NBA 2025 Offseason Check-In: New Orleans Pelicans

Hoops Rumors is checking in on the 2025 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what might still be coming before the regular season begins. Today, we’re focusing on the New Orleans Pelicans.

Free agent signings

• Kevon Looney: Two years, $16,000,000. Second-year team option. Signed using non-taxpayer mid-level exception.
• Jaden Springer: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 9). Signed using minimum salary exception.

Trades

• Acquired the No. 23 pick in the 2025 draft and the draft rights to Mojave King from the Pacers in exchange for the Pacers’ 2026 first-round pick.
  • Note: The Pelicans had acquired the Pacers’ 2026 first-round pick (with top-four protection) in a previous trade; the Pacers got it back in this deal.
• Acquired the draft rights to Derik Queen (No. 13 pick) from the Hawks in exchange for the draft rights to Asa Newell (No. 23 pick) and either the Pelicans’ or Bucks’ 2026 first-round pick (whichever is more favorable).
• Acquired Jordan Poole, Saddiq Bey, and the draft rights to Micah Peavy (No. 40 pick) from the Wizards in a three-team trade in exchange for CJ McCollum (to Wizards), Kelly Olynyk (to Wizards), the Bulls’ 2027 second-round pick (to Wizards), and the draft rights to Mojave King (to Rockets).

Draft picks

• 1-7: Jeremiah Fears
  • Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $34,193,629).
• 1-13: Derik Queen
  • Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $24,355,797).
• 2-40: Micah Peavy
  • Signed to four-year, $8,685,386 contract. First two years guaranteed. Third year non-guaranteed. Fourth-year team option.

Two-way signings

• Trey Alexander
  • One year, $85,300 partial guarantee (will increase to $318,218 at start of regular season).
• Hunter Dickinson
  • One year, $85,300 partial guarantee (will increase to $318,218 at start of regular season).
• Bryce McGowens
  • One year, $85,300 partial guarantee (will increase to $318,218 at start of regular season).

Departed/unsigned free agents

• Brandon Boston Jr. (Fenerbahce)
• Keion Brooks Jr. (unsigned)
• Bruce Brown (Nuggets)
• Jamal Cain (Magic)
• Elfrid Payton (unsigned)
• Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (unsigned)

Other roster moves

• Signed Herbert Jones to a three-year, $67,580,892 veteran contract extension that begins in 2027/28. Includes third-year player option.
• Waived Antonio Reeves (non-guaranteed contract).
• Waived Lester Quinones (two-way contract).

Salary cap situation

• Operating over the cap ($154.6MM) and below the luxury tax line ($187.9MM).
• Carrying approximately $183.7MM in salary.
• Hard-capped at $195,945,000.
• Portion of non-taxpayer mid-level exception ($6,104,000) available.
• Full bi-annual exception ($5,134,000) available.
• Three traded player exceptions available (largest worth $13,445,122).

The offseason so far

The future in New Orleans looked bright during David Griffin‘s first year as head of basketball operations in 2019/20. The Pelicans had just acquired a haul of players and draft picks headlined by Brandon Ingram from the Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis and had lucked into No. 1 overall pick Zion Williamson, who looked like a natural successor to Davis as the club’s franchise player.

However, injuries to Williamson, Ingram, and a handful of other key Pelicans players consistently derailed the team’s forward momentum. During Griffin’s six seasons on the job, New Orleans posted a winning record just twice and compiled a total of two playoff victories in a pair of brief postseason appearances.

The organization still hasn’t given up on Williamson, who has missed more regular season games (258) during his first six NBA seasons than he has played (214) and faced a lawsuit this spring accusing him of rape and abuse. But Ingram was traded in February, and Griffin was subsequently replaced this spring by former Pistons general manager Joe Dumars.

The decision to hire Dumars raised some eyebrows. The longtime executive was the architect of a Detroit team that advanced to at least the Eastern Conference Finals for six straight years during the 2000s, but the second half of his tenure with the Pistons produced underwhelming results, and it has been a while since he has even been involved in personnel decisions for an NBA team — he worked in the league office for the past three years.

Dumars’ first summer in New Orleans has been a fascinating one. On the surface, many of the moves he has made point toward a soft reset for the Pelicans. The club added a pair of rookies in the draft lottery – Jeremiah Fears at No. 7 and Derik Queen at No. 13 – and got younger in a trade that sent CJ McCollum and Kelly Olynyk to the Wizards in exchange for Jordan Poole, Saddiq Bey, and second-round pick Micah Peavy.

With Dejounte Murray still recovering from a torn Achilles that figures to keep him on the shelf for the start of the season, Herbert Jones and Trey Murphy III coming off shoulder surgeries, and even Bey still making his way back from an ACL tear, there’s a world in which the Pelicans take a patient approach to the 2025/26 campaign, wait for all their key players to get healthy, and evaluate their core players and rookies to see how they all fit together before pushing forward in ’26/27.

But it doesn’t seem like that approach is the one Dumars and the Pelicans have in mind. The price to trade up from No. 23 to No. 13 for Queen was New Orleans’ 2026 first-round pick, which will be the most favorable of the Pelicans’ own first-rounder and the Bucks’ first-rounder — that unprotected pick was sent to Atlanta for the right to draft Queen, leaving New Orleans without a first-round selection for 2026 and strongly suggesting that tanking won’t be a consideration.

If Queen turns into an impact player and that “most favorable” 2026 pick ends up in the mid- to late-teens, the trade would be a coup for Dumars. But it carries remarkable risk, given that New Orleans is coming off a 21-win season and probably won’t have its starting point guard available when the 2025/26 season tips off. In a competitive Western Conference, they’re far from a lock to make the playoffs. And while it doesn’t look like Giannis Antetokounmpo is going anywhere at this point, the Bucks’ pick has real lottery upside too in the event of an Antetokounmpo injury or trade.

Even if the Pelicans are relatively confident another 21-win season isn’t on tap, the 39-win Mavericks just provided a reminder that the flattened lottery odds open the door for a middle-of-the-pack team to claim a top pick — the Pelicans know this first-hand, having jumped from No. 7 in the pre-lottery order to get Williamson in 2019.

The pressure will be on head coach Willie Green to turn things around after a disappointing 2024/25 season. Dumars, who has long been fond of Green and nearly drafted him for the Pistons in 2003, opted not to make a head coaching change immediately after taking the reins. However, if the Pelicans underachieve again in ’25/26, it’s not to hard to imagine Green being the next NBA head coach who finds himself on the hot seat.

In addition to Fears, Queen, Poole, and Bey, the Pelicans’ other notable newcomer this offseason was longtime Warriors center Kevon Looney. While I have some reservations about the Queen and Poole/Bey trades, I liked the Looney signing — he has long been an underrated defender and rebounder, he’s still just 29 years old, and his new two-year, $16MM contract is only guaranteed for one season. He should bring some added stability to the center position after the Pelicans had to rely on rookie Yves Missi as their starter in ’24/25.

Up next

The Pelicans are carrying 14 players on guaranteed contracts for the 2025/26 season, with Jaden Springer signed to a non-guaranteed Exhibit 9 contract. Their three two-way slots have been filled.

New Orleans has about $4.2MM in breathing room below the luxury tax line, which is more than enough for a 15th man on a minimum-salary contract. While it’s possible the team will leave that spot open to start the season for the sake of flexibility, it probably makes sense for depth purposes to fill it, given that Murray likely won’t be ready to play and a few other players will be managed carefully as they return from major injuries.

Springer may be the leading 15th-man candidate for now, but the Pelicans could bring in a couple more vets on training camp deals to compete for that spot. And since whoever makes the team will likely be on a non-guaranteed contract, New Orleans will have the flexibility to waive that player a month or two into the regular season without paying his full-season salary.

The Pelicans already took care of their top extension candidate this offseason by signing Jones to a three-year, $67.6MM deal. That was a logical move that should pay off, especially if Jones – already one of the NBA’s best defenders – can continue developing and expanding his offensive game.

But that will likely be the last extension the Pelicans sign before the regular season begins. Williamson and Poole will both be eligible to sign new deals, but the club seems extremely unlikely to further invest in the duo at this point, given that they both still have multiple years left on their contracts. Poole has yet to even play a game as a Pelican, while Williamson will, at the very least, need an extended run of good health to warrant another significant commitment from New Orleans.