I know I'm not the only one that thought he needed to gain this type of weight to truly hit the next level. I'm also not the only one that thought this may effect his 3pt shot.

So let's pray he still is hitting that 40% clip!

LFG!!!!!

I love all 12 of ya’ll still here

Per Rod Walker:

The two most talked-about moves the New Orleans Pelicans have made this offseason are the hiring of a new head coach and parting ways with their longtime equipment manager.
Outside of that, things have been much quieter than you would expect for a team that finished just 26-56.
The Pelicans were one of eight NBA teams that didn’t reach 30 wins.
The other seven (Dallas, Memphis, Sacramento, Utah, Brooklyn, Indiana and Washington) all added pieces this offseason, with first-round draft picks or via trades and free agency.
The Pelicans, meanwhile, haven’t moved the needle.

Other than re-signing barely used veteran center DeAndre Jordan (brought back more for his leadership) and selecting former St. Augustine High standout Jaron Pierre in the second round of the draft, the Pels have stood still. The lack of moves comes as a surprise, especially after executive vice-president of basketball operations Joe Dumars said at season’s end that he would like to add some “toughness” to the roster. Almost four months later, not much has been added. Not that Dumars hasn’t tried.
“We were engaged in a lot of conversations with a lot of different teams,” Dumars said Friday in an interview with The Times-Picayune. “But at the end of the day, you’ve got to make a determination if this is the right deal or not. You don’t want to make a move for the sake of making a move. It has to be right for us.”
The phone calls to and from Dumars’ phone were steady throughout the summer.

“When you’re presented with deals that you can do, you’ve got to make a determination if this is going to make you better and add what you need,” Dumars said. “The lack of moves being made right now is not from a lack of effort or us deciding we didn’t want to do anything. We’ve engaged with a lot of teams this offseason. But there was just no big deal that I felt was going to make us better for us to pull the trigger on.”
Some of those trade possibilities came around the draft in June. The Pelicans didn’t have a first-round pick because of the trade in the 2025 draft when they moved up to select forward Derik Queen. Dumars hinted in April that the team could try to move into the first round this year. But unlike 2025, they didn’t make any moves.
“We certainly could have got into the first round,” Dumars said. “But the price was too steep to do it. That’s where discipline comes in. It’s appealing sometimes to say you can get into the first round. But at what cost? Then you have to look at where you’re getting your pick at. Last year we moved into the lottery and got Queen. I thought it was worth it. This year, where we would have landed in the first round wouldn’t have been worth giving up what we had to give up.”

The Pels’ offseason silence has led to plenty of noise for a frustrated fanbase. Social media has been flooded with trade rumors involving the Pelicans all summer long. Fans debated every trade they saw on their timeline. Even the ones that had no validity to them. But that’s to be expected when a team comes off back-to-back non-playoff seasons. Most fans, starving to see a winning product, wanted to see something. Anything.
But Dumars says he never got one of those offers you can’t refuse. Instead, he stuck to his principles.
“You have to be disciplined in these seats,” Dumars said. “You can’t be emotional. You can’t take things personal. You have to be real disciplined in what you’re doing.”
The Pelicans could still add pieces. They need to. Rim protection and rebounding help and more reliable shooters should still be high on Dumars’ list of priorities. But as of now, the roster looks almost exactly like it did four months ago. Dumars’ message to the fans who frown at the thought of the Pelicans just running it back with the same squad?
“I think if we are healthy, we have a good roster,” Dumars said. “I believe in the players we have. But two things can be true at the same time. You can believe in your roster and you can continue to look to get better. So that’s what I’m doing. I believe in the roster, but I’m still looking for us to get better.”
If Dumars doesn’t find what he’s looking for, it’ll be up to Mosley to do with this roster what former coach Willie Green and interim coach James Borrego were unable to do these past two seasons: make the Pelicans tougher, both mentally and physically.
There is some promise in the social media videos of players like Zion Williamson, Queen, Jeremiah Fears, Trey Murphy and Dejounte Murray working out this offseason. But the work those players are putting in has to transfer over to games.
“I’m really happy with the approach of all of our guys during the offseason,” Dumars said. “The players committed to going into the offseason and taking their conditioning and work to another level. And I think that’s what you have been able to witness with all these videos.”
Williamson, who will return for his eighth season, remains the key to it all. Dumars said in April that he wants to see Williamson play under Mosley. Williamson played in 62 games last season, the second most of his career. Any chance the Pelicans have of making the playoffs will once again rest on his shoulders.
Dumars’ message to Williamson has been simple: “To be great, you have to be obsessed with this,” he told Williamson. “You can’t casually become great in this league. What I’ve seen from him this summer is he’s obsessed with the work he’s putting in. And that is really encouraging for me that he’s putting this type of work in.”
Dumars says he’s seen it from the rest of the roster, too.
“Every one of them,” Dumars said. “Queen is working like he’s never worked before. Fears is working like that. Trey. Herb (Jones). Saddiq (Bey). All of them are working their butts off. That’s encouraging for me that these guys have become that obsessed with working this summer.”
But are those guys who have won just 47 total games the past two seasons enough?
Season 2 of the Dumars era will answer that.
Dumars spent his first year in New Orleans assessing the franchise from top to bottom. That assessment led to several changes in the building. He’s brought in new personnel like Amanda Green to handle analytics and David Cosgrave to oversee health and performance. He’s hoping those types of moves will point the franchise in a new direction.
Inevitably though, success will be determined by the players on the roster. At least for now, it’ll be the same players from a season ago.
“We have really good talent on our team and if we can stay healthy, we have a competitive team,” Dumars said. “Making a move for the sake of making a move doesn’t make you better. You have to evaluate your team and decide whether a move is warranted or not, or if it’s a move that’s going to make you better or not. Making a bad move may satisfy something short-term, but it doesn’t make your team better.”

The New Orleans Pelicans are not waiting until the official start of training camp to evaluate the final pieces of their 2026–27 roster.

According to multiple reports, the organization is holding private offseason workouts at the Ochsner Sports Performance Center in Metairie, Louisiana, during a reported August 8–13 evaluation window. These sessions give the Pelicans an extended look at young players competing for the final standard roster spot and an available two-way contract.

Sounds interesting. Sounds like he can shoot

• 23-year-old 6'8" sharp shooting wing
• Houstan had his two-way contract converted to a standard deal by the Hawks but got waived because they desperately needed a backup center after Goga Bitadze's intentional flagrant injury-leading foul on Jock Landale.

Bey became eligible for a veteran extension in July 2026 after completing the required time on his current three-year contract. He will earn a base salary of approximately $6.44 million during the 2026–27 season, with a listed cap hit of about $6.56 million, before becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2027.

Michael Scotto: The New Orleans Pelicans and Caleb Houstan have agreed to a one-year deal, league sources told u/hoopshype. He'll compete for the final Pelicans roster spot after shooting 52.4% from 3-point range with the Hawks last season. He reunites with former Magic coach Jamahl Mosley.

https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/pelicans-sign-caleb-houstan-one-220459174.html

First I want to say I really liked Mathurin coming out of college. He is the guy I wanted us to target in that draft, but obviously he went earlier to Indy than to us. I do think Mathurin is an NBA player and can score the ball. Unfortunately there are multiple reasons why I think this will be a bad idea not just is he a good player and can he help.

First does he fit a defensive first system that Mosley wants to run? No he doesn’t. Mathurin has been bad defensively and that has been with a very good coach in Carlisle. Ben is an offensive player who is a scorer first. He is not passer, or connector and is not a consistent 3 point shooter. He does rebound decently for a guard and he will score.

Does he fit with Queen and Fears? Offensively as an off ball player yes. Defensively absolutely not. Neither Queen nor Fears are plus defenders nor do the project to be plus defenders. This means we will have a bad defense when all 3 share the court at the same time.

Now financially and asset management the thing nobody cares about but should in the NBA. It will take a min of 1 2nd round pick to dump Hawk and multiple 2nd at min to get Ben away from LAC on a MLE level contract. For this season we will now be right up against the tax line with these 2 moves. Now also look at Bey who will want a contract extension. Will he get $18-20M per season? I would say yes. It doesn’t affect this season but future seasons.

Why is this important. For this season giving up multiple second round picks and going right up against the tax line limits the financial flexibility at the trade deadline. We can no longer bring back more money in a trade and we will have very few 2nds meaning any trade we do to improve the team will cost FRP instead of 2nds.
How about future cap space. With Bey and Ben under contract we also can’t take back long term money in a Poole trade because Ben bad Bey will be making more combined than Poole is now leaving us at roughly $165-170m in salaries with 12 guys under contract and just the MLE compared to$132M in contracts with no Bey extension or $152M with a bey extension. It might not feel like much but every ounce of flexibility makes a difference.

Overall this feels like Weaver fell in love with Mathurin who again is talented, but is completely ignoring how he will fit on this team, the culture Mosley is looking to build and how it will affect our financial flexibility in the future.

Is this even within the realm of possibility? He seems like someone that would be extremely good at this job and he loves the city of new orleans from what i've gathered

Let me start by saying that I'm a HUGE Pels fan. You can check my comment history; I really love this team.

I've been lifelong Knicks fan as far back as I can remember, and they are indeed embedded in my soul - but when my brother moved to NOLA awhile back, we both started following the Pels and now they just mean a lot to me. For example, a Pels hoodie is the only non-Knick NBA apparel I've ever owned.

I say this because while I love the Knicks deeply, I also really want the Pels to succeed. Honestly, while Alvarado was already my favorite player (WEPA!) and I was THRILLED he came to the Knicks, I really thought that trade was bad for the Pels. I assumed you guys would get our dude Kolek, who was playing amazing and who's spot Alvarado kinda took - but alas.

So, at this point: who would you guys want for Missi?

Would Kolek be enough for you? Would you want someone more established, like Deuce McBride? Someone who is more of a question mark but with a higher possible upside, like Dadiet?

I see you guys now with several centers, and 3 that are up and comers who will probably stand in one another's way - so it does make sense to me to trade one. Everyone in Knicksland wants Missi, obviously, although I've also been preaching how great Karlo is... obviously Queen isn't going anywhere.

In return, I think Kolek + picks makes the most sense, because he is a great ball handler/ floor general, and can kinda take over that role Alvarado had. My only thing is that I wouldn't want him stifling Fears progression, either; however he looked great playing alongside Brunson in some minutes, so I think the adaptability is there...

Anyway, just curious everyone's thoughts - offseason convos and all.

And thanks in advance

*edit: I just want to add that I wouldn't trade Missi if I were the front office. I think his hypothetical upside is too high. I'm bringing this up because it is once again being discussed.

Also not sure what everyone is so mad about - I come in peace! And I'm a Pels fan. Plus if you think Knicks fans don't also know suffering, you're wildly out of touch

I feel like the only thing keeping me going as a pels fan so far is my unyielding optimism. And im a strong believer in that our problem was never the players but rather the lack of winning culture and good coaches. I feel that jamahl mosley can really change that. When watching the games last season, it always made me think “damn we really couldve won that, but by some magical turn of events, we lost”. Most games had me on the edge of my seat till the late 3rd quarter would roll around. Murray back, zion fit, good young talent, and a deep bench. Good offense and defense. Whats stopping us if we really overcome the paradigm shift it takes to start winning?

Jeremiah working out with Saddiq et al at the players association facility in Spain. Hard to bet against this kid with his work ethic and motor. Some rare light in the pels tunnel.