Jeremiah Fears Is Up to 39.4 Minutes a Night
Over his last five games last season, the Pelicans guard played 13.6 more minutes a night than his season average.
Jeremiah Fears averaged 39.4 minutes a night over his last five games last season, through the Pelicans' April 12 game. That is 13.6 minutes above his season average of 25.8, in a 2025-26 season that ran 82 games.
That gap is not small. Fears went from playing about half a regulation game to playing nearly all of one, in the final stretch of the season. His scoring average for the season sat at 14.3 points, built mostly on the lower workload. A jump of this size changes what that scoring rate means, because more minutes usually mean more shots and more chances to produce.
For this to hold, the Pelicans would need to keep leaning on Fears at this same rate going forward, treating him as a full-time starter rather than a rotation piece. For it to change, the minutes would need to come back down toward that 25.8 average, whether by design, matchups, health, or a return to a deeper rotation.
Either way, the five-game window is the headline. Thirty-nine minutes a night, sustained, is a different player than one at twenty-six.