Following the New Orleans Pelicans' tough 120-116 overtime loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night, it's clear a change is needed in the group's starting five. Due to Yves Missi, Kevon Looney, and Karlo Matkovic all being injured, head coach Willie Green decided to play Zion Williamson at the five.
I didn't hate this call from Green, as I was excited to see Williamson get a chance to run small ball five. That said, for a team that already struggles to rebound, small ball clearly isn't the way, and with the performance Derik Queen had against the Spurs, I think he earned the right to start Monday night against Boston.
For a prospect like Queen, who was expected to come into the league as a below-average rim protector, he looked excellent defensively last night. He was getting high contest and doing a great job as a weakside help defender, which led to him recording one steal and two blocks.
DQ was also the main reason this team got to overtime. On the final possession of regulation, Victor Wembanyama was looking to take Zion Williamson off the dribble. Still, Queen shot over as a help defender, forcing him to miss a fadeaway jumper, bringing the Pels to OT.
Offensively he continues to be as advertised
Although his defensive effort and rebounding are the reasons I think he should be the team's starter next game, his offensive game continues to look exactly like what the Pelicans signed up for. Queen finished the night with 15 points, six rebounds, one assist, and just one turnover.
His 15 points came in a plethora of ways. DQ scored in through the pick and roll, off dump-offs, by putting the ball on the floor and creating his own offense, on put-backs, hook shots, you name it, he did it. This is what makes Queen so unique: he can legitimately score in so many ways and can act as another guard for New Orleans because of his ability to put the ball on the floor.
Another thing that is extremely important to highlight about this performance is that he only logged 1 turnover.
I expected that after Queen averaged 5.7 turnovers per game in Summer League, he would probably be an extremely high turnover guy during his rookie year, but it looks like that won't be the case. Since returning from his wrist injury, he's been patient and is letting the game come to him.
If Yves Missi is going to still be out Monday night when the Boston Celtics come to the Big Easy, there's only one real option for Willie Green, which is to start Derik Queen.