Western Conference · Southwest Division
GM: David Griffin
Roster grades based on player performance, contract value, and fan sentiment.
18
Players
7
Transactions
18
Contracts Graded
*(15 active roster + 2 two-way contracts)
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Grade this team's roster:
With a 26-56 record and little left to play for this season, the Pelicans' front office work is best evaluated through a long lens — and on that front, the contract portfolio tells a more encouraging story than the standings do. The roster earns an A- Contract Value Index (CVI), a genuinely strong mark across all 18 graded contracts that suggests New Orleans has been more disciplined in its roster construction than the win column implies. That said, the distribution is lopsided in a concerning way: only 4 of those 18 deals qualify as good value, while 7 register as overpays — meaning the Pelicans are carrying a meaningful chunk of dead weight relative to production. The overpay count is particularly damaging for a team that desperately needs cap flexibility heading into what figures to be a pivotal offseason, as bloated contracts limit New Orleans's ability to pursue mid-level exceptions or absorb useful pieces in trade. The bright side is that the strong overall CVI grade indicates the team does have some legitimate value anchors on the books — contracts that could serve as attractive trade assets or foundational pieces around which to rebuild. The real challenge for the front office will be unwinding those seven overpays without surrendering draft capital or taking on worse salary in return. For a franchise at this stage, getting the cap sheet right matters more than almost anything else, and right now it's a work in progress.
With a 26-56 record and sitting as the 11th seed in the Western Conference, the New Orleans Pelicans are firmly in lottery territory this season — and their roster construction explains exactly why. The team carries zero All-Star caliber players and just two quality starters on an 18-man roster, leaving the bulk of the load on six rotation players and a bloated ten-man depth tier that is essentially roster filler at the NBA level. That top-heaviness problem cuts the wrong way here — this isn't a star-driven team dragging along cheap depth, it's a squad with no star power at all, making it one of the flattest and least threatening rosters in the league. With four transactions logged this season, the front office has been active enough to signal awareness of the problem, but not active enough to fundamentally reshape the talent ceiling. There is no realistic championship window to speak of right now — this is a developing situation at best, and a franchise that needs to treat the coming offseason as a full rebuild rather than a patch job. The silver lining, if there is one, is that a roster this thin on proven talent likely positions New Orleans for a high lottery pick, which becomes the single most important asset in the building. The outlook is bleak in the short term, but the path forward runs straight through the draft — and at 26-56 with games still to play, the Pelicans are doing themselves no favors competitively, which may ultimately be the right outcome for a franchise that needs a foundational reset.
The mood surrounding the New Orleans Pelicans right now is about as bleak as their 26-56 record and #11 seed in the West suggest — fans and media have essentially lost the thread on this franchise, and recent roster moves have done little to restore confidence. Across four graded transactions, the reaction split tells the story: two moves drew negative responses, one landed as mixed, and just one generated genuine approval, a ratio that reflects a front office operating without a clear vision. The lone bright spot is the Bryce McGowens addition, which earned a B and represents the kind of low-cost, upside-hunting move that at least signals some developmental awareness in what has become a lost season. On the other end, the Dalen Terry transaction pulled a D- and has drawn the sharpest criticism — a below-average acquisition that looks like roster filler rather than a purposeful step toward building around a coherent identity. The pattern here is unmistakably negative, with the bad outweighing the good both in volume and in the severity of the worst move, and the mixed reaction in the middle offering no real cushion. With the NBA Finals still 47 days out and the Pelicans sitting six games below the play-in cutoff, the urgency to course-correct this summer is real — but nothing in this recent transaction window suggests the front office has diagnosed the problem, let alone started solving it. Until the organizational philosophy sharpens considerably, expect fan sentiment to remain at its current F-grade floor.