The New Orleans Pelicans are employing a very polarizing roster for the 2024-25 season.
They traded for Dejounte Murray in the off-season, and are now guard-heavy without a real option to play center.
Despite not having a viable option for center, the players that they do have, when healthy, would easily start on most of the rosters in the NBA today.
But, that’s real basketball.
Today, we’re here to discuss fantasy basketball, and how the Pelicans would fair in the ones and zeroes for your own personal starting five.
The regular season is less than a month away, and mock drafts are running rampant.
In a recent mock draft from ESPN, their NBA experts got together for their second mock draft ahead of the 2024-25 season.
They used a 10-team head-to-head category format, with no New Orleans players going in the first two rounds.
Murray was the third shooting guard selected after ranking 29th in fantasy points last season and as the eighth-best point guard.
15 point guards were taken ahead of Murray in this mock draft, but he should not be expected to fall so far, as he will have more scoring opportunities in New Orleans without Trae Young on his team.
Zion ranked 88th in fantasy scoring last year, and as the 16th power forward, so they are expecting the star to take another step forward, drafting him as the sixth power forward this year after playing 70 games in 2023-24.
Williamson has worked hard all off-season to improve and show up in better shape than ever, so he could take that extra step if it all pans out.
This is an overall drop for the veteran who ranked 44th in fantasy points last season, but a rise in positional ranking after finishing last year as the ninth-best shooting guard, and being taken as the eighth shooting guard this season.
I would expect more of a fall-off than this as his workload has declined year-over-year with the Pelicans, and he may even start coming off the bench at some point this year.
This is another drop for a Pelicans player who ranked 51st overall last year and as the 10th-best small forward, now taken as the 16th small forward.
Ingram is interesting in this position as he may not even be with the team after the trade deadline.
It is going to be interesting to see how the team uses him this season, and the uncertainty could be the reason for the drop.
Murphy III finished last year ranked 141st overall and with 25 small forwards taken ahead of him.
Now, taken 35 spots higher and as the 21st small forward.
Murphy III is expected to take on a bigger role this season, and could be a pivotal part of any success the team has.
Herbert Jones finished the 2023-24 season as the 74th best fantasy player and 16th small forward.
In this draft, the Crimson Tide product was taken as the 24th small forward.
It is a precipitous drop for Jones, who is one of the best options to rack up defensive stats year-after-year, and should be taken much higher.
