The Pelicans rotation battle will dominate every scrimmage and substitution once Jamahl Mosley opens his first training camp in New Orleans. Last season, the Pelicans cycled through 31 different starting lineups, won only 26 games and never found enough stability to rescue the year.
Now the problem has flipped. Mosley inherits more credible options, more overlapping skill sets and more players with legitimate reasons to expect real playing time. At the center of it sits simple arithmetic: an NBA game gives him 240 regulation minutes.
Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy III, Herb Jones, Dejounte Murray, Jeremiah Fears, Saddiq Bey, Derik Queen, Yves Missi, Jordan Poole and Bennedict Mathurin can all make a case for regular run. Several will also believe they deserve to close games.
Mosley cannot solve that tension by keeping everybody happy. Someone will lose touches, another player will watch fourth quarters from the bench, and the stakes for figuring it out immediately are massive.
Before long, Mosley must establish a hierarchy that gives the Pelicans structure without wasting the depth Joe Dumars has assembled.
More talent has created a different kind of problem
The Pelicans rotation looked unstable last season because availability and fit kept changing together. New Orleans finished 26-56, ranked 21st in offensive rating and 25th in defensive rating. Opponents scored 120 points per game.
This time, Mosley walks into a different kind of mess. Murphy averaged 21.5 points last season. Williamson added 21.0. Bey produced the best scoring season of his career at 17.7 points per game, shooting 45.1 percent from the field and 36.7 percent from three.
Those are not fringe scorers begging for scraps. Then Mathurin joined them.
The 24-year-old averaged 17.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists last season between Indiana and the LA Clippers. New Orleans signed him for two years and $16 million after the Clippers withdrew an $8.8 million qualifying offer. That detail helps explain a contract that otherwise looks startlingly cheap for his production.
Mathurin brings force. He can attack a tilted defense, absorb contact and score without controlling every possession. His arrival gives Mosley another player who expects the ball, but also one who can punish second units without hijacking the offense.
The question is no longer whether New Orleans has enough NBA players. Camp will expose who gets squeezed.
Murray’s return puts immediate pressure on the backcourt
Last year, the Pelicans could afford to let Jeremiah Fears learn through mistakes.
Across 82 games, the rookie averaged 14.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists. He absorbed lead-guard reps that young players rarely receive without consequences attached.
Now Dejounte Murray is back.
Murray appeared only 14 times after spending the first half of the season rehabbing a torn right Achilles. A bruised left hand then cost him the final five games. Even within that fractured season, he averaged 16.7 points, 6.4 assists and 5.4 rebounds.
The contrast between Murray and Fears should become obvious in camp.
Murray plays with a veteran’s patience. His long arms can crowd passing lanes, while his comfort around the elbows gives New Orleans a ballhandler who does not need to reach the rim on every drive.
Fears brings a different energy. He can push after misses, attack gaps before they close and pressure the paint. He also needs live possessions to sharpen the reads that separate promising guards from dependable ones.
Mosley cannot give both unlimited runway. Starting them together would preserve Fears’ development but squeeze another wing. Bringing Fears behind Murray would create cleaner roles, though it could reduce his exposure to starters.
Someone is going to lose playing time, and Mosley will have to manage the bruised ego that follows.
Mathurin turns Poole’s role into a real fight
Jordan Poole once looked like an obvious source of instant offense. After averaging 13.4 points in 23.9 minutes last season, he enters camp with considerably less security.
Mathurin’s arrival intensifies the battle.
Poole can still ignite a quarter with a pull-up three or sudden scoring burst. Yet his case becomes harder when New Orleans needs size, defensive resistance or low-maintenance offense around Williamson and Murphy.
The September trade of Jordan Hawkins and Micah Peavy appeared to loosen the perimeter logjam. New Orleans received AJ Johnson and Taj Gibson, then waived Gibson the next day. The deal cleared bodies, but it did not clear Poole’s path.
Now every stint carries a basketball question. Does his shot creation outweigh what the lineup surrenders defensively? Can he share possessions with Murray? Will Mosley trust him late when Mathurin offers more size?
Those answers will shape the Pelicans rotation long before any public depth chart does.
The center battle could change every other lineup
The next choice reaches beyond who starts at center.
Derik Queen averaged 11.7 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists as a rookie. Those passing numbers matter because Queen can catch at the elbow, trigger handoffs and punish a defense that sends extra attention toward Williamson.
Yves Missi offers a more conventional vertical threat. He averaged 5.7 points and 5.8 rebounds last season, with most of his offensive value coming after he gives up the ball: screen, dive, rebound, repeat.
Whichever big man earns the first job will completely rewrite the geometry of the Pelicans’ offense.
With Queen, Mosley can run possessions through the center. Murphy can curl around handoffs. Murray can attack after a quick touch pass. Jones can cut behind defenders who turn their heads toward Williamson.
Missi creates a more traditional pick-and-roll picture. His rim runs can drag a center deep into the paint, though that same gravity can crowd Williamson’s driving lanes when the other three players fail to stretch the defense.
Small-ball lineups offer the most aggressive alternative. Williamson at center could open the lane and surround him with Murphy, Jones and another downhill creator. The offense gains speed and spacing immediately, but the defensive glass becomes the trade-off.
Mosley cannot treat the center battle like a routine depth-chart exercise. His choice will influence where Williamson catches the ball, how much room Murray gets in pick-and-roll and whether New Orleans can keep enough shooting around both.
Defense gives Mosley his cleanest way to separate them
Eventually, the Pelicans rotation battle needs one standard that cuts through salary, draft position and scoring averages.
Defense gives Mosley that standard.
His best Orlando teams used size and mobility to take away easy matchup hunting. Mosley’s defenses could switch across several positions, keep the ball in front and force opponents deeper into possessions.
That history gives camp a clear lens. Jones already provides a premier point-of-attack defender. Murphy brings length behind him. Murray owns an All-Defensive selection and still has the reach to bother ballhandlers when his legs are right.
Williamson faces a different challenge. He must defend inside a connected five-man concept, because New Orleans cannot surrender clean rotations simply to preserve his energy for the other end.
If Mosley switches more aggressively, Williamson must communicate early, hold his ground in space and finish possessions with rebounds.
The same accountability stretches down the roster.
At his introductory press conference in May, Mosley offered a line that could become the defining rule of this camp: “As the team rises and expectations rise, that communication level needs to rise with it. And that accountability has to rise.”
That sounds broader than defensive scheme, but on this roster the two ideas collide.
Poole has to stay connected away from the ball. Mathurin must prove his scoring does not come at the expense of the next rotation. Bey needs to defend well enough that his shooting keeps him on the floor.
When two players offer similar offense, Mosley can reward the one who tags the roller, closes under control and survives the next switch. Should Queen and Missi remain close offensively, the big man who communicates behind the play, protects the rim without chasing blocks and controls the glass gives his coach fewer fires to extinguish.
New Orleans finished 25th in defensive efficiency last season. The front office hired Mosley specifically to change that identity, which makes defense more than another training-camp emphasis.
It can decide jobs.
The real hierarchy will appear late in games
The Pelicans rotation does not need to be permanent by opening night, but it does need to feel intentional. Ten or eleven players may believe they deserve closing run. Mosley cannot treat every fourth quarter like a fresh negotiation.
His challenge reaches beyond drawing up combinations.
Fears needs an honest explanation if Murray takes the starting job. Poole needs a defined path toward earning late-game trust. Queen and Missi need to know which habits separate them.
Mathurin needs enough touches to use his scoring without turning every bench possession into an audition. Williamson, Murphy and Jones need something different: lineups that amplify what they already do best.
That is why the most revealing part of camp may not be the starting five.
Watch who closes scrimmages and which guard gets the ball after a timeout. Pay attention when Mosley leaves a scorer on the bench because the group already on the floor has strung together three clean defensive possessions.
Those decisions will reveal the hierarchy before any depth chart does.
New Orleans spent last season changing lineups because injuries and inconsistency kept forcing its hand. This season begins with the opposite challenge: too many credible claims on too little floor time.
For Mosley, that makes his own message about accountability especially relevant. Hard conversations are coming. Some may involve young players who want more responsibility. Others may involve established scorers who believe their résumé should guarantee a larger role.
The Pelicans rotation puzzle will not disappear after one week of camp. Injuries, matchups and performance will keep moving the pieces.
Mosley still has to draw the first line.
He does not have to make everyone happy. He has to decide who fits.
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FAQs
Who will start for the Pelicans in 2026-27?
New Orleans has not settled every role yet. Jamahl Mosley can use training camp to sort a crowded backcourt and decide between several frontcourt combinations.
How does Dejounte Murray’s return affect Jeremiah Fears?
Murray gives New Orleans an experienced lead guard again. Fears still needs meaningful reps, so Mosley must balance immediate stability with the teenager’s development.
Where does Bennedict Mathurin fit in the Pelicans rotation?
Mathurin gives the Pelicans another downhill scorer who can attack without dominating every possession. His arrival increases competition for wing and guard playing time.
Who will play center for the Pelicans?
Derik Queen and Yves Missi offer different styles. Queen adds passing and playmaking, while Missi provides screening, rim running and a more traditional interior presence.
What could decide the Pelicans’ closing lineup?
Defense may become Mosley’s tiebreaker. Players who communicate, rotate cleanly, rebound and survive switches can earn trust when several scorers offer similar offensive value.
