The New Orleans Pelicans' roster appears to be finally set after the recent signings of Trendon Watford and Malik Dia. Watford fills out the team’s standard roster, while Dia will occupy the final two-way slot. Now, all eyes turn to training camp, where new head coach Jamahl Mosley will implement his ideals and strategies on the roster he inherited from the previous regime.

New Orleans is coming off back-to-back sub-30-win seasons under former head coach Willie Green. The Pelicans parted ways with Green just three weeks into last season, handing the reins over to interim head coach James Borrego. While Borrego showed some promise after the All-Star break, the Pelicans ultimately decided to hand the keys to Mosley after his dismissal from his former team.

Mosley is best known as a defensive tactician, leading his former Orlando Magic teams to a top-three defense in the league in two of the last three seasons. Many think Mosley’s arrival will help improve the Pelicans' porous defense, but all eyes will be on the offensive implementation, his most important task to manage during training camp.

Jamahl Mosley Has to Find a Way to Get the Most Out of This Ill-Fitting Offense

On paper, the Pelicans have talent. Names like Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy III, Dejounte Murray, and others are viable NBA talents, but New Orleans has mishandled roster construction over the last few years.

The team lacks consistent three-point shooting or viable size in the middle to burn teams out of small-ball lineups. Mosley’s trick will be to provide an offensive approach that spaces the floor for Williamson and Derik Queen to operate cleanly in the paint without fear of multiple defenders crowding the basket.

Williamson, in particular, has dealt with this issue over the last few seasons, as the Pelicans ranked near the bottom of the league in three-point attempts and makes over that span. The former No. 1 overall pick constantly faces a wall to the basket, making him one of the most blocked players in the league.

The staff’s task is to find perimeter gravity as Williamson operates down low, providing spacing with movement and allowing Murphy III or Jordan Poole to find open space instead of remaining stationary in the corners. Finding the right rotations is a key experiment, as the Pelicans have a plethora of wing depth on the roster.

Finding those combinations will be especially key in clutch situations late in games. A clutch game is defined as any game where the score is within 5 points with 5 minutes or less remaining in the fourth quarter or any overtime period. New Orleans found themselves in 42 clutch games last season, tied for the fifth-most in the league. The Pelicans were just 12-30 in that scenario, tied for the third-worst number of clutch wins in the NBA.

Those moments highlighted the lack of a true floor general, as the Pelicans' turnover percentage was over 14% in the clutch.

Some of this had to do with Murray’s Achilles tendon recovery from the previous year. The former All-Star played just 14 games last season after making a full recovery. Reinserting him into the lineup will help, but he doesn’t have much playing experience with Poole, Queen, Jeremiah Fears, or Saddiq Bey.

Training camp will show which lineups work best in certain situations when the Pelicans need an outside shot or a high-quality basket closer to the basket.

Mosley’s task will be to curate an offensive identity for New Orleans. The Pelicans have lacked that over the past couple of seasons, relying heavily on Williamson, when healthy, to carry most of that load. Training camp will be an opportunity to experiment with personnel and build consistent chemistry before embarking on the grueling 82-game NBA schedule.