With Kevon Looney being sidelined for a minimum of 2-3 weeks with a knee injury he suffered during the New Orleans Pelicans time in Australia, the team is extremely thin at the five spot. Thankfully it was announced on Saturday by Pelicans that Derik Queen has been cleared to resume full basketball activities. Queen had been out since July 18th with a wrist injury but now may be ready to join the Pelicans through their first five games.
According to Queen he’s ready to come back now.
"I feel like I'm ready now. I just went through a hard practice. Its up to the trainers and the coaches," said Queen.
DQ brings some unique to the front court that whether Looney’s healthy or not they wouldn’t typically have. He’s a mobile big that’s most comfortable running an offense and create for others. However, there are question marks about his long-term fit alongside Zion Williamson, as of right now this team just needs size and someone who can play and Queen checks both those boxes.
Following Summer League the conscious around Queen seemed to be that he wasn’t overly in game shape, but all the comments Joe Dumars made about him during the rehab process suggest that won’t continue. Since the injury was to his wrist he wasn’t able to play basketball but that meant he had ample time to work on his conditioning.
Don’t expect the same Derik Queen we saw in Summer League this regular season
The entire NBA has put some crazy potential on Queen because of what New Orleans gave up to get him on draft night, and he knows that and is ready to prove his doubters wrong. Sure there were some glaring issues during Summer League like his turnovers and shot selection at times but it’s all part of the process.
Since his time in Vegas he’s had nearly 3 months to work on his conditioning, study the game, learn the Pelicans system and figure out where he can fit in. I’d argue this injury may be have been a blessing in disguise for DQ long-term, as he had times to just fix some habits behind the scenes.
Fans should be stoked that Queen is coming back soon he a special player and this front office sees a lot in him. He also gets to start the year in what i assume would be a larger role then originally planned because of Looney’s injury.