The New Orleans Pelicans reshaped their roster this offseason with a series of moves, but none were as controversial as their decision to trade for Golden State Warriors guard Jordan Poole.
Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale predicted that the transaction would go down among the ‘worst’ offseason moves by any team, as he highlighted Poole’s defensive shortcomings.
“…The Pelicans’ decision to jettison CJ McCollum’s expiring contract for Jordan Poole and Saddiq Bey,” wrote Favale of the Pelicans’ offseason move.
“Poole is coming off an encouraging campaign, but his offensive stock is nothing if not turbulent, he’s not a true floor general, and the defense with any combination of him, Queen, Fears and Zion Williamson will be a big woof.
“Bey is a good shooter, but he’s not much of a defender himself, and he’s coming back from a torn left ACL that cost him all of 2024-25.
“On top of all that, the ever cost-conscious (read: notoriously stingy) Pelicans are adding over $40 million to their 2026-27 books for reasons that are, at best, not entirely clear—and at worst, completely nonexistent.”
Poole Had a Bounceback Season
As the writer alluded to, the former Warriors guard had a breakout season in the 2024-26, averaging a career-high 20.5 points, 4.5 assists and 3.0 rebounds at decent shooting splits of 43/38/83. Poole averaged 3.5 made threes per game, which ranked ninth in the league, behind only Stephen Curry, Anthony Edwards, Malik Beasley, Brandon Miller, LaMeLo Ball, Luka Doncic, Derrick White and Jayson Tatum.
However, Poole’s defensive shortcomings were much too hard to ignore. The high-scoring guard ranked 382nd in the league in defensive rating, as the Washington Wizards allowed 117.9 points per 100 possessions when he was on the floor.
Still, Poole’s offensive numbers saw a significant tick from the 2023-24 season, when he averaged 17.4 points at mediocre shooting splits of 41/32/87.
Pelicans Expected to Stay in Lottery
Despite their aggressive offseason move, the Pelicans are not expected to compete for a playoff berth in the 2025-26 season. Oddsmakers have set the over/under of wins total at 31.5 games, a year after Zion Williamson and Co. won just 21 games.
Those projections also take into consideration that All-Star guard Dejounte Murray is unlikely to suit up for the team, as he recovers from a torn Achilles. ESPN’s Zach Kram explained why the Pelicans are likely to trend down again in 2025-26.
“What is the realistic best-case scenario for New Orleans this season, with injury risks across the roster and Dejounte Murray already recovering from a torn Achilles?” asked Kram. “The Pelicans last finished in the top six in the Western Conference standings in 2018. That was so long ago that players on New Orleans’ roster included Tony Allen, Josh Smith, Emeka Okafor, Omer Asik and Jameer Nelson; it might as well have been a different era of NBA basketball.
“With apologies for piling on the Pelicans for the strangest trade of the summer — when they sent an unprotected 2026 first-round pick from either themselves or the Bucks to Atlanta, in exchange for moving up from No. 23 to No. 13 in the 2025 draft — there’s simply way more downside than upside in 2025-26. Even when Zion Williamson played this past season, the Pelicans went 10-20, a 27-win pace that would have given them a top-10 pick.”
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