New Orleans Pelicans aren't ready to give up on 'disastrous' season just yet

The New Orleans Pelicans have some big decisions to make about their future and there may not be a clear path forward.

After making the bold move for Dejounte Murray during the offseason, the hope was that the New Orleans Pelicans could potentially emerge as a dark horse threat in the Western Conference this season. However, through the first quarter of the regular season, that hasn't exactly been the case for the Pelicans. It's been a near-disastrous start to the year for the Pelicans and if something doesn't click for the team quickly, this team is in danger of suffering from a "lost" year.

Most of the Pelicans' struggles have been due to injury as five of their top six players on the roster have missed at least nine games so far this year, and most of them much more. In many ways, the argument can be made that most, if not all, of this team's struggles can be attributed to injuries. At a certain point, though, the time will come for the Pelicans' decision-makers to chalk this season up as a loss.

However, at least for now, the Pelicans aren't ready to do that just yet. According to recent reports, the Pelicans aren't quite ready to throw in the towel on this season just yet. Twenty games into the season, that's not all that surprising.

The New Orleans Pelicans have a big early-season hole to climb out of

At 4-16, the Pelicans already find themselves in a pretty big early-season. They will already have an uphill and Zion Williamson is still sidelined due to injury without a clear timeline on when he's going to return. If that continues to be the case, things could still continue to spiral for the Pelicans before they get better.

New Orleans is already six games back of the 10th seed and eight games back of a top-six seed in the Western Conference. In other words, the Pelicans are in trouble and don't have much more wiggle room. At this point, there's not even a guarantee that a return to health is going to cure the Pelicans' early-season issues. And that's what the front office and the team's decision-makers have to figure out over the next few weeks.