Pelicans: the season so far

Jamahl Mosley enters his fourth season as head coach of a Pelicans team built around the Zion Williamson-Dejounte Murray pairing, with Trey Murphy III, Saddiq Bey and Bennedict Mathurin filling out the perimeter and rookie guard Jeremiah Fears already logging real minutes. Last season was rough: 26-56, a net rating of minus-4.4 that ranked 21st in the league, an offense that finished 20th and a defense that finished 23rd. Dejounte Murray played only 14 games. The payroll sits at $204.3 million across 19 contracts, above the $200.4 million luxury tax line and inside the $209.0 million first apron, with Williamson ($42.2 million), Jordan Poole ($34.0 million), Murray ($32.8 million) and Murphy ($27.0 million) as the four biggest numbers. The Pelicans control swap rights on their 2027 and 2030 first-round picks, own their 2028 and 2029 firsts outright, and owe second-round picks to San Antonio in both 2028 and 2029. The roster has churned all October: Julian Reese joined in September, Hunter Dickinson came and went in a single day, and Caleb Houstan, Christian Koloko, Kobe Bufkin and Jalon Moore have all cycled on and off the active list.

This is a franchise still defined by the health and availability of Zion Williamson, the alpha the team was built around since taking him first overall, now paired with a veteran table-setter in Dejounte Murray. The roster leans young, with an average age of 25.1, and the pace sits at 101.37, a tempo meant to put shooters like Murphy and Bey in space. The Pelicans have no deep-rooted conference rival; what's at stake every night right now is simpler and more urgent than any grudge: whether this group can stay on the floor together and whether last year's bottom-tier offense and defense can climb back toward respectability.

The Pelicans play at the Smoothie King Center, their home since 2002, known as the New Orleans Arena until 2014. Gayle Benson has owned the team since the 2018 death of her husband, Tom Benson. Pete Maravich's number hangs retired in the rafters, honored both for his LSU college career and his pro years in the city with the old New Orleans Jazz. Bill Russell's No. 6 has been retired by every NBA team, this one included, since August 2022. Pierre the Pelican, introduced in October 2013, is the mascot fans see courtside.

The concrete goal is a return to real playoff basketball after a 26-56 season and three straight years of falling short in or before the play-in. Getting back under the $200.4 million luxury tax line, or at least staying south of the $209.0 million first apron, shapes how much more the front office can spend to support Williamson and Murray. The open argument among fans: can a roster that already sits above the tax, with Williamson's and Poole's money on the books, add enough shooting and defense around them without breaking the bank further, and can this core actually stay healthy long enough to find out.

The Pelicans began as the New Orleans Hornets in 2002-03, when George Shinn moved the franchise from Charlotte. They play in the Southwest Division of the Western Conference, now out of the Smoothie King Center. The opener came on October 30, 2002, a 100-75 win over the Utah Jazz, with Pete Maravich's number 7 retired at halftime -- New Orleans' tribute to the city's earlier NBA team, the Jazz, who had drafted him before leaving for Salt Lake City in 1979.

Hurricane Katrina forced the franchise out of town for two seasons. As the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets, they went 38-44 in 2005-06 and 39-43 in 2006-07, playing most home games at the Ford Center before returning to New Orleans full-time in 2007-08. That season became the best in franchise history: 56-26, the first division title, a first-round win over the Dallas Mavericks, then a seven-game conference semifinal loss to the defending-champion San Antonio Spurs. The engine was Chris Paul, drafted out of Wake Forest in 2005.

The team slid after that peak: 49-33 in 2008-09 with a first-round exit against the Denver Nuggets, then a 3-6 start in 2009-10 that got Byron Scott fired, with GM Jeff Bower filling in as coach through a 37-45 finish, last in the Southwest. Monty Williams took over and led the club to 46-36 in 2010-11 and a playoff loss to the Lakers, four games to two. The NBA itself owned the Hornets by then, having bought the team from Shinn for about $300 million in December 2010. On December 14, 2011, Paul was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers for Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, Al-Farouq Aminu, and a first-round pick.

Saints owner Tom Benson bought the franchise for $338 million on April 13, 2012, and set out to rename it. That May, New Orleans landed the first pick in the 2012 draft and took Anthony Davis, adding Austin Rivers with the 10th pick and, that July, Ryan Anderson -- the league's reigning Most Improved Player and three-point leader -- in a sign-and-trade with Orlando for Gustavo Ayon. In December 2012 the team announced it would become the New Orleans Pelicans starting with the 2013-14 season, named for Louisiana's state bird, the brown pelican, after Benson's preferred names Brass and Krewe didn't stick and the Jazz declined to hand back their old name.

Across 22 seasons since the Charlotte move, the franchise's regular-season record stands at 831-937 (.470), with nine playoff appearances, two playoff series wins, and one division title -- a history defined more by relocation and rebuilding, from Shinn to the Chris Paul years to the Anthony Davis era, than by sustained postseason success.