Is Derik Queen Worth The Risk For The New Orleans Pelicans?

The New Orleans Pelicans shook the NBA world when they traded up in the 2025 NBA Draft to select 6-foot-10 big Derik Queen, surrendering their 23rd pick and more critically, their unprotected 2026 first rounder.

What makes this move so jarring is the combination of two factors: the strength at the top of the 2026 NBA Draft and where the Pelicans land in the hierarchy of the competitive Western Conference.

The Pelicans have dealt with the injury bug consistently over the past few years, especially with their core group of players between Zion Williamson, Dejounte Murray, and Trey Murphy. With these injury concerns still present, and the Western Conference continuing to improve, leveraging their 2026 pick makes the Derik Queen trade up a risky ordeal.

To make matters worse, the 2026 NBA Draft is one of the strongest drafts in recent NBA history, headlined by franchise cornerstones such as Cameron Boozer, Darryn Peterson and AJ Dybantsa.

The true concern here is that the Pelicans may have handed the Atlanta Hawks a future star on a silver platter, but perhaps there is another way to look at this trade that qualifies the motivations to make a gamble of this nature: Derik Queen's upside.

For the New Orleans Pelicans, this is simply a bet that Derik Queen's upside could outweigh any of the upside that the top picks in the 2026 NBA Draft could bring.

Derik Queen’s value starts with his ability to get downhill. He is one of the most effective frontcourt drivers in the draft, using strength, balance, and short-area coordination to consistently pressure the rim. His core strength and higher center of gravity allow him to stay upright through contact while still getting low enough to maintain leverage against defenders. At Maryland, he consistently forced help and lived deep in the paint, averaging 0.981 points per possession on drives - a rare mark for a player his size.

Queen complements his driving game with polished footwork and touch around the rim. He can spin, fake, and pivot his way into space, showing real comfort scoring in traffic. However, his touch is an area for improvement. His efficiency on hooks and off-the-dribble twos was below average, shooting
34.4% and 30.8% respectively, but that can be partially attributed to the degree of difficulty he faced as a high-usage option in college. On the Pelicans, where he will not be asked to initiate offense as often early on, he should benefit from the reduced defensive attention.

Defensively, Queen is a mixed bag. He has excellent hands and anticipation, which enables him to improve his margins by generating deflections. However, his defensive ceiling is capped by physical limitations. His high hips and center of gravity make it hard for him to guard closeouts or change directions quickly, especially when backpedaling. He lacks the vertical pop and elite length to anchor a defense as a traditional rim protector, which will keep him from being a full-time center on the defensive end.

Fortunately, that may not be necessary. Queen’s ability to attack off the dribble from the frontcourt opens up possibilities as a modern power forward. He can operate out of the high post, attack mismatches, and create advantages off of movement, tools that could make his concerns a moot point. The real question becomes how well he fits alongside the Pelicans' existing ballhandlers. Players like Zion Williamson also do their best work with the ball in similar areas of the floor, and the spacing and fit could be clunky without lineup adjustments.

Needless to say, it is clear from the trade package that Queen will be a long-term priority for New Orleans. They bet big on his upside, and while the fit may require some reshuffling, his unique skill set gives the Pelicans a versatile offensive player to grow with. If the shot selection improves and the defensive concerns are masked by scheme or lineup structure, the bold move to trade up for Derik Queen could prove to be a defining moment in this franchise’s trajectory.