At this point in the season, we know who the 20 teams that are going to be participating in this year's play-in/postseason festivities. Meanwhile, most of the other 10 teams are shamelessly tanking to try and enhance their draft odds.
Notice how we said "most of the other 10 teams." That excludes the New Orleans Pelicans, who have been long out of playoff contention, but are continuing to trot their best units out there because they do not own their first round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
It is easy to make fun of the Pelicans. Ever since Joe Dumars, Troy Weaver, and company took over, their decision-making process hasn't been the wisest. They made a strange trade for Jordan Poole. They made an even more bizarre choice by trading their first-round pick, unprotected, in a loaded 2026 NBA Draft class for Derik Queen. They stumbled to the worst start of any team through 46 games. Then, they refused to try and recoup some draft capital at the deadline by parting ways with some of their more highly-coveted assets.
Pelicans starting to show some sense of direction
With that said, you also can not dispute that they have been playing some good basketball over the last two months. In their last 25 games, New Orleans is 15-10 with the 12th-best offense, 14th-best defense, and 14th-best net rating.
A lot of these wins have come against their down-trodden brethren. But these 15 wins also include victories over the Los Angeles Clippers (twice), San Antonio Spurs, Minnesota Timberwolves, Toronto Raptors, Golden State Warriors. They also pushed the Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets to the brink during this stretch.
Shooting variance has also helped power their recent run of good play. Over this time, they are surrendering the second-lowest opponent wide-open 3-point percentage (per NBA.com). That has nothing to do with the Pelicans, and is likely masking their weaker defense.
Still, there is a lot of positives to take from this. For instance, Zion Williamson is (*knocks wood aggressively*) actually healthy for the first time in, well, forever. He's on pace to play the second-most games of his career, has appeared in 24 of these 25 games, and 43 of the team's last 44 overall. He isn't the dominant force he once was, but he is still getting to the rim (99th percentile frequency) and charity stripe (99th percentile free throw rate) as much as anyone in the league.
Trey Murphy III is continuing the offensive leap that he took last season while also increasing his efficiency (his true shooting percentage is up 2.2 percentage points), improving his passing reads, and finding ways to still be a solid defensive player using his length and athleticism.
While there will always be an unfair weight on his shoulders because of the aforementioned trade, Queen has been one of the best rookies in the league this season -- showcasing a unique offensive skillset that bears resemblance to All-Star center Alperen Sengun.
Look at Derik Queen pic.twitter.com/6ZsaW3O5Fy
— Steve Jones (@stevejones20) November 22, 2025
Fellow rookie Jeremiah Fears is also flashing some tantalizing skills. He has elite downhill burst, an expansive passing vocabulary, and his shooting is already ahead of schedule (33.8 percent from 3, 79.2 percent on free throws).
Herbert Jones has been semi-healthy and doing his normal defensive due diligence. Saddiq Bey has found a way to reinvent himself as a bruiser who loves getting into the paint and drawing contact (career-highs in rim attempts and free throws per 75 possessions). Dejounte Murray is back and leading the team in on/off plus-minus (plus-16.4 per 100). Karlo Matković is a great in-house developmental story, who has emerged as a rotation-level player.
They are even finding lineup combinations that work. The five-man unit of Murray, Murphy, Jones, Bey, and Williamson is a -plus13.3 per 100 (76th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass). When Queen shares the floor with Fears, Murphy, Jones, and Bey, the Pelicans are a plus-9.3 per 100 (69th percentile).
I know we are in silly season, but all of this is not nothing. Everyone we've mentioned with the exception of Murray is 27 years old or younger and could realistically be a building block for the next great Pelicans team.
I'm still not ready to say that New Orleans will be fighting for a playoff spot in 2026-27, nor do I envy the situation their front office has put them in. But one thing is for certain, and that is that the Pelicans are no longer a laughing stock.