New Orleans Pelicans Season Snapshot: C Karlo Matkovic

The New Orleans Pelicans' season did not go as planned, but it was an interesting year for almost all of the players (for better or worse). There were some surprises, some let-downs and a whole lot of information to unpack before building next year's team.

To better understand the team as a whole, it's important to break everything down to the individual level. Here's a look at what went well, what went wrong and an overall grade for Pelicans center Karlo Matkovic's 2026 campaign:

His minutes didn't really go up in year two, but Matkovic remained someone who could come in off the bench and bring in a new energy to the game. He was an ultra-efficient scorer. He finished top-10 in points per shot attempt for bigs.

The 25-year-old averaged 5.7 points and 3.7 rebounds on 60.4/42.2/73.2 shooting splits. He didn't have an especially high volume from deep, but was at least a big man who could feasibly stretch the floor. He was their best shooter in the front court, which further shows why they need some help there.

He is also a solid playmaker for his position and role. He finished in the top half of bigs in terms of assist-to-usage ratio, falling in between Alex Sarr and Pascal Siakam.

The best thing he did, though, was bring in energy off the bench. He would wake the crowd up with big dunks and always brought an electricity to the court when he came in.

The downside to Matkovic's high-level athleticism and shooting is that his strength and aggressiveness take a hit, which is more of what New Orleans needed off its bench. He was a below-average rebounder and had similar weaknesses to Derik Queen and Yves Missi, so he couldn't really be an answer in the matchups they needed someone else for.

At the end of the day, Matkovic was a draft-and-stash second round pick back in 2022 and is now in his second NBA season. He got fewer than 15 minutes per night and is just trying to extend his career in the league as long as he can. The expectations can't be too high and he continued to be good at what the team can count on him to be good at.

Matkovic isn't technically guaranteed to be on the team next season. He currently has a $2.3 million club option that the Pelicans have just over a month to decide on. At that amount, there is no reason for New Orleans not to take it and run it back with Matkovic on their bench once again.