New Orleans Is Betting Athleticism Can Fix What Broke Last April

The Pelicans' offseason logic isn't complicated. They scored plenty last year — Murphy, Williamson, and Bey all cleared 17 points a game — and still finished 26-56 because the defense fell apart when it mattered most. In the final 10 games, New Orleans was giving up 126 points a night, a jump of nearly 11 points from the prior month's average. That's not a scoring problem. That's a perimeter problem.

Signing Bennedict Mathurin is the clearest answer they've offered to it. He's averaged 16.2 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.9 assists over four seasons, and the front office is clearly valuing his length and athleticism as much as his scoring. Trendon Watford, added earlier this month on a one-year deal, is a quieter piece of the same idea — another forward with size who can switch and contest.

Whether it's enough is the question that won't get answered until the season tips. The road record last year was brutal — 1-10 over the final 20 games away from home — and the travel burden this coming season is the heaviest in the league. The margin for defensive lapses is thin. My read is that Mathurin makes the perimeter rotation meaningfully better, but the interior still needs to hold up around Missi and Queen for any of it to matter.