The Pelicans are coming off back-to-back disappointing seasons, winning just 47 games combined and barely sniffing a playoff berth. So it’s safe to say New Orleans is hungry to witness competitive basketball in year one under Jamahl Mosley. If the Pelicans want to reach that goal and really bounce back this season, depth will be a massive factor.
When you look at the New Orleans roster, they don’t have a clear top-15 player in the league or an All-Star duo, although Zion Williamson and Trey Murphy III are both great. The Pels don’t project to be a team that stretches defenses out and kills them from the perimeter. And while Mosley had success building an elite defense in Orlando, the Pelicans aren’t super talented on that end.
Where they do have an advantage over other teams is in their depth. New Orleans has 11 or 12 players who could be rotation pieces on most teams in the league, and that’s something Mosley has to embrace. But even though it can be a strength, it could also be a weakness, since this roster has a ton of ball-dominant archetypes, making coaching a massive X factor this season.
Mosley has his work cut out for him
For some coaches, rotations and roles aren’t hard to establish with their roster. Most NBA teams have an obvious pecking order of stars, ball handlers, shooters, defenders, and connective role players, but for New Orleans, it’s not that simple. For the Pelicans, it’s more like this: instead of having two stars, a high-level ball handler, shooters, defenders, and other role players around them, the Pelicans are a team of ball handlers. That can be a good thing, since the more players who can put the ball on the floor, the more opportunities there are to create shots and generate offense.
However, when the other four players on the court don’t thrive off the ball, it can be a coaching nightmare. This is the main thing Mosley will have to figure out in training camp and preseason.
While not everyone may like it, if this team is going to win, players will have to consider adjusting their styles of play and buying into roles they aren’t used to. The way Joe Dumars has built this roster, he’s putting a ton of faith in Mosley’s leadership and ability to establish a culture. We saw in Orlando that Mosley can build a group and get guys to buy into a winning system, so that gives me faith he can replicate that in New Orleans.
For the starting five, I expect things to be fine. I’d assume your main initiators are Zion Williamson and Dejounte Murray, with Trey Murphy III as the third creator, while Yves Missi and Herb Jones buy into their roles as stoppers and play finishers.
But the bench is a different story: one of Saddiq Bey, Bennedict Mathurin, Jeremiah Fears, Bryce McGowens, Derik Queen, or Jordan Poole is going to have to buy in defensively. Not that one of them needs to be a Herb Jones-level stopper, but someone who can be reliable and be a plus on that end. The same goes for off-ball play, because not everyone can be a primary creator or need the ball to be effective if this group is going to get different results this year.
I don’t have a clear idea of who is going to play what or buy into doing what. But if the Pelicans want to avoid another sub-30-win season in 2026-27, Jamahl Mosley’s ability to establish roles through preseason and training camp will be crucial in that.
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