New Orleans Pelicans

From Charlotte, by way of Oklahoma City

The franchise arrived in Louisiana in 2002, when the Hornets relocated from Charlotte. Three years later Hurricane Katrina forced it out again: for the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons the club played as the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets before returning for good. The Pelicans name, taken from the brown pelican on the state flag and seal, was adopted in 2013.

The early identity belonged to Chris Paul, who ran the team from 2005 until his 2011 trade to the Clippers and delivered the only division title in franchise history, in 2008. Anthony Davis followed as the first overall pick in 2012 and carried the club until his 2019 move to the Lakers. That trade, and the lottery that same year, produced Zion Williamson — first overall in 2019 and the face of everything since.

Home has been the same building throughout: the arena beside the Caesars Superdome that opened in 1999 as New Orleans Arena and has carried the Smoothie King Center name since 2014.

The record of the last three years

The most recent good season was 2023-24, when New Orleans went 49-33. It has been downhill since: 21-61 in 2024-25, then 26-56 in 2025-26, eleventh in the Western Conference and a second straight year out of the playoffs.

Last season came apart immediately. Willie Green was sacked on 15 November 2025 after a 1-12 start, and associate head coach James Borrego ran the team for the rest of the year. Joe Dumars, hired to run basketball operations, spent the season assembling a young core rather than chasing wins: Jeremiah Fears was taken seventh in the 2025 draft and averaged 14.3 points as a rookie, Derik Queen arrived through a trade with Atlanta, and Jordan Poole and Saddiq Bey came in via a three-team deal involving Houston and Washington.

Trey Murphy III led the team at 21.5 points a game, with Williamson at 21.0. Neither number translated into anything in April. Williamson, now entering his eighth season, has two All-Star selections and has still not played a minute of playoff basketball.

Mosley, and a summer of standing still

Jamahl Mosley was sacked by Orlando on 4 May 2026, after the Magic lost a first-round series to Detroit from 3-1 up. Fourteen days later, on 18 May, New Orleans hired him on a five-year deal, with Dumars making the announcement. Mosley has been explicit about what he wants the team known for, telling reporters at the schedule release that the identity would be set at the defensive end.

What he inherited is close to what finished 26-56. DeAndre Jordan re-signed on 11 July 2026 and Hunter Dickinson took a two-way contract on 7 July; Kevon Looney left for the Lakers. The one real addition was Bennedict Mathurin, drafted by Indiana in 2022 and traded to the Clippers in the deal for Ivica Zubac, who signed a two-year, $16 million contract with a player option on 26 August 2026 after his representatives arranged the withdrawal of his qualifying offer. Jordan Hawkins and Micah Peavy went to Memphis, with AJ Johnson and Trendon Watford coming the other way across the summer's moves.

The draft produced one piece of local history. Jaron Pierre Jr., a guard from SMU taken 58th overall with a pick acquired in a February 2026 trade involving the Knicks and Pistons, is from New Orleans — the first player born and raised in the city to be drafted by the franchise.

The league's own season preview was blunt about the shape of it: the Pelicans are running it back with a 26-win team and hoping internal growth is enough. The underlying numbers show where the work is. New Orleans took a higher share of its shots in the paint than any other team last season, 58 per cent, and converted them at 55.4 per cent, second-worst in the league.

Williamson, again

Training camp ran from Tuesday 29 September to Monday 5 October 2026 at the Ochsner Sports Performance Center, and the story was the same one it has been every autumn since 2019 — with slightly better evidence behind it this time.

Williamson played 62 games in 2025-26, the second-highest total of his career, including a run of 35 consecutive appearances after returning from an adductor injury, the longest unbroken stretch he has managed. He reported to camp lighter than his listed playing weight, having spent the year with performance coach Kris Chrisp, whose overhaul covered stretching, sleep and recovery monitoring as much as strength work, and extended to rebuilding the gym at Williamson's home. Dumars described his condition arriving at camp as impeccable.

Williamson's own assessment at media day was less generous: "I'm not where I want to be. I'm just not where I need to be." Around him, Murphy, Dejounte Murray, Poole and Herbert Jones form the experienced half of the roster. Jones is the obvious swing factor — a former First Team All-Defense pick who has shot 31 per cent from three over the past two seasons and whose recovery would do more for Mosley's stated defensive identity than any summer signing did.

The 2026-27 calendar, including Europe

The season opens at home against Indiana on Wednesday 21 October 2026 at 7pm, and the 82 games close against Chicago on 11 April 2027. Only 39 of them are at the Smoothie King Center, because two have been moved abroad.

In January the Pelicans play San Antonio twice in Europe: 14 January 2027 at the Accor Arena in Paris, then 17 January at Co-op Live in Manchester. For British and French ticket buyers it is the only scheduled chance to see the team this season, and the Manchester game is set for a 9.30am Central tip, which is an evening slot locally.

The home calendar is weighted towards midwinter. A five-game stand in mid-November brings Brooklyn, Memphis, Denver, Golden State and Detroit; the Lakers visit on 2 December and again on New Year's Eve; Milwaukee comes on 5 March and Boston on 28 March.

A night at the Blender

The arena is nicknamed the Blender and it is not a new building — 1999 vintage, two public seating levels with suites and club seats between them, and a reputation for being run better than it is built. Match nights start outside: the Superdome and the arena are floodlit in red and blue, searchlights go up, and jazz or brass bands play by the north entrance, which is sometimes closed off for a street party.

Inside, more than 30 concession points lean hard on local food rather than standard arena fare — jambalaya and alligator sausage from Tip Off, fried catfish, oysters and po'boys from Pier 121, red beans and rice and gumbo from the portables, two stands selling nothing but daiquiris, and bars on both levels including the Jameson Sports Bar with 20-plus taps. Section 118 holds the Hub Club, 127 premium seats with their own bar.

The entertainment is standard NBA architecture with a local accent: a voodoo-themed intro film shot around the French Quarter on the centre-hung board, a DJ and emcee driving timeout contests, a t-shirt cannon that fires up to 50 shirts at once, Pierre the Pelican working the floor and a 300-level area set aside for him with the children, plus a second mascot built as an outsized Mardi Gras king-cake baby. A review updated in July 2025 put average attendance around 17,200, close to what the building holds, and credited the staff with keeping the atmosphere up in a venue that is showing its age.