{"id":212513,"date":"2025-08-04T18:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T18:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/212513\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T18:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T18:26:09","slug":"1-move-new-orleans-pelicans-shouldve-made-in-2025-nba-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/212513\/","title":{"rendered":"1 move New Orleans Pelicans should\u2019ve made in 2025 NBA offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

The post 1 move New Orleans Pelicans should\u2019ve made in 2025 NBA offseason<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When Joe Dumars took over the reins of the New Orleans Pelicans<\/a>\u2019 front office, many expected sweeping changes and a clearer vision for the franchise. So far, that vision has been difficult to define. Are the Pelicans rebuilding around Zion Williamson<\/a>? Are they trying to stay competitive with a flawed roster? Or are they simply stockpiling assets without a clear plan for their deployment?<\/p>\n

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This summer, those questions became more urgent. After a puzzling offseason that included trading for Jordan Poole and signing Kevon Looney<\/a>, the Pelicans made their most consequential, and potentially most damaging, move on NBA Draft night. In an aggressive attempt to move up the board, New Orleans gave up the No. 23 overall pick<\/a> in the 2025 NBA Draft, plus their 2026 first-round pick swap with the Milwaukee Bucks, to move up and select center Derik Queen at No. 13. That single transaction could come to define this era of Pelicans basketball, and not for the better.<\/p>\n

The move the Pelicans should\u2019ve made instead<\/p>\n

Rather than panicking to move up the board, the Pelicans should\u2019ve simply stayed put at No. 23 and taken the best available talent or traded down for multiple assets. It\u2019s not as if they were a Derik Queen away from contending.<\/p>\n

At 23, they could have walked away with Asa Newell themselves, a mobile forward with size and upside. Alternatively, they could have packaged pick 23 with a future second-rounder to trade back and acquire multiple role players, a better fit for a team in desperate need of complementary talent, not redundant skillsets.<\/p>\n

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After trading away Kelly Olynyk, who was one of their only big men capable of shooting threes, New Orleans did nothing to replace his floor-spacing presence. Instead of adding another low-post big in Queen, the Pelicans should\u2019ve pursued a stretch four or five, either through the draft or free agency.<\/p>\n

The free agent market had reasonable options like Myles Turner, Trey Lyles, or even Mo Wagner, players who can space the floor and complement Zion or Looney. On the perimeter, guards like Monte Morris or Markelle Fultz could\u2019ve provided more steady-handed playmaking than the high-variance Poole.<\/p>\n

Simply put, this offseason should\u2019ve been about balancing the roster. Not stacking it with more of the same.<\/p>\n

The one move the Pelicans should\u2019ve avoided in the 2025 NBA Offseason<\/p>\n

In isolation, Derik Queen is an intriguing prospect. He\u2019s a 6-foot-9 center with solid low-post skills, soft touch around the basket, and a strong rebounding presence. But he\u2019s not a generational talent. He\u2019s not a guaranteed franchise cornerstone. And he\u2019s already hurt. Queen suffered a wrist injury<\/a> during the Summer League and will miss the start of the regular season.<\/p>\n

This wouldn\u2019t be so alarming if Queen had been a player who fell into the Pelicans\u2019 lap at 13. But he wasn\u2019t. To move up and get Queen, New Orleans parted ways with two significant draft assets: the No. 23 pick, which the Atlanta Hawks used to select forward Asa Newell, and their 2026 first-round swap rights with Milwaukee. That swap, in particular, could prove disastrous.<\/p>\n

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At present, neither New Orleans nor Milwaukee is guaranteed to be a playoff team in 2026. The Bucks are dealing with aging stars and chemistry issues, while the Pelicans have no consistent point guard play, a cluttered frontcourt, and an injury-prone core in Zion Williamson, Dejounte Murray, Trey Murphy III, and Herb Jones. If both teams falter, that swap could have easily netted the Pelicans a top-10 or even top-5 pick. Instead, it now belongs to Atlanta.<\/p>\n

To make matters worse, Queen\u2019s skillset overlaps significantly with Zion Williamson, who remains the focal point of the franchise. Both players operate best in the paint. Neither is a reliable shooter from a distance. Neither can comfortably space the floor for others. On paper, it\u2019s hard to envision Queen and Zion sharing the court without choking the offense\u2019s spacing.<\/p>\n

And even if Zion\u2019s health continues to be inconsistent, the Pelicans already signed Kevon Looney<\/a> in free agency, another traditional big who can\u2019t shoot. So the addition of Queen creates a logjam at center, while still doing nothing to address the team\u2019s need for perimeter defense, floor spacing, or playmaking.<\/p>\n

New Orleans now has three centers (Zion, Queen, Looney) who can\u2019t stretch the floor and an expensive combo guard in Jordan Poole, who may be one of the most turnover-prone players in the league. The roster lacks structure. The fit makes little sense. And the front office doesn\u2019t seem concerned.<\/p>\n

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The bigger problem: A lack of strategic direction<\/p>\n

While Queen\u2019s injury and the high price tag are concerns in their own right, the more troubling pattern is a lack of cohesive vision. The Pelicans have a mix of young players, some developing, some injured, and veterans who don\u2019t solve their biggest problems. There\u2019s no defined timeline. There\u2019s no true offensive identity. There\u2019s no clear pathway back to playoff contention.<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s Kevin Pelton was blunt, giving the Pelicans the only \u201cF\u201d in his 2025 offseason grades. He described the Queen trade as \u201cthe most lopsided transaction of the summer<\/a>,\u201d and he\u2019s not wrong.<\/p>\n

Every move from New Orleans this offseason has felt like a swing without a target, whether it\u2019s trading for Poole, giving up future draft flexibility, or stacking up paint-bound bigs.<\/p>\n

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A gamble that didn\u2019t need to happen<\/p>\n

The New Orleans Pelicans didn\u2019t need to mortgage their future to draft Derik Queen. They weren\u2019t a center away from competing. They didn\u2019t need to give up a potentially lottery-level asset just to add a player who overlaps with Zion Williamson and is already dealing with injury issues.<\/p>\n

Instead, they could\u2019ve stood pat, added wing depth or shooting, and retained their flexibility for the future.<\/p>\n

Joe Dumars may have a vision for this team, but until that vision becomes clearer, fans and analysts alike are left wondering whether the Pelicans just made a franchise-altering mistake<\/a> that didn\u2019t need to happen.<\/p>\n

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Related: Pelicans sign former NBA champion to contract<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: What Joe Dumars thinks about Zion Williamson after trade speculation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The post 1 move New Orleans Pelicans should\u2019ve made in 2025 NBA offseason appeared first on ClutchPoints. When…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[975,208,7,2878,803,4202,2771,2289,2967,6893,121,2839,4499,367,6,478,470,4073,4072,675,37365,4439,4886,6514,814],"class_list":{"0":"post-212513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-pelicans","8":"tag-asa-newell","9":"tag-atlanta-hawks","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-dejounte-murray","12":"tag-derik-queen","13":"tag-herb-jones","14":"tag-jordan-poole","15":"tag-kelly-olynyk","16":"tag-kevon-looney","17":"tag-markelle-fultz","18":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","19":"tag-mo-wagner","20":"tag-monte-morris","21":"tag-myles-turner","22":"tag-nba","23":"tag-new-orleans","24":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","25":"tag-neworleans","26":"tag-neworleanspelicans","27":"tag-pelicans","28":"tag-pelicans-basketball","29":"tag-the-pelicans","30":"tag-trey-lyles","31":"tag-trey-murphy-iii","32":"tag-zion-williamson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114971907663480525","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}