New Orleans Pelicans Have Been "Stagnant on Offense" Through Three Games

The New Orleans Pelicans looked to be a much better team on paper entering this season, but three games in that could be in doubt.

Jaime Valdez-Imagn Images

While the New Orleans Pelicans do hold a 2-1 record through their first three games of the 2024-25 season, things are not as bright as they may seem.

Young forward Trey Murphy III has yet to play in a game this year after hurting his hamstring in training camp, and in the first game of the regular season star offseason acquisition Dejounte Murray suffered a fractured left hand late in his impressive debut.

It has left the Pelicans without a key scoring contributor (Murphy) and what was looking to be the best facilitator this team has seen in quite some time (Murray).

While the hopes were high for this year, many have begun to question if that ever should have been the case with what we have seen thus far from New Orleans.

"Three games into the 2024-25 season, the Pelicans have a 2-1 record," writes William Guillory of The Athletic, "but they’ve rarely felt like a team that’s progressed from what they were last season."

Last year, the Pelicans played to a 49-33 record, needing the Play-In Tournament to claim their spot in the playoffs, an opportunity that was quickly squandered at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder in a four-game sweep.

This could all be the product of a short sample size, especially with forward Brandon Ingram only playing in one preseason game this year, though he has been one of the bright spots for the team early.

The main factor for this team struggling this year has been the lack of consistent success from beyond the arc.

All offseason the message was preached that the goal was 40 three-point attempts a game, trying to take a page from the Boston Celtics book, who led the NBA in three-point attempts en route to their 18th NBA Championship.

What has failed to get across, however, is the fact that the Celtics successfully made their three-point attempts at a 38.8 percent clip.

New Orleans has only hit their three-point attempts at a 34.7 percent clip so far, though again it is a small sample size.

When Murphy returns, which is imminent, he will easily slide into a spot in the starting five, and he alone can help increase the rate at which the Pelicans knock down threes, as he did it successfully 38.0 percent of the time last year.

It is much too early to hit the panic button on New Orleans' season, but the team can not afford to have any more injuries to key players or then it will be time to panic.