Pelicans after 10 games: What’s going on with Willie Green, Zion and the rookies? – The Athletic
The Pelicans are 10 games into the 2025-26 season, and things are going about as poorly as possible.
New Orleans is 2-8, Zion Williamson is already injured and coach Willie Green might have the hottest seat in the NBA.
There were some signs of life with this team recently, but things came crashing down again Monday night when the Pelicans got crushed by the Phoenix Suns 121-98 in a game that included Grayson Allen scoring a career-high 42 points and breaking the Suns’ single-game record with 10 3-pointers.
It’s been that kind of season for the Pelicans.
Let’s look back at some of the team’s biggest developments since the start of the season.
Not easy being Green
The No. 1 topic of conversation around the Pelicans the past few weeks has been the demand from fans to fire Green amid the fifth-year head coach’s struggles to get consistent effort from his players.
Monday’s loss was another example of the poor execution and lack of creativity that have plagued this group all season. It’s not just the shortage of talent — Williamson and Jordan Poole are sidelined by injuries — that has hurt the Pelicans.
In several of these games, they’ve looked lost on both ends of the floor. They look unprepared and uninterested. That falls directly at the feet of the head coach.
Will Green lose his job soon?
After a horrid 0-6 start, Green seemed to stabilize things before Monday’s ugly loss. The organization has consistently shown a willingness to give him the runway to turn things around. It doesn’t seem like there’s been much of a rush to send him on his way.
When the Pelicans returned home after a road trip that ended in a blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Nov. 2, I received calls the following day from people inside and outside the organization who were shocked he hadn’t been fired. He survived that time, but the road ahead is even more treacherous.
New Orleans is heading into a five-game homestand that includes visits from the Portland Trail Blazers, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Golden State Warriors, Oklahoma City and the Denver Nuggets. That might be the most difficult five-game stretch on the Pelicans’ schedule.
If the Pelicans keep playing with such inconsistent effort, their home fans will rain down a chorus of boos — and, in particular, on Green — which could prove tough for ownership to ignore. It might get ugly over the next week.
The one saving grace for Green over the last few games is the way he’s starting to piece together a vision that puts rookie sensations Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen in positions to succeed. They’ve both seen their roles increase significantly in recent games.
If those two continue to grow and Green finds interesting ways to use them, that would be his best path to keeping his job. The future of this franchise is all about figuring out how to get the most out of Fears and Queen. Frankly, that may be his only hope as this team continues to reside at the bottom of the Western Conference.
What’s going on with Zion?
Williamson has played in half his team’s 10 games, and despite putting up big numbers in a few of those outings, fan angst is as high as ever over his lack of durability, especially given how crucial his presence is to this young roster.
Williamson has missed the last four games after New Orleans announced a week ago that he’d be out seven to 10 days with a Grade 1 left hamstring strain. The good news is that the team’s timeline indicates Williamson should return at some point during the upcoming homestand. The bad news is that this is the fourth season in a row Williamson that has missed games with a hamstring injury.
The first, and most severe came in January 2023, when he injured his right hamstring. In the last three seasons, he’s missed time with a left hamstring issue.
Williamson’s numbers (22.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, 48.7 percent from the field) haven’t been up to his usual standards, but he has come through with a few flashes of brilliance.
Williamson said before the season that his presence on and off the court would be essential to this team’s success. To this point, he’s been lacking in both of those areas, and his play has contributed mightily to the Pelicans’ inability to find consistency.
If New Orleans has any chance of being respectable this season, Williamson has to take more ownership of everything that’s going wrong with this team.
Most shocking stat
There’s a long list of damning numbers attached to the Pelicans’ performance through 10 games, but here’s the one that stands out the most:
The return of the three-man grouping of Zion, Herb Jones and Trey Murphy III was supposed to provide a baseline of competitiveness most nights, even with some younger players in the rotation. It’s been a small sample size, but the results haven’t been good when those three play together.
Per Cleaning The Glass, Williamson, Jones and Murphy have played 161 possessions together, and the net rating with them on the floor is minus-11.5. The fluidity on offense has been lacking, and even more concerning, the effort has been inconsistent.
There’s no doubt these three can have success together. They’ve done it before. That makes their struggles this season even more concerning.
These are supposed to be the unquestioned leaders of this team. If they can’t feed off each other and get this team moving in the right direction, the Pelicans will have to start considering some difficult decisions about their future as a trio.
Biggest reason for optimism
The emergence of Fears and Queen has been the one shining light this season, and it has finally provided Pelicans fans with something they can look forward to.
After drafting Fears and Queen in the lottery, the pressure was on the Pelicans to hit on both picks to provide a light at the end of the tunnel, since the franchise could no longer afford to place all its hopes on Williamson finally getting it together.
The most important part of Fears and Queen performing the way they have in these 10 games isn’t just that they’ve shown how talented they are. It’s that both of them have displayed skill sets that make them potential table setters on offense rather than play finishers.
Fears already has an exquisite handle, and he’s been electric when in open-court situations. He has also shown steady improvement in decision making in pick-and-roll situations.
After becoming the punchline of many jokes over the summer, Queen has become one of the most fascinating prospects in this rookie class with the way he’s played over the last few games.
Derik Queen has shown flashes of potential for a franchise desperate for any reason to hope. (Stacy Revere / Getty Images)
With Williamson out, Queen has been allowed to serve as the hub of the offense at the high post more often, and he’s made some incredible plays with his passing vision and touch around the basket.
He still has a long way to go, but the list of big men who can handle the ball, pass and make shots at all three levels is pretty short. Early on, Queen is showing he could potentially turn into one of those guys if he keeps rounding out his game.
Two really high-level reads from Derik Queen in last night’s loss to the Spurs:
1. He recognizes how much Stephon Castle is attached to Trey Murphy on the DHO. So, instead of forcing a handoff to Murphy, Queen just waits for Murphy to roll to the rim and he throws it over the… pic.twitter.com/VJtvNrNW6J
— Will Guillory (@WillGuillory) November 9, 2025
There’s nothing the Pelicans needed more than for their draft-day gambles on Fears and Queen to hit, and it appears they’ve done just that.
Lineup we need to see
It’s a lineup that has played less than a minute together this season.
Still, at some point, the Pelicans need to see Fears, Herb Jones, Murphy, Williamson and Queen all on the floor at the same time.
Perhaps the only thing that matters the rest of this season — or at least until the February trade deadline — is figuring out if this five-man group has any hope of being effective.
Can you build a real defense with Williamson and Queen in the frontcourt? Can Queen and Fears get the touches they need in an offense built around Zion?
Whether it’s Green or someone else at the helm, the Pelicans coaching staff has to find ways to get this group on the floor together.
Honorable mention
The Jordan Poole-for-CJ McCollum swap was supposed to signify both the Pelicans’ and the Washington Wizards’ desire to shift their identity in the backcourt. Saddiq Bey’s inclusion in the deal was mostly an afterthought as he continued recovering from a torn ACL that sidelined him for the entire 2024-25 season.
After 10 games, Bey hasn’t just proved he can be a solid contributor in the rotation. He’s been better than Poole. Bey has played in all 10 games (four starts) and is averaging 11.4 points and 4.2 rebounds while shooting 40.8 percent from 3-point range. He’s provided a solid defensive presence as well.
Bey is 26, and he’s making $6.1 million this season and $6.4 million next season. He’s suddenly turned into a nice asset for the Pels, after previously being viewed as cap-filler.
