Pelicans agreed to transfer the records and statistics of the original Hornets (1988–2002) to the current Charlotte franchise, thus unifying all of Charlotte's NBA basketball history under one franchise; the team records and statistics since the 2002 move to New Orleans would be retained by the Pelicans, retroactively turning the Pelicans into a 2002 expansion team. As a result, the Hornets are considered in the league records as having suspended operations from 2002 to 2004, became the Bobcats from 2004 to 2014, and then the Hornets again. 2015: Return to the playoffs During the 2014–15, for the first time under the name Pelicans, the team qualified for the NBA playoffs with a 45–37 record as the eighth seed in the Western Conference. They owned the tie-breaker over the Oklahoma City Thunder by winning the regular season head-to-head series, 3–1, and they faced the Golden State Warriors in the first round; the Warriors swept the Pelicans in four games. After the season, the Pelicans fired coach Monty Williams. On May 31, 2015, the Pelicans hired Alvin Gentry as the franchise's sixth head coach. The Pelicans missed the 2016 NBA playoffs, finishing with a 30–52 record. They acquired the 6th pick in the 2016 NBA Draft from the draft lottery and selected Buddy Hield from the University of Oklahoma. 2017–2019: End of the Anthony Davis era On February 20, 2017, the Pelicans acquired DeMarcus Cousins in a trade with the Sacramento Kings when they traded Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans, Langston Galloway, a 2017 first-round pick, and a 2017 second-round pick in exchange for Cousins and Omri Casspi. On February 1, 2018, the Pelicans acquired Nikola Mirotić in a trade with the Chicago Bulls. Though the trade went through, a previous trade for Mirotić to the Pelicans was called off when New Orleans did not want to pay for Mirotić's 2019 team option contract that Mirotić had signed with the Bulls during the off-season in 2017. The Pelicans received Mirotić and a 2018 second-round pick for veterans Ömer Aşık, Jameer Nelson, and Tony Allen. Mirotić demanded a trade when former teammate Bobby Portis punched Mirotić in the face during an off-season practice. At the time of the trade, Mirotić was the Bulls' leading scorer, and DeMarcus Cousins was injured. Mirotić played well for the Pelicans after the trade. On March 15, 2018, Tom Benson died from complications of the flu. Ownership of the