This upcoming offseason will be a crucial turning point for the New Orleans Pelicans. They lost this entire 2024-25 NBA season due to injuries after making concrete moves last summer to try to make a deep playoff push this year. Considering that this franchise has hinged their hopes all on Zion Williamson and his fragile body for the past half decade, this has led to a lot of much-needed introspection from the Pelicans.
At the trade deadline, they made one tangible step towards their future by finally trading Brandon Ingram. They have a lot more work to do than just parting ways with BI though. This upcoming summer, they'll have a lot of questions to answer about how they want to approach this next era of their franchise history.
They'll likely have a massive decision to make at the draft, as they're on track to land a highly valuable top pick in a class loaded with blue-chip talent. They'll also have to make judgments on the future of several high-profile players, with Zion, Trey Murphy III, CJ McCollum, and Dejounte Murray all capable of producing at an All-Star level and all set to be paid handsomely for their services next season. With so much at stake this offseason, it could be easy for the Pelicans to forget about the small housekeeping moves they need to make, but this simple task has to be a priority for New Orleans.
The Pelicans need to re-sign Bruce Brown Jr. this summer
In the Brandon Ingram trade with the Toronto Raptors, the Pelicans got back Kelly Olynyk, Bruce Brown Jr., and a bit of draft capital. New Orleans made the deal a day before the official trade deadline, which means they had time to reroute both of the veterans they got from the Raptors if they wanted to. Either they didn't get any offers they liked for Olynyk and Brown Jr. or they decided to keep them and incorporate them into their future plans.
Olynyk is signed through next season and should be a valuable presence as a stretch big capable of spacing the floor for Zion and the Pelicans' other ball-handlers while allowing New Orleans to keep plenty of size on the court when needed. Bruce Brown Jr. is a different story though.
That's because his contract expires at the end of the season. By not immediately rerouting him to a playoff contender before the deadline, the Pelicans are now at risk of losing him, a primary piece of their return for Brandon Ingram, for nothing in free agency this summer.
Brown Jr. is a former champion, one of the most uniquely skilled wings in the league, and an extremely impactful and versatile defender. There should have been plenty of interest in his services. Even if all they could have gotten in return was a second-round pick or two, it still would have been significantly better than having him walk away in free agency.
Thankfully, the Pelicans did also obtain his Early Bird rights in the trade and there is reported interest from both sides in extending their partnership. New Orleans needs to make re-signing Brown Jr. a priority this summer, even if he doesn't perform well for the remainder of the year. So far, he hasn't lived up to expectations, averaging just 5.0 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.8 assists on 28 percent shooting in five games.
Still, the Pelicans need to make sure they retain him this offseason for two main reasons. First, they need to ensure that they don't simply lose out on an asset. Even if he continues to play poorly, his reputation and pedigree will be able to net them something in a trade next season. Secondly, New Orleans is severely lacking in mid-tier contracts, as nearly all of their players are making either near-maximum or near-minimum salaries. Having a few $10-$25 million salaries on the books is instrumental in affording teams the flexibility to make major trades. Re-signing Bruce Brown Jr. will allow them to have that financial versatility on their salary cap table next season and beyond.