The Pelicans Traded Their Only Perimeter Stopper to Pay for Bennedict Mathurin

For most of the summer, the loudest story in New Orleans was what the Pelicans weren't doing. Joe Dumars and Troy Weaver let the opening waves of free agency pass without a significant addition, re-signed DeAndre Jordan, inked Hunter Dickinson to another two-way deal, and watched a 26-56 team from 2025-26 come back largely intact. Then September arrived and the front office made up for lost time in about ten days.

The centerpiece is Bennedict Mathurin, who agreed to a two-year, $16 million deal after New Orleans cleared the money to sign him by sending Jordan Hawkins, Micah Peavy, a future second-round pick and a future second-round pick swap to Memphis for AJ Johnson and Taj Gibson. It was the Pelicans' first real investment in a wing scorer since they drafted Hawkins, and it cost them the depth that made the roster interesting in the first place.

Start with what Mathurin is. In 2025-26 he averaged 17.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 30 minutes a night across 54 games — genuine volume production at a position where New Orleans had almost none. The catch is efficiency and disposition. He shot 43.0 percent from the floor and 31.5 percent from three, and the reporting around his arrival has been blunt about the defensive end, where his offense-first approach clashes with the culture Jamahl Mosley was hired to build.

That tension matters because of what went out the door. Peavy wasn't a stat-sheet name — 4.3 points and 1.9 rebounds in 15 minutes per game — but he was, by multiple accounts, one of the few true perimeter stoppers on the roster. With him gone and Johnson arriving on the back of a 32.4 percent shooting season in limited minutes, Herb Jones is now essentially the last line of defense on the wing. For a coach who spent five years in Orlando building a top-tier defense before going 189-221 and making three straight playoff trips, that is an awkward inheritance.

The rest of the roster, though, has quietly gotten healthier and more coherent. Dejounte Murray is finally past the torn right Achilles that cost him 13 months, and in 14 appearances last season he looked like himself: 16.7 points, 6.4 assists and 48.4 percent shooting. Trey Murphy III is coming off 21.5 points per game on 37.9 percent from deep across 66 games. Zion Williamson played 62 games and averaged 21.0 points on 60.0 percent shooting. Yves Missi's international summer validated the decision not to trade for a center, and Jeremiah Fears logged all 82 games as a rookie.

That's a real starting five with a legitimate coach. It's also a team that gave up 120.0 points per game last season with a minus-4.5 point differential, and the market has noticed: books have New Orleans' win total sitting at 27.5, 1.5 wins above last year's finish, with championship odds parked at 75,000-to-1. Nothing about this offseason has convinced oddsmakers that the floor has moved.

The honest read is that the Pelicans made a coherent bet on offense and paid for it with perimeter defense — and they made that bet knowing Mosley's whole reputation rests on the other end. If Mathurin buys in and Murray stays upright, the trade looks like a steal. If he doesn't, New Orleans will spend another season asking Herb Jones to cover for everyone, and the same question that dogged this franchise all summer will follow it into the fall: what exactly is the plan here?