After losing 137-106 to the Thunder earlier today, the Pelicans remain one of only two teams without a win on the season, along with the Nets, who are currently seeking their first win of the season against the Sixers.
The rough start has set off alarms around the NBA media landscape, not just for the record, but also for the manner in which they have occurred. It was previously reported that head coach Willie Green could be on the hot seat after winning just 21 games last season.
Rylan Stiles of Locked On Thunder wrote (via Twitter) during Sunday’s game that the team appeared to have quit on Green, noting the lack of player engagement on the bench. The Ringer’s Zach Lowe echoed the sentiment in a tweet, in which he said the team looked broken across the board and speculated that Green likely had to be feeling some level of personal pressure given the state of the team’s performance.
This performance comes after previous reporting that the players seemed to be tuning Green’s messaging out at times.
The Pelicans have given up at least 120 points in each of their six games, and The Athletic’s Law Murray notes that three of the last four games have been 30-point losses (Twitter link).
William Guillory of the Athletic added (via Twitter) that last season, the team’s disappointing performances could be largely chalked up to injuries, but that this year’s Pelicans are relatively healthy, making it harder to justify the lackluster performance. The team is missing Dejounte Murray, who is still rehabbing from an Achilles rupture, but was otherwise at full strength today. Guillory adds that if New Orleans is unable to turn things around dramatically, a change in leadership feels inevitable.
Bret Siegel of Clutch Points notes that multiple players have already expressed frustration with the state of the team (Twitter link).
The Pelicans’ inability to accumulate wins will be under particular scrutiny this season, given the draft-night trade they made with the Hawks to select Derik Queen with the No. 13 overall pick. The Pelicans gave up their unprotected 2026 first in the deal, despite the consensus strength of the top of the 2026 draft class. Queen played just 6:51 in Sunday’s loss, scoring four points.
After missing much of the preseason recovering from a left wrist injury, Queen has played in all of the team’s games this season, coming into Sunday with averages of 8.0 points, 5.4 assists, and 0.8 blocks in 19.6 minutes per game.
They are a bad team, but losing to okc won’t factor in. It would be if they get crushed by Wiz, Kings, Suns, Hornet the other bottom teams.
Hire new coach. Win a handful of games. “We fixed it!” Lose the rest of the season. Zion plays 20 games max. Rinse and repeat next year as his trade value circles the toilet bowl. Jones forces a trade OR more likely they trade him for whomever is 2027s version Kemba Walker. Sad sad sad
why am i a fan of this team. felt so much promise at the end of the ‘23-24 season, been downhill ever since.
I love Fears & he’s been looking better & better but if they wanna win games now Jose should be starting.
This franchise has sucked since it was the charlotte hornets… then again.. was Chris Paul a hornet or a pelican? lol
ha, the mythical hornican.
Remember when they were the first seed for like the first 20 games 2 years ago? Yeah maybe that was their peak