![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/dumass-scaled.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nNEW ORLEANS \u2014 When Jamahl Mosley and Joe Dumars sat down for their first interview, As the head of basketball operations for the New Orleans Pelicans, Dumars didn\u2019t waste any time asking the question many people wondered during the final days of Mosley\u2019s tenure as Orlando Magic coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, \u2018What the hell happened?\u2019\u201d Dumars said jokingly. \u201cRight out of the gate.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Orlando\u2019s epic collapse in the Eastern Conference playoffs after grabbing a 3-1 lead over the top-seeded Detroit Pistons led to Mosley\u2019s firing earlier this month, Dumars wanted to focus his attention on Game 6 of that first-round series. That game will probably go down as Mosley\u2019s lowest Magic moment.<\/p>\n
In that loss, Orlando scored just 19 points in the second half and became the first team in the play-by-play era to blow a 24-point lead at home in a closeout game. Dumars and Mosley went into painstaking detail about everything in that second half, from Mosley\u2019s timeouts to the adjustments he made as things unraveled and even his interactions in the huddle.<\/p>\n
As painful as it was to relive that night, Mosley said it was beneficial to talk through everything that went wrong \u2014 and what he learned from those mistakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s easy for everybody to say, \u2018Hey, we missed a bunch of shots.\u2019 That\u2019s true, but there\u2019s a process that leads to each of those shots,\u201d Mosley said. \u201cIt was great to walk it backwards, because it then told you about the demeanor of our guys. What was happening in those moments when you\u2019re down?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mosley was introduced on Tuesday as the new head coach of the New Orleans Pelicans, and many of his ideals align with Dumars\u2019 vision for the future of the franchise.\u00a0They both have spoken about their desire to make defense the No. 1 priority for everyone \u2014 and they mean everyone \u2014 on the roster. They also have spoken forcefully about making accountability and physicality a non-negotiable as New Orleans forms a new identity.<\/p>\n
As much as both Mosley and the Pelicans want to look to the future, learning and growing from past mistakes will be the only way this marriage works.<\/p>\n
That loss in Game 6 was a great encapsulation of what went right and wrong during Mosley\u2019s five years in Orlando. The defensive mindset his teams embraced often allowed them to overachieve, even when they dealt with bad injury luck. But Mosley\u2019s detractors often complained about his team\u2019s lack of offensive innovation or its ability to find solutions when things got stagnant.<\/p>\n
Installing his defensive ideals will be key to getting the Pels back to being competitive consistently in the treacherous Western Conference. But for them to reach greater heights, there has to be an evolution among the coaching staff and within the roster.<\/p>\n
Mosley steps into this situation already having a much deeper group of offensive threats than he ever had in Orlando. That will require some growth from him as an offensive tactician and a more flexible play caller to make sure all those weapons get involved.<\/p>\n
Mosley is bringing over four assistants he worked with in Orlando. Bret Brielmaier will be his offensive coordinator, Dale Osbourne his defensive coordinator. Randy Gregory will serve as head of player development, while God Shammgod will play a hybrid role as a player development coach and a voice Mosley trusts on in-game adjustments. Pressure will fall on those guys, particularly Brielmaier, to show some growth from their Orlando days.<\/p>\n
But there will also be pressure on the Pelicans\u2019 players to fully commit to Mosley\u2019s hard-nosed style, an effort to show they\u2019re willing to go above and beyond to move past all the losing they\u2019ve done the past two seasons.<\/p>\n
Zion Williamson and Trey Murphy III are obviously immensely talented on the offensive end. But are they willing to set the tone with their defense on a nightly basis?<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can score in this league all you want. You\u2019ve got to get some stops at some point,\u201d Dumars said. \u201cIt\u2019s something (Mosley) and I talked a lot about throughout this process. It\u2019s not like we\u2019re going to forget about offense \u2026 but you also have to defend. That was a huge selling point for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Joe Dumars, left, hopes Jamahl Mosley can instill defensive toughness into the Pelicans. (Gerald Herbert \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n
While there are some legitimate gripes about Mosley\u2019s sluggish Orlando offenses, there\u2019s no denying that he turned the Magic into an elite defensive team. Though they dropped to 13th in defensive rating this season, they ranked second and third the previous two seasons. They were widely considered one of the most physical teams in the league and bullied opponents who weren\u2019t ready to match their physicality.<\/p>\n
Even if all the pieces don\u2019t make sense right now, Mosley\u2019s track record shows it\u2019s only a matter of time before he has the Pelicans defending with the same type of effort and intensity.<\/p>\n
The bigger question facing this roster isn\u2019t about how quickly it will buy into Mosley. It\u2019s more about whether the current players are capable of defending at that level. New Orleans\u2019 four most important assets \u2014 Williamson, Murphy, Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen \u2014 haven\u2019t necessarily prioritized defense.<\/p>\n
Williamson has shown flashes of being an impactful defender, but his effort and focus on that end have been unpredictable at best. Murphy was much better in certain areas last season, but he\u2019s never been more than an average defender. Although Queen and Fears went through the typical rookie growing pains, some of their physical limitations suggest they may have trouble defending larger players.<\/p>\n
Per Cleaning The Glass, when Williamson, Murphy, Fears and Queen were on the court together last season, the Pelicans posted a horrid 124.2 defensive rating. That\u2019s nearly three points higher than the Washington Wizards\u2019 league-worst 121.5 defensive rating.<\/p>\n
The combination that matters most will be Williamson and Queen in the frontcourt. The Pelicans tried starting them together for a stretch last season, but the defense was so bad \u2014 a 122.8 defensive rating, per Cleaning The Glass \u2014 that the coaching staff had no choice but to separate them.<\/p>\n
Dumars and the front office are committed to keeping Williamson in New Orleans for the foreseeable future, and Queen certainly isn\u2019t going anywhere after everything the Pels invested to get him in last year\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n
Some will say it\u2019s Mosley\u2019s job to get these guys to defend at a higher level. But it falls on Queen and Williamson to show a greater level of pride in their defense and the example they set for everyone else on the team. The Pelicans aren\u2019t going anywhere until the best players on the roster evolve and take their defense more seriously.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think part of defense is strategy. Some of it is philosophy. The other side is will and want to,\u201d Mosley said. \u201cThe combinations are going to be all over the place because there is such a talent level with this group. We\u2019ve got to find out what works best and guys that can play off each other. The high IQ (for Williamson and Queen) is helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mosley\u2019s evolution as an offensive coach doesn\u2019t just start with being more creative with his offensive calls. With all the offensive talent he gets to utilize, he must demonstrate that he has the right feel for when to hand the ball to Williamson and let him cook versus turning to some of the other players and allowing them to spread their wings.<\/p>\n
Mosley\u2019s Magic teams were often at their worst when star Paolo Banchero was playing heavy doses of isolation ball. The danger for New Orleans is falling into the same offensive traps Orlando did \u2014 predictable half-court possessions in which one star initiates while everyone else stands around and watches.<\/p>\n
Mosley has to show he can put Williamson in positions to succeed while also doing the same for Murphy, Fears, Queen and others. And that may require trying some different things. Maybe even showing a different side of himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a big-time fan of read-and-react (offense). \u2026 It\u2019s finding windows, finding slots and knowing who you\u2019re playing with,\u201d Mosley said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t always have to be pick-and-roll heavy. Guys need to be able to move off the ball, creating for each other. The drive-and-kick game, I love. \u2026 Because we have versatility, a lot of the parts are interchangeable.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there\u2019s also that definition of what you need to do when that ball is in your hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some fans fear that Mosley\u2019s approach and mentality will be more of the same after Willie Green failed to diversify what the Pels did on offense the past few seasons. Those within the organization reject that notion.<\/p>\n
Mosley was hired to change the Pelicans\u2019 culture, but culture change only matters if the franchise\u2019s most important figures are willing to change with it. Mosley has to show he\u2019s just as committed to making the necessary changes to help this organization get back to the playoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW ORLEANS \u2014 When Jamahl Mosley and Joe Dumars sat down for their first interview, As the head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,6932,11950,99],"class_list":["post-668295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-orlando-magic","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}