With the trade deadline here, this was finally a time for New Orleans Pelicans fans to be excited. Many expected the front office to be hard sellers given their record and the fact that they have no control over their 2026 first-round pick. But if you thought that was the approach Joe Dumars and Troy Weaver would take, you are going to be extremely disappointed. According to a report from ActionNetworkHQ's Matt Moore, the front office views the current team as a playoff-calibre one and, in turn, no major moves are expected to happen.
Now let's just take a step back and think about this. The Pelicans, who are 13-38 this season, don't own their own first-round pick in the 2027 class. They are one of the league's worst shooting teams, have had the same core of players since 2022, and have zero playoff series wins with that core. Yet they’re still being framed internally as a playoff team in a stacked Western Conference.
At that point, you have to wonder if the front office is watching the same games everyone else is?
The Pelicans had the chance to run this deadline
Prior to today, the deadline was relatively quiet. Some big moves happened, like the Jaren Jackson Jr. deal, but nothing was getting too crazy. That, to me, is just brutal for Pelicans fans because when you look at this roster top to bottom, there are at least eight guys who opposing teams would value and likely give up future assets for.
If you remember back in 2021, when the Orlando Magic finally decided to sell after running back the same core for several years, they made multiple moves that led them to the team they have today.
I mean, one of the first-round picks they got from Chicago as part of the Nikola Vučević deal turned into Franz Wagner. The other pick they got in that deal turned into Jett Howard. That's two lottery picks, along with their starting center, Wendell Carter Jr, highlighting just how valuable fully committing to a rebuild can be. But instead of doing that, the Pelicans are sitting around twiddling their thumbs and continuing to focus on building around a core that already failed the previous regime.
The Pelicans are en route to their second straight season missing the playoffs while finishing in the bottom five in the league. And when you have a fan base that is desperate for a team they can truly get behind and support, making no moves at the deadline sends a frustrating and deflating message.