Derik Queen Continues to Trend in the Wrong Direction With 2 Weeks Left in the Season

The New Orleans Pelicans have lost all the momentum they have built in recent weeks after dropping five consecutive games. Despite looking competitive earlier in the losing streak, the Pelicans were particularly hopeless against the Houston Rockets on Sunday night. At this point in the season, however, it is less about results and more about the overall individual and team performance. Looking at a few individual performances, the concern level gets even higher for the Pelicans.

Perhaps the most concerning of it all has been Derik Queen's performance. Earlier in the season, the talented rookie looked like a potential difference-maker. His talent was obvious, and he had made a big impact on several games, especially offensively. In the second half of the season, the former Maryland star began to trend downward. In recent weeks, this trend has reached highly concerning levels. With only two weeks left in the regular season, it doesn't look like it's going to change for the better any time soon.

Pelicans Fans Have Every Right to Worry About Derik Queen's Progress

Queen's defensive and rebounding issues are well-documented. He once again struggled in those areas against the Rockets on Sunday night. The Pelicans gave up 22 offensive rebounds to the Rockets, and Queen was a whopping -35 in his 24 minutes. This was the fourth straight game in which the Pelicans lost his minutes.

The bigger problem is that Queen has not been a positive player on the offensive side of the ball in recent games, either. Over his last ten games, Queen has more turnovers than assists. He is hitting 39.7% of his field-goal attempts and averaging 8.2 points per game. He has played 18.3 minutes per game in that span, and the Pelicans lost those by an average of 5.9 points.

Over these last ten games, Queen had a 23.3% usage rate and 50.8% True Shooting. The league averages for usage rate and True Shooting are 20% and 58.1%, respectively. This means that Queen is using up significantly more possessions than the average player, but is converting them with much worse efficiency. Add in the fact that his assist-to-turnover ratio is below one, and Queen becomes harder to rely on.

For a player whose calling card is his offense, this type of efficiency and production is unacceptable. Queen is already hurting the team defensively due to his lack of rim protection, versatility, and rebounding. If he is not helping the team offensively, either, it's not a surprise that his stock is trending down.

Queen is still only 21 years old. He has the upside to be an impact player for many years to come. But he needs to take big strides forward to change the fate of the franchise. Whether it's his overall effort level, defensive intensity, shooting, or rebounding, Queen has to show signs of improvement between now and the end of next season. Pelicans fans need to keep an eye on their rookie in the final six games of the year with the hope of seeing positive flashes.