Without control of their own 2026 first-round pick, the Pelicans have no reason to tank during the second half of the season despite being out of the playoff race, and that has shown in recent weeks. After opening the season with a 10-36 record, New Orleans has gone 7-6 since January 23, most recently picking up home wins over Philadelphia on Saturday and Golden State on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
As Les East of NOLA.com<\/a> writes, interim head coach James Borrego referred to Tuesday\u2019s victory as a \u201cbig, clutch win for our group\u201d and singled out rookie Derik Queen<\/a> for his contributions. Queen scored just eight points on 4-of-13 shooting, but he was a +8 in his 18 minutes off the bench and had three straight baskets during one key run in the third quarter.<\/p>\n \u201cQueen was massive during that stretch,\u201d Borrego said. \u201cWe don\u2019t win that game without him.\u201d<\/p>\n While Queen, Zion Williamson<\/a> (26 points), and Saddiq Bey<\/a> (18 points) all played crucial roles in the victory, the big story of the night was Dejounte Murray<\/a>\u2018s return from an Achilles tear. Playing for the first time since January 31, 2025, Murray was immediately reinserted into New Orleans\u2019 starting lineup, which Borrego said \u201cwas not an easy decision.\u201d However, it paid off, as Murray had 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting in his first game back and the new-look starting five outscored Golden State in 10 minutes of action.<\/p>\n \u201cHe looked like his old self. He didn\u2019t miss a beat,\u201d Borrego said of Murray, per Brett Martel of The Associated Press<\/a>. \u201cFor that to be his first game, I felt him on both ends of the floor. \u2026 He was fantastic. Really proud of him and just happy for him to embrace this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Borrego added that there was a \u201cmassive celebration\u201d in the Pelicans\u2019 locker room for Murray after Tuesday\u2019s game. Although the veteran guard appreciated the support from his teammates, he told reporters he was already focused on \u201cthe next game\u201d and wants to play as often as possible in New Orleans\u2019 final 23 contests this season.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m hungry,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m starving.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s more on Murray and the Pelicans:<\/p>\n Multiple<\/a> reports<\/a> ahead of the February 5 trade deadline cited rumblings that Murray and his camp might not mind a change of scenery. However, Murray strongly pushed back on the idea that he or his representatives ever requested a trade out of New Orleans, denying that claim in a tweet<\/a> and adding, \u201c(Executive VP of basketball operations) Joe (Dumars) and the whole organization know I was locked in to come back better than ever to help make his play-in push and whatever comes after that.\u201d
\nWhile injuries have been a major issue for Williamson since he entered the NBA as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 draft, he has had his healthiest stretch in years over the last two-plus months, appearing in 33 consecutive games for the Pelicans. Within an article examining what\u2019s next for Williamson, Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron<\/a> (Substack link) notes that the forward has locked in a partial guarantee of at least 40% of his $42.17MM salary for 2026\/27 by appearing in 41+ games this season.
\nWilliamson could increase that guarantee to 60% of next year\u2019s salary by reaching 51 games, 80% by getting to 61 games, and the full 100% if he plays 61 or more games and meets certain weigh-related benchmarks. Even if he doesn\u2019t lock in that full guarantee by season\u2019s end, Williamson looks like a sure thing to be kept under contract through July 15 (either by the Pelicans or another team), Gozlan writes, which would also ensure his \u201926\/27 salary becomes fully guaranteed.
\nForward Trey Murphy III<\/a> (right shoulder contusion) and center Yves Missi<\/a> (left calf strain) will remain out for the Pelicans when they face Utah on Thursday, the team announced today<\/a>. It will be a fourth straight missed game for Murphy, who hasn\u2019t played since the All-Star break, while Missi sits out a fifth consecutive game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Without control of their own 2026 first-round pick, the Pelicans have no reason to tank during the second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[34556,7068,9,24,63,122,124,123,20397,54494,34506],"class_list":{"0":"post-145775","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-dejounte-murray","9":"tag-derik-queen","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-queens","14":"tag-queens-headlines","15":"tag-queens-news","16":"tag-trey-murphy","17":"tag-yves-missi","18":"tag-zion-williamson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}