With the NBA Draft inching closer by the hour, ESPN insiders Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo just dropped a juicy nugget about who the Pelicans might target. While they mocked Khaman Maluach to New Orleans at No. 7, Givony added:
"There has also been persistent rumblings around Derik Queen in the past 24 hours, with teams pointing to long-standing connections between senior vice president of basketball operations Troy Weaver to Baltimore and Washington, D.C. prospects historically, as well as the fact that his son, Thomas, was a Graduate Assistant on Maryland's coaching staff this past season."
This is a very interesting report. We already knew very early on in the pre-draft process that Queen was brought in for a workout. This piqued my interest as, at that point, no other projected lottery picks were brought in. But now Givony's report adds even more room to speculate Queen could be the guy at No. 7.
This could be a disaster
As much as I like Queen and love the idea of him running the floor with Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy and now Jordan Poole. If the Pelicans draft him, they will have a bottom-five defense in the league. Sure, Queen is an excellent offensive player who can create for others out of the post and is one of the best finishers in this class, but he can't shoot or defend.
For him to be effective, he needs to have the ball, which is something this team doesn't need. With Williamson, Murphy, and Poole all commanding touches 15-20 touches a night, I do not see a world where Queen can thrive or be effective on this team. The other huge piece here is that Queen mainly operates out of the post which would create a log jam as Zion operates in the same areas.
This would make New Orleans' spacing worse than it was last season, which is crazy because they were in the bottom five in both threes attempted and made per game last season. Queen shot just 20% from three last year and has inconsistent shooting mechanics that concern me.
Defensively, there's some potential, but he has shown little to no promise in switch situations and gets carved up by fast guards. Queen is also undersized at 6'9" and may be too small to guard centers at the NBA level. He isn't an awful defender, but New Orleans needs someone who projects to be a great defender at No. 7, and Queen isn't that.
This isn't a smear campaign against Queen. I love Derik Queen; he carries himself well, has a great personality and can be a great NBA player, in the right situation. New Orleans isn't the right situation at all. They would not only be making the wrong pick for the organization but also putting Queen in a horrible spot. I was a huge fan of his fit, but that was with the thought that Zion Williamson would be getting traded, and Queen could play power forward. We now know Zion is here to stay.
New Orleans is much better suited to take someone like Khaman Maluach, who brings size at 7'2", is already a good defender and doesn't need the ball to be effective.