The 2026 NBA offseason has been incredibly active to this point. Whether it’s Jaylen Brown and Kawhi Leonard being traded, Giannis Antetokounmpo going to South Beach, or all the players going to new homes in free agency, it’s been crazy for almost everyone. Except the New Orleans Pelicans, who are neglecting their need for a center and running back a starting frontcourt pairing of Derik Queen and Zion Williamson.
For the last several seasons, New Orleans has gotten increasingly weak in the middle, as they’re being outrebounded nightly and are giving away paint points. Dumars and company felt they had found their solution to this problem last summer in Derik Queen, but we all quickly saw that wasn’t the case. Instead of accepting that and looking to put this team in a better situation to succeed next season, Dumars appears to be doubling down.
The Pelicans' ceiling is unbelievably low with a Zion-Queen frontcourt pairing
For a Pelicans team that is built to be an offense-first, with Herb Jones and Micah Peavy being this roster's only high-level stoppers, a Queen-Zion pairing makes sense on paper. But then you see it on the court and your mind quickly changes. Both players don’t score the same way: Z is more downhill and driving to the rim, while DQ is more post-up finesse scoring. But they do operate in the same places, which becomes redundant. It’s one thing to have two poor defensive players in the frontcourt if one or both are floor spacers, but neither of them are.
Queen took just over one three per game last season and shot 26.1 percent from three, and Zion attempted four threes on the year and shot a 25 percent clip.
That’s way too easy for defenses to counter, as all they have to do is pack the paint and force them to operate on the perimeter. It also makes life hell for your actual shooters like Trey Murphy III, because anytime he gets the ball, opponents can send two, since neither Zion nor Queen is a threat from distance.
It’s also worth noting that for both players to see their skill sets maximized, they need to have the ball in their hands and run the offense, because neither guy is an off-ball threat.
When Queen and Zion share the court, the Pelicans' offensive rating falls off by 5.4 to a measly 110.8, according to Databallr.
Now, let’s get into the even bigger issue with this pairing: the defense. Both players are very slow-footed, undersized, and not great rebounders. On top of that, at no level of play has either player ever been looked at or praised for their defensive effort or attention to detail. That’s a problem even in an NBA that has developed into a mostly perimeter game—you still need to be able to stop teams from scoring the easy ones and close possessions with rebounds. When Queen and Zion share the court, neither happens.
The Pelicans had a 123.7 defensive rating in the minutes that Queen and Zion shared last season, according to Databallr. To put how bad that number is into perspective, the Washington Wizards had the worst team defensive rating last season, at 121.5.
I’m not saying Queen and Zion aren’t good players and can’t be great for the Pelicans. What I'm saying is that they can’t occupy a starting frontcourt on a team with goals of being competitive next season. Joe Dumars' unwillingness to address the starting center spot is ignorant, because all the facts show that this pairing on both ends of the floor is a colossal disaster.
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