When Jeremiah Fears dropped 40 points on Utah last April, the performance felt bigger than one hot night near the end of a lost season. He made 17 of 29 shots, added six assists and set a Pelicans rookie scoring record.
For a team stumbling toward a 26-56 finish, it offered something New Orleans desperately needed: a glimpse of what might come next.
Two games later, Fears scored 36 in Boston. He closed the season with another 36 against Minnesota.
Those nights did not erase 56 losses. They did change the conversation.
The Pelicans still have established talent around Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy III, Herbert Jones and Dejounte Murray. Bennedict Mathurin joined that group in free agency this September after averaging 17.6 points last season.
Yet the veterans cannot carry the entire burden again.
For New Orleans to climb in the Western Conference, Pelicans youth development has to move from encouraging flashes to dependable production. That starts with sophomore jumps from Fears and Derik Queen, then extends to rookies Jaron Pierre Jr. and Malik Dia fighting for smaller roles behind them.
New Orleans cannot keep waiting on the same formula
The Pelicans have spent years wondering what their roster might look like if enough variables finally cooperate.
Williamson stays healthy. Murphy keeps stretching defenses. Jones wrecks possessions at the other end. Murray settles the offense. The rotation holds together long enough for the standings to follow.
Last season delivered another reminder of how fragile that formula can become.
New Orleans won just 26 games. Meanwhile, Fears and Derik Queen emerged as two of the few reasons to keep watching closely. Both eventually earned NBA All-Rookie Second Team honors.
Now comes the harder part.
A strong rookie season earns attention. A strong second season starts changing a franchise.
Jamahl Mosley, hired in May, arrives with experience overseeing that transition. His first Orlando team won 22 games. Two seasons later, the Magic reached 47 victories as Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner and a young supporting cast assumed larger responsibilities.
New Orleans does not need to copy Orlando’s timeline.
However, Mosley must create the same basic progression. Fears and Queen can no longer live on potential alone. Their sophomore seasons need to show what kind of NBA players they are becoming.
Jeremiah Fears has the burst. Now he needs control
Nobody needed a full season to identify Fears’ best physical weapon.
He gets downhill fast.
Fears averaged 14.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists while appearing in all 82 games. Per the Pelicans’ season review, he scored in double figures 59 times and produced 17 games with at least 20 points.
Then April turned the volume up.
The 40-point night against Utah showed what happens when defenders lose the first step. Fears attacked gaps before help could arrive, finished through traffic and repeatedly forced Utah into recovery mode.
The next leap cannot simply mean scoring more.
Fears shot 33 percent from three as a rookie. His assist-to-turnover numbers improved late in the season, which offers a better clue about where his game needs to go.
He already owns the athleticism to beat one defender.
Now he must beat the entire coverage.
Against drop defense, that means keeping the opposing center caught between his floater and the rolling big. When teams switch, he needs to attack the correct matchup without dribbling ten seconds off the possession. Playing beside Williamson or Murray will demand another skill: remaining dangerous after giving up the ball.
Those details decide whether a young guard gets the final five minutes of a close game.
Fears’ sophomore leap will depend less on another 40-point explosion than on the possessions surrounding it. Cleaner reads, fewer wasted dribbles and a slightly better jumper would make Mosley’s decisions much easier.
The highlights already exist.
New Orleans needs control now.
Derik Queen must force defenders out of the paint
Queen’s rookie season told a different story.
He averaged 11.7 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists across 81 games. According to the team’s season review, Queen led all rookies in total rebounds and became the only first-year player to record multiple triple-doubles.
The passing stands out immediately.
Put Queen around the elbow and he can find a cutter behind a sleeping defender. Give him room in the middle and he can put the ball on the floor himself. Few young big men enter the league already comfortable creating those possessions.
Defenses eventually found the obvious response.
Back away.
Queen shot 47.3 percent from the field, but his outside shot did not consistently punish defenders for crowding the lane. That becomes especially important beside Williamson, another player who does his best work near the rim.
Given those spacing issues, Queen must do more than increase his scoring average.
A dependable short jumper would help. So would a floater when opposing centers sink toward the restricted area. Even a convincing pump-fake into one strong dribble could force defenders to step forward rather than wait comfortably in the paint.
Then comes the other end.
Teams will drag Queen into pick-and-rolls until he proves that tactic no longer works. Quick guards will test his feet. Stretch centers will pull him away from the basket. Small lineups will make Mosley decide whether Queen creates enough offense to survive defensively.
Late last season, he showed why the Pelicans should tolerate some growing pains.
Queen finished with 30 points and 22 rebounds against Minnesota, two nights after producing 25 points and 11 boards in Boston.
Now New Orleans needs those performances to feel less exceptional.
If Queen shoots better and survives more defensive matchups, his sophomore leap changes the shape of the Pelicans’ frontcourt.
Pierre and Dia are fighting for different stakes
Fears and Queen enter the season with defined places in the franchise’s plans.
Jaron Pierre Jr. and Malik Dia have to earn theirs.
New Orleans selected Pierre with the No. 58 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, bringing the St. Augustine High School product home after a college career that passed through Southern Miss, Wichita State, Jacksonville State and SMU.
Pierre averaged 17.6 points and 4.9 rebounds at SMU after winning Conference USA Player of the Year the previous season.
His NBA job will look much less glamorous.
Pierre will not receive endless possessions to find his rhythm. He must hit open threes, chase wings through actions and attack scrambled defenses before they recover. At the back end of a rotation, one blown assignment can matter more than one difficult make.
Dia faces an even narrower path.
The undrafted 6-foot-9 forward signed a two-way contract after averaging 14.5 points and 5.7 rebounds at Ole Miss. He flashed his physical tools during Summer League, including an 18-point, eight-rebound performance against Phoenix.
Summer League stats rarely guarantee meaningful NBA minutes.
Still, players such as Pierre and Dia matter when organizations want sustainable depth. Miami found Max Strus outside the draft. Oklahoma City gave Lu Dort enough room to turn an undrafted opportunity into a substantial NBA career.
Neither Pelicans rookie needs to follow that exact path.
They simply need one skill Mosley trusts.
For Pierre, shooting may open the door. Dia’s physical defense and rebounding could do the same.
That is where the growth of New Orleans’ young core extends beyond Fears and Queen. Successful teams do not only develop stars. They find rotation players in places where other teams see disposable roster spots.
Mosley has to let young players fail without lowering the standard
This may be Mosley’s hardest job.
He cannot hand Fears 35 minutes, give Queen unlimited touches and label every mistake part of development. Young players need freedom, but they also need consequences tied directly to basketball.
Miss the same defensive rotation twice and a seat on the bench makes sense.
Drive into three defenders on consecutive possessions and expect a correction.
Lose the shooter coming out of a timeout and hear about it during the next stoppage.
At the same time, Mosley cannot create young players who look toward the bench every time something goes wrong.
Fears still needs the confidence to shoot after two misses. Queen has to attempt the next pass after throwing one away. Pierre cannot become a floor spacer if one missed corner three kills his willingness to take another.
Mosley must make mistakes expensive without making players scared to play.
The veteran presence should help.
Williamson needs touches. Murphy deserves shots. Murray can organize an offense. Mathurin arrives as another proven scorer. Nobody has to gift the young players possessions simply because the organization wants them to develop.
They will have to take them.
That competition can accelerate the Pelicans’ youth movement if Mosley handles it correctly.
The important numbers may look boring
A sophomore jump does not always announce itself with a career-high scoring night.
Sometimes it appears in smaller numbers.
Watch Fears’ turnovers. Watch his three-point percentage. Pay attention to whether Mosley leaves him on the floor when the score tightens in the fourth quarter.
With Queen, watch who he can defend.
If smaller teams can no longer chase him off the court, New Orleans can use his passing and rebounding in far more situations.
Pierre’s most important number might simply be three-point attempts. Open shots mean defenses are testing him. Making enough of them determines whether that test continues.
For Dia, rebounds, fouls and defensive possessions may reveal more than points.
None of those measurements will dominate social media.
They might matter more than another highlight.
A young player becoming slightly more dependable changes a rotation. Two young players doing it change roster construction. Three or four can change what the front office needs to spend money or draft capital on next summer.
New Orleans needs those margins.
By spring, flashes will no longer be enough
It is easy to imagine another Pelicans season full of tantalizing moments.
Fears could score 35 on a random Tuesday. Queen might flirt with another triple-double. Pierre could hit five threes off the bench. Dia might produce a violent putback that circulates online for the next 24 hours.
New Orleans has lived on moments before.
This season has to provide answers.
Can Fears run the offense when the fourth quarter slows down and every possession becomes a half-court possession?
Can Queen defend enough lineups to stay on the floor when games become matchup-driven?
Can Pierre turn shooting into a real rotation role?
Can Dia earn five trustworthy minutes before asking for ten?
By April, Mosley and the front office should know
Those answers will influence far more than the Pelicans’ place in the 2026-27 standings. They will affect future trades, extensions, draft priorities and the organization’s patience with the veterans already carrying expensive roles.
That makes the progress of New Orleans’ young players the season’s real pressure point.
Fears and Queen already showed New Orleans what possibility looks like. Their second seasons must show whether possibility can survive scouting reports, tougher assignments and the nightly responsibility of helping a team win.
Pierre and Dia face a different test. They have to prove they belong at all.
For years, the Pelicans have waited for talent, health and timing to finally line up.
This season, they need something they can control.
They need their young players to get better.
The evidence will not require guesswork. It will show up when Fears protects the ball in a one-possession game, when Queen stays on the floor against a five-out offense, when Pierre earns another shift because opponents cannot leave him open, and when Dia turns five useful minutes into ten.
If those moments become routine by spring, the Pelicans will not need another offseason built around potential.
They will finally have proof that the roster is moving forward.
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FAQs
Who are the Pelicans’ key young players in 2026-27?
Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen lead the young core. Rookies Jaron Pierre Jr. and Malik Dia will compete for smaller rotation roles.
What did Jeremiah Fears average as a rookie?
Fears averaged 14.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists while playing all 82 games for New Orleans.
What does Derik Queen need to improve in his second season?
Queen needs a more dependable jumper and stronger pick-and-roll defense. Those improvements would help him stay effective against smaller, more versatile lineups.
Who did the Pelicans draft in 2026?
New Orleans selected Jaron Pierre Jr. with the No. 58 pick after he averaged 17.6 points and 4.9 rebounds at SMU.
Who is coaching the Pelicans in 2026-27?
Jamahl Mosley is the Pelicans’ head coach. New Orleans hired the former Orlando Magic coach in May 2026.
