Former CU Buffs player Jamahl Mosley gets another NBA job

Former Colorado Buffaloes forward Jamahl Mosley didn’t stay on the coaching market long.

The New Orleans Pelicans announced Monday that they have hired Mosley as the franchise’s next head coach on a five-year contract, just two weeks after the Orlando Magic fired him following a stunningly bad year that ended with a first-round playoff collapse to the Detroit Pistons.

“Jamahl has earned tremendous respect across the NBA for his leadership, professionalism, and the strong relationships he develops with players and staff,” Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations Joe Dumars said in a statement. “He has consistently demonstrated an ability to develop young talent while establishing teams that compete with toughness, discipline, and togetherness.”

Mosley, 47, was a four-year letterman at the University of Colorado from 1997 to 2001. The 6-foot-8 forward averaged 11.4 points and 6.6 rebounds for the Buffaloes and earned third-team All-Big 12 honors. He is one of 37 players in program history to score more than 1,000 career points.

After his playing days in Boulder, Mosley played four seasons of professional basketball overseas before launching his coaching career in Colorado. He got his first NBA job in 2005 as a player development coach for the Denver Nuggets under George Karl. He was promoted to assistant coach in 2007 and was part of a Nuggets staff that reached the Western Conference Finals in 2009 with Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups and Kenyon Martin.

Mosley went on to serve as an assistant with the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2010 to 2014 and the Dallas Mavericks for seven seasons before the Magic hired him as head coach in 2021.

In Orlando, Mosley compiled a 189-221 regular-season record and guided the Magic to three consecutive playoff appearances. His teams ranked among the NBA’s best defensively, finishing 11th, second and third in defensive rating over his final three seasons. But the Magic were eliminated in the first round each year, and the final exit, after a big trade Desmond Bane, proved fatal to his tenure. Orlando blew a 3-1 series lead to the Pistons, including a 24-point advantage in Game 7, and the Magic dismissed him immediately.

The Pelicans had been searching for a permanent head coach since firing Willie Green in November, when New Orleans was just 2-10 — making Green the first head coach dismissed during the 2025-26 season. Interim coach James Borrego led the team the rest of the way to a 26-56 finish, and Dumars said Borrego was a candidate for the permanent job, but the franchise opted to look outside the building once Mosley became available.

Mosley inherits a strange roster headlined by forward Zion Williamson, wing Trey Murphy and guard Dejounte Murray, along with 2025 first-round picks Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen. It is a rebuilding situation not unlike the one he walked into in Orlando, where the Magic had won just 21 games the season before his arrival.

It took Mosley two seasons to turn Orlando around — the Magic went 56-108 in his first two years — before posting a 133-113 mark over his final three campaigns.

Related

Another new team enters the Peyton Watson sweepstakesSpencer Jones opens up about free agency on LinkedInThe addition of DeMar DeRozan would transform the NuggetsIt’s hard to imagine the Nuggets taking on the repeater tax next seasonReport: Nuggets offer Peyton Watson way less money than Christian BraunNuggets give David Adelman some help, hire Dave Joerger