The wait is almost over. Pelicans basketball is almost back! Tonight, the New Orleans Pelicans take on the Memphis Grizzlies to open the season, and head coach Willie Green has shared some incredibly exciting news. During a training session that took place on Tuesday, Groen provided the update what fans had been waiting for about rookie big man Derik Queen.
“He’ll be evaluated after today’s practice. But it looks like he’ll get a chance,” Green said.
Green implies that Queen will be available and ready to play in the team’s season opener tonight.
There couldn’t be better news for fans, especially with Kevon Looney sidelined for the next two to three weeks with a knee injury. It’s not just about the excitement that Queen’s style of play brings to the Pelicans, but also the fact that this team needs size now with Looney out, and DQ will be that.
After Summer League, fans were concerned about Queen because he looked like an unfinished product. When he subsequently got hurt, concerns skyrocketed as many thought it would make it even harder for him to prepare for his rookie year, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Based on what we’ve heard from Green and Joe Dumars, he’s been taking this time to improve his conditioning and better prepare his body for an NBA season.
While people want to pretend that Queen was terrible throughout Summer League, he was just getting used to a new pace and a new game. The skills are not the problem. It was always the conditioning, so if he really worked on that, the Pelicans just had an absolute beast back in their lineup.
Queen is going to light a fire within this team
At age 20, Queen led Maryland to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament. To do that, you have to be a great leader, especially as a freshman. Even though he will be a rookie, I think DQ will be vocal in the New Orleans locker room and be someone who will set the tone every night.
Queen added motivation as to why he wants this team to be successful this season. Throughout the entire NBA offseason, the media mocked the Pelicans’ front office and Queen for the team giving up an extremely valuable first-round pick to draft him. That said, if you know anything about DQ, you know that he takes this personally and will use it as fuel to fuel the fire within him and this team.
It feels like no team in the league has been dragged through the mud more and is more respected in the offseason than the Pelicans. And to turn all this hate and disrespect into motivation to win matches and dominate, they need Queen at the forefront.
Tonight is a new chapter for the Pelicans front office and their fans, and it should be a fun one.
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