Can Derik Queen be at the Center of the Pelicans’ Rebuild?
Did the Pelicans unearth a future star?
The New Orleans Pelicans are in the midst of yet another lost season. They’re 3-22, own a net rating of -10.6, and Zion Williams has already suffered multiple soft tissue injuries. Despite all the doom and gloom, there is a glimmer of hope radiating out of the Big Easy in the form of Derik Queen. The rookie center is fresh off the best game of his career, a 33-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist, 4-block triple-double that was almost enough to spur the Pelicans to victory. However, for Queen to ever be viewed as a success, he’ll have to be more than just a good player.
Derik Queen will never fully escape the series of trades that landed him in New Orleans. On draft day, the Pelicans sent the 23rd pick and the more favorable of New Orleans and Milwaukee’s 2026 first-round pick, unprotected, to move up to 13th to select Queen. While that trade will forever be branded into people’s minds, the Pelicans also had to orchestrate, with hindsight, another comically bad trade.
During the NBA Finals, the Indiana Pacers traded their 2025 first-round pick, the aforementioned 23rd overall pick, to the New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for their 2026 first-round pick. Obviously, the Pelicans had no idea Tyrese Haliburton would go down in game seven with a torn Achilles, but the Pelicans effectively traded two picks that currently project to be in the top-five of the 2026 Draft to select Queen at 13th.
We won’t know just how awful those trades are until the ping pong balls are sorted and the picks finalized on NBA Draft lottery night, but needless to say, Derik Queen is in the unenviable, unfair, and unprecedented position of having to be a star to be worth the 13th overall pick. The good news is that he might have the goods.
For the season, Queen is averaging 12.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game on a 56.4% true shooting percentage (TS%). While those figures don’t scream star, since entering the starting lineup, he is averaging 15.0 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game on a 58% TS%.
His combination of scoring and passing, for a center, has the potential to be special. While there are currently ten centers averaging over 15 points per game, very few pair that with real creation and playmaking. Even in limited minutes, Queen’s 3.9 assists per game rank fourth among centers, and the 5.3 he has averaged since entering the starting lineup would rank third, behind Nikola Jokic and Alperen Sengun.
The efficiency threshold for centers is significantly higher than any other position, and while Queen’s scoring efficiency has been just about league average, which is well below the average for a center, only 39.3% of his 2-point field goals have been assisted. Among centers, his assisted 2-point field goal rate is the second lowest, with only Alperen Sengun creating more unassisted 2-point field goals.
Against the Spurs, Queen showcased his full complement of skills. He used his speed advantage to go to work against Luke Kornet from the perimeter, used his size to get uncontested shots against wings, whipped incisive passes to backdoor cutters, and burned double-teams with slip passes.
Now, the Spurs minus Victor Wembanyama are an excellent matchup for Queen. Kornet is a great backup big, but his defensive contributions come from standing by the basket and maintaining verticality. He’s far less effective farther away from the basket and in one-on-one situations. On top of that, the Spurs don’t really have any power forward sized players to stick on Queen. Harrison Barnes would be their best option, but he has lost more than a few steps on defense and is only 6’7. It’s no surprise that Queen, largely in one-on-one matchups against these Spurs, had the best game of his career. He’s a walking matchup problem for any team, but especially so against the Spurs.
Offensively, Queen has flashed like a potential lead option. His current star-comp is Alperen Sengun, as a center capable of creating from the perimeter as both a passer and scorer. However, there are still some real concerns over how his skill set will translate to winning, and it starts with what makes his offense so special– his position.
The best versions of Derik Queen are if he is a center, and it’s an open debate whether he can actually handle the position. First, while Queen’s ability to attack from the perimeter has the potential to be special for a center, it’s not actually all that impressive in the grand scheme of the NBA. While his 6.5 drives per game rank seventh at the position, made more impressive by his relatively muted minutes per game, it only ranks 102nd out of all NBA players.
A center who can drive is great, but a center who can drive for a center has to bring something else to the table. Unfortunately, Queen hasn’t shown the ability to do real damage unless he’s attacking from the perimeter. He only averages 1.6 elbow touches, out of 51.8 total touches, per game, and averages 0.9 post ups per game. For a player so young, these aren’t fatal flaws, but for a player who is currently shooting 11.1% from 3-point range, it does raise some caution flags.
Perhaps most concerning are Queen’s pick-and-roll numbers. He’s only averaging 1.4 pick-and-roll roll man possessions per game and 0.71 points per possession, and his 3.1 screen assists per 48 minutes rank 64th among centers who average 15 or more minutes per game. These are minuscule figures in terms of production and sample. Players who play center have to, you know, sometimes play center, and Queen really isn’t crossing that threshold right now.
At the moment, Queen’s offensive game resembles a non-spacing power forward, and while the passing is impressive, the type of players who have had real high-level success with this play style are plus athletes like Jalen Johnson and Giannis Antetokounmpo. This is only compounded by Queen’s relative lack of size at a listed 6’9, which raises the biggest concern for his viability as a foundational player.
At this moment, Derik Queen’s defense is a serious concern. With Queen on the court, the Pelicans have a defensive rating of 124.24, and without Herb Jones next to him, it’s 126.78. On-off splits aren’t everything, but they lead me to believe his solid steal and block figures are masking significant defensive limitations.
Take his explosive offensive performance against the Spurs as an example. The Spurs’ first points came on a Queen foul of Stephon Castle, their next shot came due to Queen’s horrible defending of a dribble handoff and biting hopelessly on Harrison Barnes in-and-out, and their third shot was a wide-open three because Queen got caught ball watching so badly that he had no idea his man was setting a screen.
The Spurs only punished the Pelicans for two points, but in the span of three consecutive plays, the Spurs got two free throws, an open layup, and a wide-open three. Queen isn’t the first young player to get burned for defensive inattention, but due to his limited size, he’ll need to use processing power on defense to overcome his physical limitations.
At the moment, Queen is a tweener. He’s a power forward who plays center, and while that opens up his offense, it hurts his team through a lack of solid screening and porous defense. Ideally, Queen’s 3-point shot will develop to the point that he’s either a stretch-five or can play next to a center. The reality is the advantages he creates on offense are far more valuable coming from the five, but if he can’t really play center on either end, it almost renders his strengths a weakness.
Now, considering that rookies are generally abject disasters on the basketball court, and simply being a league-average player is a wonderful sign for their long-term development, Queen’s first 25 games are quite promising. He has real offensive talent, and there’s no reason to believe he won’t continue to grow his game.
Alperen Sengun’s development from a promising offensive center with defensive concerns to the focal point of the league’s second-best team by net (+10.8) and offensive rating (123.0) offers a road map to success. While the Sengun comp is with merit, it needs to be remembered that Sengun does own a size advantage (6’11), and by the time he was in his age-21 season, he was averaging 21.1 points, 5.0 assists, and 9.3 rebounds per game on a team that went 41-41 with a top-ten defense.
If Queen can’t round out his offensive game and improve on defense, he’ll still be a very solid player, but more in the mold of a Naz Reid, as a dynamic offensive contributor that is best utilized off the bench on high-level teams. The Pelicans have nothing to lose by letting Queen explore the studio space this season, but if they intend for him to be at the center of the franchise, they’ll need to be cognizant of his developmental arc. The NBA is unkind to tweeners, no matter how talented they are, and for Queen to be a star, he’ll first need to find a position.
For any inquiries about work, discussion, and the like, you can email me at nevin.l.brown@gmail.com.
the points about his infrequent elbow touches and roll man usage are so so pertinent