Detroit Pistons legend Joe Dumars is getting a lot of attention for what could possibly be the biggest trade of the 2025 NBA Draft.
But the attention isn’t exactly positive.
The New Orleans Pelicans, for whom Dumars is the president of basketball operations, traded the No. 23 overall pick and an unprotected 2026 first-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks during the first round on Wednesday, June 25. In return, they received the No. 13 pick and drafted Maryland big man Derik Queen, one of the most polarizing players in the draft.
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The Hawks will receive either the Pelicans’ pick (if the Pelicans finish with a higher pick than the Milwaukee Bucks at the end of the 2025-26 season) or the Bucks’ first-rounder. The Bucks finished as the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference with a 48-34 record in the 2024-25 season, while the Pelicans finished with the second-worst record in the Western Conference at 21-61.
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In other words, unless the Pelicans get considerably better next season, the pick they’ll send to Atlanta could be much more valuable than the one they got back from the Hawks this year. (Of note: The Pels had the No. 23 pick in this year’s draft via a pre-draft trade in which they sent Indiana’s 2026 first-rounder back to the Pacers, meaning Queen potentially cost two 2026 first-round picks.)
The trade was immediately shredded by NBA experts, with The Ringer’s Bill Simmons saying it left him “speechless.”
Yahoo Sports’ Jared Greenberg called the trade “malpractice,” saying the Pelicans made a mistake by trading away next year’s pick.
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“They are going to need that pick next year. So in order to justify not having their first-round lottery pick, Derik Queen needs to be a Hall-of-Famer next year,” he said.
During a livestream of the draft, Fox Sports’ Nick Wright questioned whether the report of the trade was accurate, then spent the next few minutes ranting about the trade itself.
“They might’ve just traded the No. 1 pick of next year’s draft to move up from (No. 23) to (No. 13),” Wright said. “I can do an hour on this move.”
The Ringer’s Zach Lowe made his feedback much simpler, posting a picture of the Pelicans mascot bandaged up in a doctor’s office:
Dumars was recently hired as the Pelicans president of basketball operations after stepping down from the same post with the Pistons over a decade ago. Former Pistons general manager Troy Weaver joined Dumars in New Orleans soon after.
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The Pistons fired Weaver on May 31, 2024, after a franchise-worst 14-68 season.
Dumars spent 14 years as a player with the Pistons from 1985-99 and another 14 years as the team’s president of basketball operations from 2000-14. He won two NBA championships as a player (1988-90) and one as an executive (2004).
You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ex-Detroit Pistons exec gets eviscerated over NBA draft “malpractice”