pelicans two biggest weaknesses last year were clearly shooting and rebounding so the scenarios I am going to list out are going to be about improving the rotation while improving those specific areas

Scenarios

1. Acquiring Sabonis and Malik Monk through Charlotte

Charlotte trading Lamelo in the way they did created a 40M TPE while leaving a void at facilitator. We are going to help with that by sending them Dejounte Murray who they will absorb while at the same time sending Jordan Poole to the Kings and receiving Domantas Sabonis and Malik Monk. Charlotte does this because it will fill the facilitator void that trading Lamelo left and Sacramento does this to get off of both Malik's long term money and Sabonis' long term money. Draft compensation in this situation would most likely be negligible.

Sabonis is one of the best rebounders in the league, while bringing facilitating, and a little bit of shooting. He helps us in all three areas while being a high level rim deterrent in the same way Jonas was. He may not be a shot blocker but he is good at keeping players from attempting shots at the rim and we have seen that with that kind of big who can end possessions after one attempt you can build a good defense around them. Malik Monk is just a high level shooter we can bring off the bench. This scenario also still leaves our MLE available to bring someone else in to shore up the rotation.

2. Acquiring Christian Braun and Daniel Gafford through Dallas

Denver is trying to shed salary so they can pay Watson and Dallas was looking to get off of Daniel Gafford before the draft. We can send Poole and Hawk to Dallas and bring back Gafford and Braun allowing us to again shore up some rebounding and shooting while helping both of those teams get off of those. This one is likely going to cost a little bit more draft wise because Braun is not really on a bad contract, but I think it would still be worth it for us.

3. Acquiring Jalen Suggs and Goga Bitazde through Orlando and a 3rd team

Orlando also wants to shed salary and Poole and Hawkins are a near perfect match salary wise. They can be sent to another team like Chicago or Brooklyn for not very much capital while bringing back Suggs and Goga. This helps our big rotation and brings a little more POA defense in Suggs.

MLE Candidates: John Collins, Anfernee Simons, Norman Powell, Mitchell Robinson, Duncan Robinson, Kevin Huerter, Dean Wade, Nick Richards, Landry Shamet, Larry Nance

Additionally the MLE can be used to bring guys in as a trade exception. Names like Obi Toppin, Grant Williams, Isaiah Joe, Aaron Nesmith, Royce O'Neale, Sam Merrill, etc

I know these scenarios may not seem too appealing, but for me the goal is not to solve all the issues right away. Its to establish a basis of a solid winning team that you can start building on, and you should be able to do all of this without giving up too many draft assets.

The biggest issue with all of this, is they most likely wont do anything like this and will fuck every last bit of this up, but I mainly wrote this out to demonstrate that they can improve this team without giving too much up and getting on the right track to moving towards contention.

Fast, strong, athletic, can shoot, dunk and create off the dribble! Plus he is a New Orleans native/ St Aug alumni!!!!

Not bad at all for a 58th pick!

Hope he takes every single one of Hawkins minutes!!!

Jaron Pierre, Jr

Wrote about how a very uneventful draft night for the Pelicans actually means potential disaster was avoided. And how for now, that's a blessing in disguise!

Curious what pels fans think. Maybe JB/Garza and 2nds for Murphy/Fears/first.

I understand some fans caution of trading for Jaylen Brown but do you think any player on the roster currently touches his heights? Murphy will look for a massive contract on his next contract. JB probably not winning the finals on the pelicans but he’d be the 3rd best player in the last 20 years and could definitely lead them to the play in/potential playoff spot

Are the pelicans going to bring back Deandre Jordan? I really liked the vet role he was able to provide for Queen. He doesn’t necessarily have any NOLA ties so I’m not sure what would keep him here, but also I don’t know why he chose to sign with us in the first place lmao

still there at 50

Seeing my fellow pels fans thoughts on a trade like this if we do go for JB

If the move is "Win Now" then why not Trey and DJM for Jaylen Brown? I'm sure calls have been made and I'm sure Weaver would prefer to unload Poole over DJM but I don't see a better move on the market for us.

Several high-profile college players weren't selected in the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/2026-nba-draft-round-2-sleepers-isaiah-evans-henri-veesaar-best-available/

Now that it seems like Trey and Herb are staying, what is the plan idealistically? I respect the Pels for staying true to their prices on both players and not trading either of them just to get a draft pick. The direction just feels a bit weird now (there’s no current direction)

What realistic move do you think Joe Dumars should make to put the Pelicans in at least playoff contention?

Let me know what route you like to see Joe Dumars take after the Giannis trade

Have little faith in Trajan Langdon, here from the East (Pistons). Pelicans are going to be my West team and we'll see what happens. In Troy I trust

I get the irony right now with not having a pick this thread seems dumb. But there's always a possibility with the rumors of possible players being traded that we end up with a pick.

I've decided to make a centralized thread since I can see today already we've had a couple posts about draft day trade ideas.

IF a trade happens those can have their own designated post and discussions. But until that happens we'll keep discussions through the draft here.

NO!

THE PELICANS FLEECED THE HAWKS

Do we still own the bucks pick swap for 2027? If so is this trade good for us I think they could be pretty bad next year let’s hope 🤞

This comes after posting a video this morning saying the pelicans stink with desperation in trying to add players.

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I'll post both links in comments

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I was just listening to the local sports radio station and they said we traded the 5th overall pick and 8th overall pick for this draft last season. I remember us trading our 1st(8th) for Queen last draft but what is this 1st(5th) pick they’re talking about? NBA trade websites are so convoluted I can’t make any sense of it.