Not to give any unnecessary hot takes, but the New Orleans Pelicans probably don’t want to repeat any of the mistakes that led them to finishing with a 21-61 record.

Especially given the fact that new Pelicans president of basketball operations Joe Dumars has already traded away the 2026 first-round pick, there is absolutely no benefit to them losing games next year.

Few things went right for New Orleans last year, but these three statistics stand out as things that, if improved, would likely signal positive change for the Pelicans:

56 Games Played

This is the most games played by a New Orleans player who finished top-11 in points per game. It was CJ McCollum, Jordan Hawkins and Jose Alvarado who made it to that many.

Zion Williamson and Dejounte Murray combined played in just 61 games, Trey Murphy III made it to 53.

The only player who was truly reliable throughout the entire season was rookie center Yves Missi, who missed just nine games.

It’s part luck and part training issues, but New Orleans simply can’t win games if their stars miss that many games this year. 

They have more depth than people give them credit for. However, when that depth struggles with injuries too, they are left with 2025 Mo Bamba playing four games and Elfrid Payton being the only thing exciting about the team for 18 games.

-9.4 Net Rating

Turns out, a team loses a lot when they struggle on offense and then give up a ton of points on defense. 

This was the Pelicans’ worst net rating in team history. The only other squad that came close was the 2004/2005 team that went 18-64 and landed the franchise Chris Paul. Even the Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson-led offense with rookie Anthony Davis that finished 27-55 had a -4.4 net rating.

New Orleans allowed 119.1 points per 100 possessions while scoring just 109.7 themselves. A recipe for disaster.

There has been a big overhaul of the offense this offseason. They moved on from McCollum for Jordan Poole, drafted Jeremiah Fears and added a playmaking big in Derik Queen. Who knows how it will look, but they are trying something.

Defensively, they just need Herbert Jones to play more than 20 games. It’s not actually that simple, but it feels like it could be.

16.2 Opponent Second-Chance Points

Adding to the defensive struggles, the real nightmare outside of Jones being out so much was the fact that the Pelicans were consistently outmatched in the paint.

The center room was highlighted as a major deficiency of the roster before the season began and it proved to be one of their biggest downfalls.

They gave up the second-most second-chance points, had the second-worst defensive rebounding rate and did poorly in just about all of those types of categories.

Missi should improve from his rookie season, which was already promising. Having Looney and Queen in the room aside him should help provide much more help off the bench.