The New Orleans Pelicans come into the 2026-27 season looking to get back into the playoff picture in the Western Conference. And much of the Pelicans’ potential success hinges on the availability of star forward Zion Williamson. Williamson has had unfortunate injury luck throughout his career, but this summer, he was tasked with a few benchmarks to reach by new general manager Joe Dumars, as per Shamit Dua of In The N.O.

Joe Dumars not only tasked Zion Williamson with getting into tip-top shape this season for the Pelicans, but he also challenged him to add to his offensive arsenal by shooting more jumpers. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, Williamson’s career has quite taken off the way many thought it would after his lone season at Duke.

This past year, Williamson was relatively healthy, suiting up in 62 games which is the second-most he’s played in his career. His career-high is the 70 games he played in 2023-24. In a little over 29 minutes per game, he averaged 21.0 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.0 steals with splits of 60 percent shooting from the field, 25 percent shooting from the 3-point line and 71.6 percent shooting from the free-throw line.

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As for the Pelicans in general, Jamahl Mosley is in as the franchise’s next head coach after the team opted to move on from interim coach James Borrego. The team is also attempting to get back into the playoff picture after missing out on the postseason for the past two years.

And as for the roster, the Pelicans bring back pretty much their same squad from last season with the one major change being the acquisition of Bennedict Mathurin.