​The New Orleans Pelicans enter the 2026 campaign at an interesting spot, given that they want to compete for a playoff spot, need to develop important young players, haven’t reached 30 wins for consecutive seasons and didn’t really change much on their rosterEven though they haven’t had the wins, they do still have talent. If they want to turn things around this season, these four X-Factors will play a major role:F Zion WilliamsonWilliamson has sort of been the ride-or-die element for this team since they drafted him. Unfortunately, they have done a lot of dying at the end of seasons during that time. The good news, though, is that Williamson seems to have legitimately matured and is taking this offseason as seriously as ever.The 26-year-old already turned his health around last year, and proved that he can at least still stay healthy for a majority of the games in a season (a feat accomplished in just three of the seven years since being drafted). Now, he has a chance to take his game up a level by finally starting to push back his range and implementing at least the mid-range shots he has been practicing for years.G/F Bennedict MathurinMathurin was the only real addition this offseason, so of course he is going to be a major part of turning this team around. The front office, at least, is enamored with him and will want him to show enough to warrant an extension when money opens up next offseason.The 24-year-old isn’t a perfect player, but he will certainly add another scoring option to this team. He put up 17.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game last year on 43.0/31.5/86.9 shooting splits. He doesn’t have a consistent three-point shot, but there were times last season when the Pelicans would have begged to have someone like Mathurin.New Coaching StaffOne of the main reasons for hope with this team is that this coaching staff could figure out something that the other one couldn’t. Joe Dumars has said that he wanted to build a tougher squad, so they went out and got one of the best defensive staffs in the NBA. The Orlando Magic were rebuilding when they first got them, so their first season was rough. It didn’t take them long to turn them into a perennial playoff team. This roster, for all its weaknesses, is far better than what they started with on the Magic. Perhaps they can skip a couple of steps and bring this team around now.