The New Orleans Pelicans made some moves behind the scenes heading into the 2026-’27 season, but they made a statement keeping the majority of the roster intact as they embark on a new head coaching era with Jamahl Mosley at the helm. <\/p>\n
Pelicans reporter Oleh Kosel is keeping his expectations in check, but he does see a return to the play-in bracket in the cards. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think [the expectation is] making the play-in tournament, right, so you\u2019re going to finish anywhere between 7-10. The reason I say that is because 1, you don\u2019t expect this team to just win 26 games. I think at a minimum they\u2019re going to win say 35 or so. That puts you right there for that talk of making that play-in tournament,” Kosel told WWL Radio’s Tommy Tucker. “Next thing is there\u2019s teams below them that you can pretty much pencil in. \u2026 I expect for them, Memphis, Utah, to really jump up compared to what they did last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hear the full interview with Oleh Kosel in the player above. <\/p>\n
There are a few factors working in the Pelicans’ favor, one being health. Last year the Pelicans had a host of key players navigating injuries in the preseason, including point guard Dejounte Murray, who was recovering from a torn Achilles. Rookie Derik Queen and star forward Trey Murphy also had their preseasons limited significantly due to injuries. As the team embarks on its preseason slate, beginning next week, they’ll have a full complement of players.<\/p>\n
But for Kosel, it’s the culture that’s already being established by Mosley that has things feeling different. He came in preaching defense first and he’s invested in his players in a way that has been notable, and was a frequent talking point during media day earlier this week. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s already built their confidence, their trust in him and I think that\u2019s going to pave the way, now, for them to listen to him,” Kosel continues. “Honestly that\u2019s all it takes. If a player likes a coach nowadays, they\u2019ll listen to him, they\u2019ll be more apt to carry out his wishes on the court. That wasn\u2019t, obviously, there for Willie Green the last year, year and a half, but I think it\u2019ll be there for Mosley, because it was in Orlando. It wasn\u2019t as talented of a team he has now, but he took that team to three straight playoffs and had a top ten defense three straight years.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Pelicans begin their four game preseason slate on Oct. 6 against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and they’ll kick off the regular season on Oct. 21 against the Pacers at the Smoothie King Center. <\/p>\n
MORE FROM KOSEL<\/p>\n
Who could be a surprise player for this group?<\/p>\n
\u201cAm I allowed to say Yves Missi, because I really think he\u2019s going to explode, really firm up a starting role. You\u2019re going to be counting on him for about 10 rebounds a game, 2.5 blocks a game. If he could do that, that\u2019d be a game-changer for a team that\u2019s desperate at center.\u201d<\/p>\n
Are the Pelicans gaining ground in the Western Conference?<\/p>\n
\u201cMost would say they\u2019re losing ground just based on the last two years. I think they\u2019re in good position. They\u2019ve got players on good contracts. They\u2019ve got two excellent \u2026 rookies from last year in Fears and Queen, so they\u2019re paving for the future, good guys to build the team around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Expectations for Zion Williamson<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he can be an all star performer again. I think, let\u2019s say about 23 points per game, 7 rebounds a game, but what you\u2019re going to see from him is kind of that \u2026 consistent defensive effort. That\u2019s something we never said before and that\u2019s something he did say \u2026 back in that 46-win season he was winning games down the stretch in the clutch because he was coming up with the big steal, big block, things like that. I think that\u2019s something like that. I think we\u2019re going to see him in that fashion a lot more often this year.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New Orleans Pelicans made some moves behind the scenes heading into the 2026-’27 season, but they made…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":866878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[402,355,6932,99],"class_list":["post-866877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866877","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=866877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}