I will complete the Rookie part of my series, where I give goals for the entire New Orleans Pelicans selection prior to the 2025-26 season with the 13th General Pick Derik Queen.
In my opinion it is not surprising to say that Queen was the most controversial choice in the NBA design of 2025. The Pelicans ex. 23 Pick, along with an extremely valuable unprotected first round pick in 2026, to set up the Maryland Big Man. With the important sacrifice that New Orleans has been made to acquire Queen, many fans have incredibly high expectations for the Rookie Great Man.
And although many fans hope that Queen can be a leader for Rookie of the Year, I think it is important to set goals that we know he can achieve.
Although parts of his game are polished, Queen is still a very raw prospect that a lot of work has to do to achieve the All-Star potentially that many scouts believe that he has. In addition, during his summer competitions for the Pelicans, it was clear that he had to work on his conditioning. Queen struggled back on the defense and was often seen tired.
These conditioning and endurance issues are something that Joe Dumars has tackled in the media and said that Queen is working on.
Given all these factors, it is clear that for the queen to achieve my goals, he must first take small steps, so that he can make larger ones later.
Improve decision-making and conditioning (possibly make all-smokie 2nd team)
My goals are simple for Queen. During his time we saw in Summer League who was not only his conditioning terrible, but also his decision -making, both of which have to change and are my goals for him.
As a center, I don’t think there is a world where you need more than 3.0 turnover per game on average (unless your name is Nikola Jokic). During his time in Las Vegas for Summer League, Queen had on average a horrible 5.7 turnover per match and he had practically given the ball to the other team. That cannot happen when Queen Foot steps on a real NBA court.
It is great that he has an elite passing capacity, especially at its size and position, but that power does not matter whether you cannot control your turnover. In order to be a success this year, Queen must have a 1.5 or higher assistant turnover percentage.
Now, as far as his body takes shape in NBA level, Queen has a golden chance to do that now. With his wrist injury that brings him offside from basketball activities, there is no better time to work on his cardio and endurance. This is something that Joe Dumars said he was motivating Queen to work on, so hopefully we will see a change when he returns to action.
If both the goal of improving his decision-making and his conditioning is met, I see zero reason why Queen cannot make an All-smokie team.
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