Re-Grading Pelicans' Derik Queen Trade After 2026 NBA Draft Lottery

The terms of one of the most controversial trades in New Orleans Pelicans history were finalized on Sunday at the NBA Draft Lottery. A year after the Pelicans traded away their unprotected 2026 first-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks, we found out that it will be the No. 8 pick in the draft. This makes the final terms of the trade as follows:

Pelicans receive: Derik Queen (the 13th-overall pick in 2025)
Hawks receive: Asa Newell (the 23rd-overall pick in 2025), the No. 8 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft

Regardless of what you think about Derik Queen as a prospect, that is undoubtedly a pretty penny to pay to climb up ten spots in the draft.

While there will be a tendency to re-evaluate the trade after the Hawks make their pick, that should be beside the point. It doesn't matter whether Atlanta ends up drafting Keaton Wagler, Darius Acuff Jr., or Brayden Burries. The Pelicans' process needs to be evaluated rather than the outcome.

Needless to say, the Pelicans' process here was absolutely terrible.

There are two reasons why this doesn't look as bad as it could have been. There was a 29.3% chance that the Pelicans' pick was going to be in the top four. Given that Cameron Boozer, Darryn Peterson, AJ Dybantsa, and Caleb Wilson are considered to have superstar potential, the Pelicans dodged a bullet. If they ended up giving Atlanta a top-four pick, Joe Dumars & Co. would have deserved even more criticism than they already receive.

The second reason is that the Pelicans tried desperately at the end of the season to minimize their lottery odds. Unlike the rest of the lottery teams, the Pelicans tried to win all the way to the end. James Borrego relied on his veterans while benching his rookies and underperformers.

At the trade deadline, the Pelicans were 13-40 and had the second-worst record in the league. While the rest of the teams were positioning themselves for the lottery, the Pelicans competed every night and went 13-16 the rest of the way. They ended up finishing tied for the eighth-worst record.

If the Pelicans had control of their pick, they would have almost certainly won fewer games to maximize their lottery odds. There would have been little incentive to win in the final stretch of the season. Finishing with a bottom-three record, which was 20 wins, would have been achievable, which would have given the Pels a 52.1% chance at a top-four pick.

This way of thinking is healthier than saying that the Pels gave the Hawks the No. 8 pick for Queen. If they hadn't made this trade, their pick would have had significantly more upside than the eighth-overall pick.

The criticism of this trade is not about Queen. He showed enough flashes as a rookie for Pelicans fans to be optimistic. His defense and rebounding left something to be desired, but his potential as an offensive hub is intriguing.

Instead, the problem is asset mismanagement and misevaluation. Dumars clearly overrated the Pelicans' roster and thought that they would be better than they ended up being. The Pelicans drafted two players in the lottery, which meant that they were going to have two rookies in the rotation. Dumars thought this would be a playoff team in the loaded Western Conference, while playing two rookies and having one of the worst point guard and center rotations in the league. Instead, the Pelicans ended up winning 26 games, despite having better-than-expected injury luck.

Plus, the Pelicans also way overpaid to climb ten spots in the draft. Even if Dumars mistakenly thought that the Pelicans would be good, why wouldn't he put some protections on the pick or receive another asset from the Hawks? Would the Hawks really not have done this deal if the Pelicans put top-four, top-ten, or lottery protections for this pick? Would they have said no if the Pelicans asked them to add two second-round picks into the mix?

Even if Queen exceeds all expectations in his career, this is a disastrous trade. The process behind a 26-win team giving up an unprotected lottery pick is simply mindblowing, and there is nothing that can happen going forward to change that reality.

Grade: F

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