Should The Pelicans Pursue Ja Morant?
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both - Robert Frost
With the NBA trade deadline just under three weeks away, the New Orleans Pelicans stand in last place with a record of 10-35. The Pelicans’ season has been defined by chronic problems—porous defense, the NBA's worst guard and center play, and rookies being thrown into roles they aren't ready for. This failure has exposed the team’s core conflict: a veteran group ready to win now, and a young group that needs time to grow. The Pelicans have signaled to the league that Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy III, Herb Jones, Derik Queen, and Jeremiah Fears are off the table. If they hold firm, their task becomes clear: find a way to help their veterans win without sacrificing the future. The current two-timeline strategy is failing. The right trade, however, could connect them.
The Pelicans are effectively fielding two teams: a savvy veteran group built to compete for the playoffs, and an inexperienced young core still learning the NBA game. This creates incentives that are fundamentally misaligned. The young players need development, but throwing Fears and Queen into the deep end as starters has been a well-intentioned disaster. While the front office wants to see them start alongside the veteran core, the result has been a crushing -10 net rating when the duo shares the court. In those minutes, the team struggles to defend, turns the ball over at a high rate, and is routinely outmatched physically.
When the Pelicans pivot to more veteran-heavy lineups, however, the improvement is dramatic—particularly on defense. The team’s defensive rating plummets from 123 when the rookies play to 111 when they sit, a swing that would represent a leap from the league’s worst defense to a top-three unit. The coaching staff and veterans are clearly capable of executing high-level defensive schemes, but navigating the developmental minutes for the rookies remains an overwhelming challenge.
In a lost season, the logical long-term play is to let the rookies start and learn through their mistakes. But how does a front office—one without its own first-round pick—sell that plan to the veterans it has labeled untouchable? Players like Trey Murphy III, Herb Jones, and Zion Williamson are in their competitive primes. Murphy, in particular, is in the midst of a career year. Does the rest of the roster deserve to remain in limbo, their own timelines stalled, while the rookies find their footing?
This fractured timeline demands resolution from the front office. If the veteran core of Williamson, Jones, and Murphy is truly untouchable, then the Pelicans have to act aggressively and acquire talent that lifts their competitive ceiling. This is why a pursuit of Ja Morant represents the rare opportunity to solve the immediate point guard crisis while aligning the franchise’s warring timelines.
Morant offers the veterans a co-star and the rookies a much-needed shield from the pressure deliver. His presence would steady the offense, relieving the creation burden on both the established core and the developing youth. Fears in particular would be able to take on the more manageable role of leading the bench units.
The on-court fit is tantalizing: a Williamson-Morant pick-and-roll would generate historic rim pressure, while Murphy's gravity would clear driving lanes. Furthermore, it would unlock creative two-man actions, such as using Queen's passing vision to unleash Morant's elite athleticism as a cutter moving without the ball.
The strategy isn’t without risk. The risks are severe and well-documented. The combined injury history of Williamson and Morant represents a massive portfolio risk and the off-court concerns are non-basketball variables that must be priced in.
But these risks must be weighed against the cost of the alternative: the path of inaction. Standing pat means committing to another 30+ games of the same futile experiment, another year of Williamson and Murphy’s prime spent in the lottery, and the increased likelihood of frustration boiling over within the “Win-Now” core. It means watching the value of your veteran assets stagnate or depreciate while your rookies develop within a losing culture.
It’s also because of these risks that Morant is available in the first place, and at such a low price. If the Pelicans have the opportunity to flip the contracts of Jordan Poole or Dejounte Murray, two expensive misfits, for Ja Morant with only light additional compensation, then the move stops being a gamble and becomes a necessity.
There is no risk-free path out of last place. The question for the Pelicans’ front office is which set of risks they are willing to accept. The franchise stands at a clear fork in the road. And if the organization’s priority is truly the “veteran business”—protecting the primes of Zion Williamson, Herb Jones, and Trey Murphy III—then the choice ahead becomes obvious.
