When Joe Dumars made a draft night trade which was panned by virtually everyone nationally, the dye appeared to be cast for the New Orleans Pelicans.
It was going to be another disappointing, bad season to come.
While the bad season is well underway, the disappointment of the trade of a very valuable unprotected first-round draft pick does not look so bad, at this point.
Derik Queen is justifying the faith Dumars placed him by playing at a high level.
You can make the case that he is already the best all-round player on the New Orleans roster.
Queen backed up a 30-point, nine rebound effort in a loss to Denver with a 20 point, 11 assist, five rebound effort in a tough 118-115 loss at Dallas Friday night as the miserable season continued the Pelicans with their eighth straight loss.
The only negative was Queen shooting an air-ball on a 3-point attempt as time expired but it did not dampen the enthusiasm surrounding the outstanding rookie.
New Orleans got solid productivity from four players, including Trey Murphy (25 points, including 10-of-10 from the free throw line), Zion Williamson (22 points), Jeremiah Fears (21 points, 7 rebounds, 4 steals) and Queen.
Williamson got just nine field goal attempts, simply not enough. He made seven of those attempts.
The other 10 New Orleans players combined for just 27 points.
Cooper Flagg was outstanding for the Mavericks, scoring 29 points.
It was a former Pelicans who put the dagger in his former team.
Naji Marshall drilled a game-winning 3-pointer with 30.7 seconds remaining to put Dallas ahead to stay at 116-115.
Now 2-14 and 0-4 under Interim head coach James Borrego, the Pelicans are back home tonight, hosting the Atlanta Hawks.