New Orleans Pelicans Begin Season Among Bottom Five In NBA Power Rankings

The New Orleans Pelicans are an endlessly interesting team in terms of how this season is going to play out. They are confident that they have the talent to turn their previous struggles around, but the rest of the basketball world isn't exactly as confident. Someone will be right in the end.

The NBA has released its yearly power rankings before the season tips off on Tuesday afternoon. At the opening of this year, the Pelicans will begin as the No. 26 team, right inside the bottom five of the league. They are sandwiched between the Chicago Bulls right below and the Los Angeles Clippers right above, which feels accurate to how these squads have been viewed for the past few months.

Both sides of the argument on how the his season will play out have valid points.

This is a team that has consistently underperformed and has failed to reach 30 wins in back to back seasons. The leadership group does not have the trust gained to just follow their vision.

Infamously, they didn’t have a first round pick to add another top young talent on their team to lean on. Instead, their top addition was Bennedict Mathurin, who is at least expected to begin the year on the bench.

Mathurin is a former top 10 pick and could end up as a steal, but he doesn’t have the cachet to have people assume he’s going to turn this team around. 

Jamahl Mosley is a respected coach, but this is his first season at the helm. There is a lot to fix from the past two years, and that could take time. 

From the Pelicans’ standpoint, though, they seem confident that coaching was the biggest issue at hand. Now that they have competent leadership, their talent can potentially reach their ceiling.

Even though they didn’t add a ton in the offseason, the fact that they are fully healthy finally has the team at least feeling new. Dejounte Murray at 100% should, in theory, have a large impact.

It really does feel like this season could play out in a few different ways. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were to fly up the rankings by the end of the year, but it’s just as believable that they end up right back down in the bottom five. The Western Conference is tough and climbing back into even the Play-In will be no easy task.