Former Orlando Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley has found his new home.

Per Shams Charania, Mosley has agreed to a five-year contract to become the next head coach of the New Orleans Pelicans. The move comes two weeks after news of Mosley’s firing by the Magic dropped following the team’s Game 7 loss to the Detroit Pistons in the first round of the playoffs.

There are multiple ways the Pelicans can benefit from having Mosley leading the roster, let’s review them.

Simply put, the last two seasons have not been kind to Louisiana’s only NBA team.

After finishing eighth in the Western Conference with a 49-33 record in the 2023-24 campaign, the Pelicans proceeded to fall below the 30-win mark in each of the next two seasons. The talent is there with players such as Zion Williamson, Dejounte Murray and Trey Murphy III, as well as young players like Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen, but the product has been less than mediocre.

When Mosley accepted the job to coach the Magic in 2021, he did not inherit a roster with nearly as much talent. Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs were drafted after Mosley’s hiring, and what they would become was not set in stone, and Paolo Banchero was still a year away.

Now, Mosley has more defined pieces, he just needs to instill the winning culture he is capable of building. The first season for Mosley at the helm of Orlando was brutal, as it went 22-60 and fell into the lottery again. However, that lottery led to the drafting of Paolo Banchero, which became the final piece to the young core that just finished its third-straight postseason trip under Mosley.

One of the Pelicans’ biggest issues is their defense, and it has been an Achilles heel the last two seasons.

New Orleans finished its 82-game slate in 2025-26 with a 117.6 defensive rating, which ranked 23rd out of 30 NBA teams. It was a slight improvement from a disastrous 2024-25 season in which the Pelicans finished with the second-worst defensive rating in the league at 119.1, but still not nearly good enough.

That is where Mosley comes in.

The Magic's identity under Mosley was rooted in defensive tenacity and presence that he began to instill upon his arrival in Central Florida, and that was at its peak during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, when they finished top 3 in defensive rating. Orlando experienced a precipitous drop-off in 2025-26, as it fell to 13th in the metric, but Mosley was the architect of great success for the Magic on an end of the floor that the Pelicans desperately need to improve.

Overall, Mosley’s floor is more promising than his ceiling, but the Pelicans should not realistically have championship aspirations right now anyway. The goal for New Orleans should be to return to postseason contention, then worry about taking the next step. 

With five years of head coaching experience under his belt, Mosley is the right man for the job. Who knows, maybe he will take the next step in his role as well.

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