October 24, 2026
October 24, 2026
New Orleans Pelicans 2025-26 Season: A Coaching Change and a Rookie Revival
The Pelicans’ 2025-26 season began with a new man in charge and a roster stripped down to the studs. Joe Dumars had replaced David Griffin atop basketball operations, and his first summer reshaped nearly everything. The results arrived slowly and painfully. New Orleans finished 26-56, lost its head coach before Thanksgiving and watched its own lottery pick land in Atlanta. Yet inside that wreckage, two rookies emerged as genuine building blocks and Trey Murphy III grew into a reliable scorer.
Dumars moved fast and without sentiment. On July 6, 2025, a three-team deal sent CJ McCollum, Kelly Olynyk and Cam Whitmore to Washington. In return, New Orleans landed Jordan Poole, Saddiq Bey and the draft rights to Micah Peavy. The trade cut ties with one of the steadiest veterans of the previous era.
Kevon Looney arrived from Golden State a day later, bringing championship experience to a thin frontcourt. Veteran center DeAndre Jordan signed just before opening night. Willie Green returned for a fifth season in the final year of his contract. Dumars chose continuity on the bench, pointing to the team’s success during its rare healthy stretches.
The draft revealed the boldest side of the new regime. New Orleans used the No. 7 pick on Oklahoma guard Jeremiah Fears, a fearless downhill creator. Then came the gamble. The Pelicans sent the No. 23 pick and their unprotected 2026 first-round pick to Atlanta for the No. 13 selection. With it, they took Maryland center Derik Queen.
The price looked steep from the start. Giving away an unprotected future first meant New Orleans had no safety net. Every loss in the months ahead would sharpen the sting of that decision.
The first weeks exposed every weakness at once. New Orleans opened with six straight losses, and three of them came by 30 points or more. Zion Williamson missed seven of the first 12 games. A brief two-game winning streak offered hope, but four more defeats quickly followed.
Murphy refused to fade with the team. He scored 41 points at San Antonio on November 8, though the Pelicans still fell 126-119. The night captured the early months perfectly. Individual brilliance kept arriving, and the team kept losing anyway.
Patience ran out on November 15. A 118-104 loss to the Lakers in NBA Cup play had dropped New Orleans to 2-10 one night earlier. The next morning, Dumars fired Green. The NBA.com report on the coaching change noted that Green had won 150 games across four-plus seasons. Dumars framed the move around consistent effort rather than the record alone.
Associate coach James Borrego took over on an interim basis. The former Charlotte head coach inherited 70 games and a locker room searching for direction. He signaled immediately that changes were coming, including a larger role for Queen. The rookie answered with 30 points against Denver four days later.
The coaching change did not stop the bleeding right away. New Orleans went 3-14 in November and 5-9 in December. Small victories still mattered. The Pelicans hung 143 points on Chicago on November 24. They clawed past Houston 133-128 in overtime on December 18, then handled Indiana 128-109 two nights later. Those wins hinted at an offense that could compete when healthy.
The middle of the schedule offered more fireworks than wins. Murphy poured in 42 points against the Lakers on January 6. He topped that with 44 at Milwaukee on February 4, but the Pelicans lost 141-137 in overtime. He finished the year averaging 21.5 points and 3.8 assists while hitting 37.9 percent from deep.
Williamson delivered his most durable season in years. He appeared in 62 games and averaged 21.0 points on 60 percent shooting. His best stretch came around the new year, with 32 points against the Knicks and 35 against Portland. Bey added scoring punch as well. He torched Memphis for 36 points in a 133-127 road win on January 23. A month later, he erupted for 42 in a 129-118 victory at Utah. Bey started 64 games and averaged 17.7 points, quietly becoming the steadiest piece of the McCollum trade.
Poole never found the same rhythm. He averaged 13.4 points in 39 games but shot just 37.2 percent from the field. His uneven play left the backcourt leaning heavily on a rookie.
Fears and Queen gave the Pelicans’ 2025-26 season its real purpose. Both earned spots in the Rising Stars event at All-Star weekend. Queen showcased rare passing instincts for a center, posting 16 rebounds and 12 assists in a win over Washington. Fears attacked relentlessly, playing all 82 games and averaging 14.3 points.
Their growth turned meaningless games into appointment viewing. Queen dropped 33 points against San Antonio in December. He finished with averages of 11.7 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists across 81 games. Borrego handed both rookies the keys, accepting the mistakes as the price of development. That trust defined the Pelicans’ 2025-26 season far more than the standings ever could.
February brought the season’s only sustained surge. The Pelicans went 6-4 that month, their only winning month of the year. At the trade deadline, Dumars sent fan favorite Jose Alvarado to New York for Dalen Terry and two second-round picks.
Then came the emotional high point. Dejounte Murray had not played since tearing his right Achilles on January 31, 2025. On February 24, he finally returned against Golden State. Murray scored 13 points in a 113-109 victory, with Williamson leading the way on 26. The game recap from his return captured a building that had waited more than a year. Murray averaged 16.7 points and 6.4 assists across 14 games.
The postseason dream died on March 24 with a 121-116 loss at New York. It marked the third time in four seasons that New Orleans missed the playoffs. The final weeks belonged to Fears. He scored 40 points in a 156-137 rout of Utah on April 7, the team’s largest win of the year. He followed with 36 at Boston and 36 more against Minnesota in the season finale.
Queen added one last statement in that season finale, hauling in 22 rebounds against the Timberwolves. The rookies were finishing stronger than they started, and that mattered.
New Orleans finished 11th in the West, five wins better than the previous season. The Pelicans edged Dallas on the tiebreaker by winning the season series 3-1. Road games remained a nightmare, with only nine wins away from the Smoothie King Center. Borrego went 24-46 as interim coach.
The Pelicans’ 2025-26 season will be remembered for what it cost and what it revealed. The draft-night trade with Atlanta hurt most of all. The Hawks received the Pelicans’ pick, which landed at No. 8 in the lottery. New Orleans entered the summer holding only the 58th selection.
Still, the rookies offered real hope. Both Fears and Queen were named to the All-Rookie Second Team, as confirmed in the NBA’s All-Rookie announcement. Their arrival gave the franchise a young core to build around beside Murphy and Williamson.
The front office closed the chapter on May 18, 2026. Dumars looked outside the organization and hired former Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley, as detailed in the report on the hire. The full statistical record on Basketball Reference shows a team that lost far too often. It also shows a franchise that found two foundational pieces in the rubble of a lost year.
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