The New Orleans Pelicans finally made a notable free agent signing, adding some intrigue to what has otherwise been an uneventful offseason. The Pelicans signed free agent wing Bennedict Mathurin this week to a relatively inexpensive two-year, $16 million deal. The issue is that Mathurin’s skill set isn’t a great match with the players already on the Pelicans.
Mathurin is a guy the Pelicans have been interested in going back to the 2026 trade deadline. And for most of this offseason, the Pelicans have been linked to the former Indiana Pacers first-round pick.
Joe Dumars and Troy Weaver came away with Mathurin on a very reasonable two-year, $16 million deal. On the surface, this seems like a good move for the Pelicans front office.
Bennedict Mathurin isn’t a great fit on an already crowded roster
The problem I have with this signing is that I don’t think Mathurin fits with this Pelicans roster. He has plenty of talent, but I don’t see the Pelicans as a team being very efficient on offense with a number of ball-dominant players.
The one thing that always seems to elude the Pelicans is three-point shooting. When you look at their current roster, they only have one legitimate three-point shooter, and that is Trey Murphy III.
Unfortunately, three-point shooting is not Mathurin’s strongest skill. He did shoot 37% from three in his sophomore season. He was able to replicate that in the first half of last season with the Pacers. However, when he was with the Los Angeles Clippers last season, he shot an abysmal 20% from three.
At best, Mathurin is a very inconsistent three-point shooter who has shot 34 percent from long range for his career.
In case anyone forgot, the Pelicans’ biggest offensive threat is still Zion Williamson. And unless he can drastically improve his outside shooting, his most effective offense will come from inside the paint.
Mathurin, despite being a wing player, has a similar skill set on offense to Williamson. Mathurin likes to drive to the basket, and he’s good at it. He is very good at slashing and drawing fouls. The issue is, if the Pelicans don’t have at least a couple of three-point shooters on the court, opposing teams will just crowd the paint.
Derik Queen is also a very ball-dominant player who isn’t an outside shooting threat. Same with Jeremiah Fears. Meanwhile, Herb Jones is known more for his terrific defense. Dejounte Murray and Saddiq Bey can score but aren’t consistent threats from behind the three-point line.
New head coach Jamahl Mosley is going to have his work cut out for him, figuring out how to get these players to work together in a successful offense. My fear is that the Pelicans' offense will look a lot like it did when Brandon Ingram was on the team. A whole lot of one-on-one play without moving the basketball. Offenses that don’t move the ball well never succeed.
While we are late into the offseason, Dumars and Weaver could still make more moves. I think it’s unlikely, but the Pelicans do have players who are coveted by other teams. Maybe they make a move by trading away someone like Jones or Bey for a three-point shooter.
If the Pelicans don’t go out and acquire more three-point shooting, I fear they will have a very talented roster that doesn’t win games because they don’t play well together.
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