The New Orleans Pelicans have been an organization full of uncertainty and question marks for the past couple of seasons, and it's been frustrating. The 2025-26 season felt like a throwaway from the start, and after a 26-win rebuilding season, many fans were left confused about the organization’s direction. As the 2026 offseason gets underway and Jamahl Mosley is expected to be the head coach next season, the vision is finally making sense.
You rarely see a team come off back-to-back sub-30 win seasons and not have a roster full of guys with one and two years of NBA experience. It's even rarer to see a front office continue to invest in that group after those results.
But Joe Dumars is simply doing things differently.
Instead of trading quality NBA players for picks and the potential of future assets, he's trying to round out the Pelicans roster around the pieces already set in place. This all starts with Zion Williamson. From the day Dumars and Troy Weaver arrived, they've shown nothing short of a willingness to invest in Zion and truly unlock that No. 1 pick potential. That's what has already been so encouraging about the Mosley hire, as he is fully aligned on building around and maximizing Zion.
The Pelicans finally have organizational alignment
During Mosley's introductory press conference, he spoke so highly of Zion, suggesting that he hasn't even tapped his full potential.
"He hasnt even scratched the surface of things he can do. I really believe that"
— Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) May 26, 2026
-- Jamahl Mosely on Zion Williamson pic.twitter.com/HvuSg9edh4
Mosley also said that he wants to open the floor up for Zion to give him a chance to really get downhill and threaten as not just a scorer but a playmaker. This was followed up by Dumars, who at this point quadrupled down on his commitment to Z, saying nothing has changed about where he fits in the future and that they want to see what they have.
Being aligned is important everywhere in life, in relationships, professionally, at school, but it's also incredibly vital when trying to run an NBA team and build a winner. The Pelicans haven't had that for so long. Whether it was in the final years of the David Griffin era or the first year of the Dumars era, there were too many differing opinions about the direction. Mosley straight-up said during the presser that he took the Pelicans job because everything that Dumars laid out in his vision fit him, and he truly believes in it.
"Sitting right there. They're both sitting right there... There was not one part of our conversation that felt what I didnt believe in my core... You see where the vision is going and the culture that is being created"
— Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) May 26, 2026
-- Jamahl Mosely on why he took the Pelicans job pic.twitter.com/UH0WBAOz7s
New Orleans is no longer attacking things with fingers—they are attacking with a fist. Having a coach and a front office leader be this close is only going to help with roster improvements, because Mosley will see every day what the roster lacks and what it doesn’t.
Some people feel like Mosley was only hired because he's a friend of Dumars. That's not the case. They hired him because he can maximize the defense, has experience coaching star forwards like Paolo Banchero, and because he understands what it takes to build culture. The Pelicans want to be a physical, defense-first, tough team, led by Zion Williamson as both a scorer and creator. Now they have the coach to bring that vision to light.
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