The New Orleans Pelicans took the court for the first time under Jamahl Mosley in their preseason opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder. It was an uneven game where the starters got down early, and the bench unit had to lead a 24-point comeback to win the game 116-110.

This was the first game of the preseason under a new coach and a new system. No one should overreact to just one game, but here are a couple of takeaways from four quarters of action:

Mosley rolled out a lineup of Dejounte Murray, Herb Jones, Trey Murphy, Zion Williamson and Yves Missi. While they didn't perform great in this stint together, that is likely going to be the group that begins the season. It is the lineup that has been most commonly assembled for the past few months based on the talent at hand and the desire to win.

That being said, this is a talented team who could see a couple of different players force their way into more playing time.

Seeing the starting lineup get rolled by the Thunder B-team certainly wasn't an encouraging start to the year, but again, it's just one game. Both the offense and the defense are going to need time to click.

There was a lot of talk about defense this offseason and that has been the main focus over the team since camp started. While Oklahoma City hit a bunch of shots early, the increased communication was easy to notice.

They also can't ignore the offensive side of thing completely, as it was bland and predictable last year. Again, things to like (some of which will be touched on later), but it's going to need a lot more time before it starts to look any different from last year overall.

This bench has the chance to be an X-factor for the team. There is a ton of talent who could have bigger roles on other teams. Saddiq Bey was almost inarguably the Pelicans' third-best player last season; now he'll return to the bench while the roster is healthy.

Bennedict Mathurin was the team's biggest addition this offseason, but he won't be a starter (at least to open the year). He led the team in scoring in the preseason opener with an efficient 13 points.

The rookies from last year, Derik Queen and Jeremiah Fears, are both going to begin the year off the bench. 

New Orleans will probably see a lot of fluidity within the rotations this year, going to matchups to see who needs to be on the court. That depth and versatility could be something they haven't had in a while.

This is going to need to keep up into the season to be an actual asset for this offense, but after an offseason of talk it was nice to see Williamson and Queen actually attempt a couple of threes in this game. They combined for 2-of-3, which would be massive compared to what they provided together last year. Williamson took four threes all year long.