New Orleans Pelicans' Top 3 Priorities During 2026 NBA Offseason

Another season is in the books for the New Orleans Pelicans. After winning fewer than 30 games for the second straight year, they need to use this summer for the rawest, harshest kind of wholesale introspection possible.

This self-reflection must begin in earnest. The Pelicans do not have a first-round pick in this year's draft. They do not have cap space. Right now, they barely have any breathing room beneath the luxury tax.

Approaching this summer as if they're basically at square one isn't just the right call. It's the only rational one. 

3. Add More Shooting

Layne Murdoch Jr./NBAE via Getty Images

Adding more deadeye snipers to the roster is a universal mandate. 

If the Pelicans are building around Derik Queen and Jeremiah Fears, they need more shooting. If they delude themselves into thinking Zion Williamson can mesh with the youngsters, they need more shooting.

New Orleans has ranked no higher than 23rd over the past six years in the share of its field-goal attempts coming from deep. It has placed higher than 15th just once since 2010-11. Clunky spacing is ingrained into its DNA.

Trades must be the primary vehicle for the Pelicans to bag more shooters. They'll have some version of the mid-level exception available, but they're close enough to the tax that we have to assume ownership will do what it does best: cheap out.

Targets should run the gamut of experience. Overpriced vets, total fliers, second-draft guys—anyone who doesn't force New Orleans to part with its own primo assets. 

Names like Klay Thompson, Sam Hauser, Corey Kispert, Gradey Dick, Max Strus, AJ Green, etc., all fall under this umbrella. The Pelicans can raise their ambitions if they're using Zion or Herb Jones as the outgoing asset, though amassing more draft equity should take precedence in those scenarios.

2. Hire a Head Coach

Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images

After mapping out an actual endgame, the Pelicans need to find the right person to steer them towards it.

Despite a less-than-flattering record under interim head coach James Borrego, the Pelicans have enjoyed more coherence since moving on from Willie Green. Their post-All-Star play was at times inspiring. They had stretches during which they punched above their weight on defense.

Whether that's enough for Borrego to shed the "interim" label remains to be seen. And make no mistake, New Orleans needs to see.

Defaulting to Borrego without holding an extensive search would be a public-relations nightmare for a team that doesn't have the goodwill built up to withstand one. A wide net must be cast. Equally important, team governor Gayle Benson better be prepared to break open the piggy bank.

Up to a dozen head-coaching gigs could be available when all's said and done. Even if the Pelicans aren't going after names with a championship pedigree, they'll have competition for first-timers and less-proven candidates. If it seems like they're outspent even when shopping in this tier, it only reinforces the idea that they have no interest in building a sustainable winner.

1. Choose a Timeline

C. Morgan Engel/Getty Images

You wouldn't necessarily know it looking at their record, but the Pelicans are trapped inside the dreaded in-between: not bad enough to truly bottom out independent of taking extreme measures, yet not nearly good enough to believe they're a couple of breaks away from hitting it big.

New Orleans has essentially been running a two-timeline approach. The disastrous results speak for themselves. So, too, do the mental gymnastics required to evaluate this team. Who are the primary building blocks: Zion Williamson, Herb Jones, and Trey Murphy, or Derik Queen and Jeremiah Fears? Are any of these names even good enough to be the answer?

Absent any alternatives coming down the pipeline in this year's draft, the Pelicans should cater to the Queen-and-Fears timeline. That means pivoting away from, well, pretty much everybody else.

Murphy is young enough—and under contract for long enough—to stick. Zion, Jones, Dejounte Murray, Saddiq Bey, etc., should all be auctioned off to the highest bidders. Even Murphy shouldn't be untouchable if a king's ransom is on the table.

Traveling down any other path is a half-measure at best and totally, irredeemably aimless at worst. Say what you will about the talent on this roster. It hasn't translated to wins—or even functional fits. The best time to start over was years ago. The next best time is now.

Dan Favale is a National NBA Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.