To help us get through the NBA’s late-summer blues, we’re taking a look back at teams across the league and how their offseason went.
The New Orleans Pelicans
Main additions:
Dejounte Murray
Daniel Theis
Yves Missi
Main losses:
Naji Marshall
Jonas Valanciunas
Dyson Daniels
EJ Liddell
Larry Nance Jr
Cody Zeller
Matt Ryan
Offseason review and outlook for the 2024-25 season:
The New Orleans Pelicans’ offseason is hard to judge because it feels incomplete. Maybe that’s the judgment itself. The Pelicans started with a major move, trading Dyson Daniels, Larry Nance Jr., EJ Liddell, Cody Zeller and two first-round picks to the Hawks for Dejounte Murray. It looked like the first step in a roster overhaul that then hinged on finding a trade partner to take Brandon Ingram, but that move never came to fruition. Add in Jonas Valanciunas and Naji Marshall leaving in free agency for nothing, and it feels like the Pelicans have weakened. They’ve lost a lot of depth, and they’re particularly weak at center.
This season, as it has been for the Pelicans for the past several seasons, hinges on the health of Zion Williamson. When healthy, Zion is an absolute force of nature. And New Orleans still has a plethora of talented wings between Ingram, Herb Jones, and Trey Murphy III. I’m sure the Pelicans will mix and match lineups by playing their wings as far as the second spot or as far as the fourth, because based on the current roster, they don’t have many other options. For Kings fans, we can only hope that the Pelicans have lost enough depth to stop being our never-ending nightmare.
Why we hate them:
6 losses. 6 fucking losses to one team in one season. If the Kings never played the Pelicans again, I wouldn’t mind. Disband the franchise and spread the forwards around the league to rebalance the market.
