The NBA world has quickly forgotten about Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans. Despite being one of the few teams to make a major addition this offseason by bringing in star point guard Dejounte Murray, it seems the league and its fans are not impressed with this new iteration of the team.
For proof, just look at the NBA’s announcement regarding nationally televised games for the 2024-25 season. The Pelicans were tied for 13th in nationally televised games with nine games, along with the Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Clippers and Indiana Pacers.
Ahead of the Pelicans are the San Antonio Spurs (13), Oklahoma City Thunder (15), Milwaukee Bucks (17), Minnesota Timberwolves (18), Phoenix Suns (19), Philadelphia 76ers (21), Denver Nuggets (22), Dallas Mavericks (23), New York Knicks (24), Golden State Warriors (24), Boston Celtics (26) and Los Angeles Lakers (27).
The Pelicans aren’t the only team with legitimate complaints about the national TV schedule; there are baffling decisions being made all along the schedule. With the amount of talent and parity in the league now, there are plenty of teams that deserve more airplay. This season, only six different organizations have A National Team: Washington Wizards, Toronto Raptors, Portland Trail Blazers, Detroit Pistons, Charlotte Hornets, and Brooklyn Nets. It is absolutely ridiculous that fans without League Pass will only be able to see talents like LaMelo Ball, Cade Cunningham, and Scottie Barnes once this year.
The Houston Rockets and Orlando Magic, two up-and-coming teams with rising stars, will play eight national games together. The Sacramento Kings, who have made the playoffs the past two seasons and just added an All-Star in DeMar DeRozan, will play six.
On the other side of the coin, there are teams that may have a few too many national spots. There’s almost no reason why the Clippers, without Paul George, should have as many as the Pelicans. They still have two future Hall of Famers on board in Kawhi Leonard and James Harden, but are we sure they’ll both play in all nine nationally televised games in Los Angeles?
It makes sense for the NBA to invest heavily in Victor Wembanyama, an obvious superstar and likely future face of the league, but 13 games might be a bit much for a team that won just 22 games total last season. It’s also a good idea to highlight LeBron James and Stephen Curry in the twilight of their primes, but a combined 51 domestic games seems a bit much.
For the Pelicans, it’s hard not to feel slighted. Aside from their lack of depth at center, this is the most talented roster New Orleans has had in years, and yet they have fewer national games than they did in 2022-23 (18) and 2023-24 (12). The scapegoat will be Zion’s injury proneness, but the man played 70 games last season. Alas, the only thing the Pelicans can do now is use that chip on their shoulders to motivate them to prove the networks wrong. Hopefully, they’ll have those TV executives scrambling to get them into national spots in the second half of the season.
