Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Jamahl Mosley is the new coach of the New Orleans Pelicans

 Despite the Orlando Magic blowing a 3-1 lead to the Detroit Pistons in round one of the playoffs, the New Orleans Pelicans found their new head coach in recently fired Jamahl Mosley. They clearly like him because they gave him a fifth year in his contract, per ESPN’s Shams Charania.

At the very least, Mosley established he is a gateway coach that will help legitimize a team. The Magic were not as defensively potent this season as they were in 2024 and 2025 (second ranked in both), but some of that is on the injuries to key players and a bit of the message going stale after a while. 

One thing he will demand more out of the team is commitment on defense, especially from Zion Williamson in screen rolls and in small lineups. As the playoffs have shown, teams need to be able to bang with the big boys at close range because versatile size is king. 

The Pelicans have more talent than the typical 26-win team, yet they play in the superior conference and do not have a first-round draft pick this season, as it was owed to Atlanta. A good year in 2026-27 would be reaching the first round of the playoffs, whether by going through the Play-In Tournament or not. Those are only modest expectations because it’s hard to expect more when the ultra-talented Williamson has logged at least 60 games thrice since 2019-20. If he, who is going into his eighth season (well, seventh because he didn’t play in2021-22 due to injury), can change the narrative on his health, the Pelicans have a chance to be more than a respectable team early. 

Keep in mind that the Pelicans were only the seventh seed in 2024 with 49 regular-season wins. The Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns (before the Play-In Tournament) in the following years were the seventh seed with 48 and 45 wins.

Notably, the area Mosley’s teams needed an upgrade is the offense because they didn’t have enough movement, passing and screening. Hiring some different minds for his assistants could alleviate some of those issues, yet he also needs to improve the same way it’s expected of players. 

It will be the area he is judged most critically, and he at least has to have the team be better than the 11th-ranked attack since that was the best it was during the Willie Green era. The next area of importance will be the development of the youngsters such as Jeremiah Fears, Yves Missi, Derik Queen. 

Mosley has a great agent in Bret Just of WME Basketball for getting him a gig where he doesn’t have to start over from the basement. Now it’s on him to show he was the guy and not just the best name available on the coaching market.