CBS SPORTS: "Queen may be a star, but the path to get him was a reckless gamble"

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Derik Queen is an enticing prospect. His skill level on offense is off the charts, and, if you believe he can survive on defense at the next level, you can talk yourself into his star potential. The center out of Maryland has drawn comparisons to players like Alperen Sengun, Boris Diaw, Naz Reid and Julius Randle, and he finished incredibly well around the basket for a guy who doesn't play above the rim. It is not surprising that the New Orleans Pelicans traded up in Wednesday's NBA Draft to get him.

The price that Pelicans paid to do so, however, is astounding. New Orleans' new front office, led by Joe Dumars and Troy Weaver, traded an unprotected 2026 first-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks in order to move up from the No. 23 spot and select Queen at No. 13.

The Pelicans finished 21-61 in 2024-25, so they are clearly betting that they'll have a much more successful -- and much healthier -- season in 2025-26. But they don't even need to have a bad season for this trade to look horrendous at the end of it. They had swap rights on the pick dating back to the trade that sent Jrue Holiday to the Milwaukee Bucks in 2020. If the Bucks have a more favorable pick than New Orleans does next year, then Atlanta will get their pick.

In other words, it's not just that the Hawks could get an amazing pick out of this if Zion Williamson can't stay on the floor next season. It's that they could also get an amazing pick out of this if Giannis Antetokounmpo gets hurt or traded.

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Queen's upside is undeniable. The tricky thing about drafting him, though, was supposed to be that he came with real downside, too: At the college level, he wasn't a catch-and-shoot guy, wasn't a lob threat and wasn't an effective rim protector. For the Pelicans, this gambit means that they are accepting that downside and layering another layer of downside on top of it, and the second layer has absolutely nothing to do with how Queen's game translates to the pros.

And now there is this. Even if you are extremely high on Queen -- and I'm pretty high on him! -- the move is just far too risky. Would the Hawks really have refused to do this deal with even some light protections on the pick? Even when Atlanta traded down from No. 3 to No. 5 (and wound up with Trae Young instead of Luka Doncic) seven years ago, it didn't get an unprotected pick out of it. (It was top-five-protected the following season and top-three-protected the next).

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