Are the Pelicans Doomed? Why It’s Time to REBUILD After Embarrassing Loss | TRADE Zion Williamson?
New Orleans Pelicans suffer a brutal 126-109 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, sparking fresh doubts about the team’s future. Jake Madison questions whether it’s time to tear down the roster and start from scratch, citing a lack of effort, pride, and competitiveness—even with a recent coaching change. With the trade deadline looming, the episode probes tough decisions facing Joe Dumars and the front office, warning against desperate win-now moves and urging long-term, self-aware planning.
Jake Madison shifts focus to reasons for optimism, spotlighting rookies Derik Queen and Jeremiah Fears as emerging building blocks. Key discussions include the need to generate more three-point looks, experiment with new lineups, and evaluate which current players—like Trey Murphy and Herb Jones—deserve to stick around. Are the Pelicans ready to embrace a reset, and can young talent spark a turnaround? Madison sets the stage for a pivotal stretch in the NBA season.
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48 Comments
Trade Zion!! Zion is not a generational talent!!!! He a liability on defense and he can’t shoot ! Update OKC is only the 14-1 NBA champions!! lol
I think everybody got to go beside fears and queen
I agree with you fully here Jake! I’ve felt like this for a while now. Rebuild it all!
Congratulations!
So games against the 14-1 thunder make you think it’s time to blow it up 😂 no games against Memphis or Phoenix are the games where I said that
Congrats on your break
Congrats on your impending wedding and enjoy your honeymoon, Jake!
Hey Jake, enjoy the time off!
Can the Pelicans be assigned to the G League? 🏀🇬🇧
Ownership is at fault for all this. And willie stunk as a coach, should never have been hired. If they rebuild, that's great… but the owner will never pay luxury tax anyway even if the team in decent, so players leave, get traded, and when someone gets injured it's a mess. If pels trade zion then get picks like okc did for pg. This team stinks
Starting over is really OK.. Just pretend we are an expansion team! Have a healthy fire sale, load up with draft picks and begin anew.. Watching this team is like having a grown adult living with you, who don't wanna work. But having a newborn in your home, you don't EXPECT for him/ her to work.. You just dream about their “future and potential” and this franchise can sell “ hope” better than ANYONE! I'm content with it..Its ok… Hit the reset and start over!
After the 25 point hole they were in after the first quarter, I thought they did a decent job of adjusting and getting the gap as close as 13 points, considering OKC is the #1 team. I did not see an issue with effort. It sounds like you need the break you're getting Jake. 😏 Congratulations!
What asshole in the national media is out there saying we should try to make a win now move??
It would be challenging to tear it all down when Dumars stupidly traded the 1st round pick assets in a generational draft.
We have 60 points sitting out with injuries
We haven’t even seen Poole or Z back yet, wayy too early to call for a blow up. Schedule lightens up a lot in December
We also have to consider this team is missing 3 potential starters in Zion, Murray and Poole. That’s potentially 60pts missing from this team. I still think the Pels lose but hard to blame the current active roster. I would look to trade Zion, Poole and Murray for players and 1st round picks if possible.
Yay! No draft pick!
I dont know if any one is going to acknowledge this but Herb Jones looks absolutely abysmal on offense. Im starting to get a cringing feeling when he gets the ball. I get that same feeling when Jordan Hawkins dribble lol
Pelicans are just a lost cause team
Okc is A GREAT TEAM…..but give me Fears Queen and Trey ….maneuver around those 3….
Looks like it didn't make a difference firing Coach Green. Maybe it was the offensive coordinator, or the players 🤔
medical staff need to go to !
Getting reed of JV, Nance, Naji marshall and Dyson Daniels was a big mistake.
Congrats Jake. Have a great wedding
New Orleans built a team around popular player Zion… unfortunately he has chronic leg injuries. The Pelicans knew this years ago. Now there's nobody buying tickets to watch a team lose. So they fired the coach, after he couldn't get this always injured, poorly constructed roster to win games.
fool said blow team up like we have option next draft😅 gotta make do what we have buddy..no wonder he's going on vcay😂😂
They play with a ego and have no team share concepts no ball movement no cutting to the basket it's high school players who are portraying NBA players
Every year you say they need to find more 3’s no they need to find defense and how not to turn the ball over. I’m have been disappointed in both Trey and Herb, Trey doesn’t play defense and Herb isn’t playing offense. The problem is they don’t have leader on the team as a player. Also I didn’t like who they had on certain players no reason to have Missi on Dort and Trey on 7’0 foot guy. I’m sorry but Trey isn’t that guy he is role player. Why we are doomed is because of two guys Dumars and Weaver.
What the core could have been….
1. Dyson (96 ft player and all league defender)
2. Herb (96 ft player and all league defender)
3. BI (scorer who can create…All Star caliber player)
4. Naji (96 ft player and glue guy…a real dawg)
5. JV (a rebounding machine)
Jose'(a guy with heart who shows it…the team's heartbeat)
Karlo (a guy who has the look and wants it; worth developing)
Yves (a project who shows promise)
Whatever new draft picks we would have added as a result of the litany of picks we got for dumping Lord A$$, 3M3 and CJ
Whatever Free Agents we could pick up as a result of an improved cap situation without the dead weight listed above.
The defense at the point of attack would be suffocating and not like the colander we are currently witnessing.
Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Mooney anyone?
Yes, of course they are doomed: I tried to explain to y'all that it doesn't matter who the coach is when Troy Weaver is skullfucking a franchise to death like he always does.
Is there even anything here to blow up? I guess you can get a few firsts for Trey and Herb, but they are hopelessly fucked forever more generally.
They should have got off of Zion a few years ago. Yes he a beast in the paint. Yes he can get percentages above 60%. But he is and always has been a one trick pony. And if you don't have a barrage of wing 3point shooters (we don't) everyone collapses on him and then he forces it. Lots of turnovers. But also gets beat up. (beats others up too) But he gets hurt, alot. We envision someone like him becoming that next Lebron or MJ. It was never going to happen. It was never realistic.
I thought it was already torn down. 😂
Let's go to Seattle
Hi Jake , we sux
The players are trying hard, they just suck😂🤷🏾♂️
Imagine if you had your pick
Meanwhile BI has lead the raptors to 8-1 this month 😂.. but BI was the problem 😂… #WhereIsZion
Don't blow it up. OKC was the 4th worse team in 2021-22 and a play-in team the following year. The team needs chemistry and development. We need a better center so they can play Zion at the SF, and DQ at the PF. Put the center in the dunkers box for lobs and rebounds. They just need to communicate more and each other tendency. Has anyone ask Antonio Daniels if he'd like to coach?
Patience doesn’t exist in Basketball anymore. When we gave away Ingram, not only did we lose 25pts/game we also lost his 6’9” impact on defense. We fire Willie & the delusional fans thought we’d immediately get better. Let’s see how we look by Xmas. GEAUX PELS!!!
We actually played a good game on offense from the stats
There were many time that OKC went partially dry (not really because of our defense) and we could not answer to their misses. We blew quite a few easy baskets that should have been a response to an OKC miss, and sent them right back down the court for an easy make because we didn’t get back on D fast enough. We were answering their 3s with 2s. Our defense was lackluster at best. We 100% could have wont that game no matter how tough it was. When we were moving off ball and getting multiple touches with very few dribbles (without that Iso ball non-sense that doesn’t work in the league today), we gained ground on them…then it was back to iso ball and not getting back on defense. I saw a snip of prior pelican genius, back when we were putting up 120+ points per game and dominating defensively, but it was just that, a snip of what could be.
Why did the Pelicans pay Tray 30 million and he can't play defense or get shots against a quality defensive team. 🤔
Build around Hawkins, Fears and Queen
Every dayer
Remember- this team is in “win now” mode. They had every intention of competing and thought the team would be good. That much is plainly obvious, or else Dumars wouldn’t have traded the 2026 1st with no protections.
Let's trade for picks
It was never Willie green fault