{"id":66262,"date":"2025-12-09T23:52:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T23:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/66262\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T23:52:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T23:52:09","slug":"pelicans-notes-queen-jones-murphy-poole-zion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/66262\/","title":{"rendered":"Pelicans Notes: Queen, Jones, Murphy, Poole, Zion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two of the league\u2019s most promising rookies had the best games of their respective NBA careers on Monday in New Orleans. The Spurs and Dylan Harper<\/a>, who scored 22 points and handed out six assists in 26 minutes off the bench, ultimately came out on top, with a three-point win over the Pelicans and Derik Queen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, it was a memorable night for Queen, who became the first rookie center to ever record a 30-point triple-double, per ESPN\u2019s Michael C. Wright<\/a>, with 33 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists. The big man also blocked four shots and was a +14 in 33 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecial night for him,\u201d Pelicans interim head coach James Borrego said of his standout rookie. \u201cHe was great. He did a really good job defensively on the boards, controlled the offense. We ran a lot of our stuff through him. He was fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Monday\u2019s loss dropped the Pelicans to a league-worst 3-22 on the season, Queen\u2019s ongoing emergence is one reason for optimism, according to Rod Walker of NOLA.com<\/a> (subscription required). Walker adds that the rookie\u2019s strong play may help turn down the heat on head of basketball operations Joe Dumars, who faced loud criticism for his decision to trade an unprotected 2026 pick to move up 10 spots for Queen in June.<\/p>\n

Those critics are unlikely to go away if the pick Dumars sent to Atlanta in that deal lands in the top three next June, especially since there will always be questions about whether the Pelicans could\u2019ve moved up from No. 23 to No. 13 in this year\u2019s draft without giving up quite such a valuable asset. However, if Queen \u2013 who will turn 21 later this month \u2013 continues to turn in performance like Monday\u2019s, the deal could turn into a win-win for the Pelicans and Hawks.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more from out of New Orleans:<\/p>\n

William Guillory of The Athletic<\/a> considers what sort of in-season trades to expect from the Pelicans, writing that he views Herbert Jones<\/a> as more likely to be moved than Trey Murphy III<\/a>, though there\u2019s no guarantee New Orleans will seriously consider dealing either player. Guillory notes that a move involving Zion Williamson<\/a> would be easier to complete in the offseason than before the trade deadline, and adds that high-priced guards Jordan Poole<\/a> and Dejounte Murray<\/a> and role players Saddiq Bey<\/a> and Kevon Looney<\/a> could also emerge as trade candidates.
\nAlthough there\u2019s still skepticism around the league that the Pelicans will trade either Jones or Murphy this season, Jake Fischer of The Stein Line<\/a> (Substack link) says he spoke to five separate rival teams last week that said New Orleans isn\u2019t shutting down inquiries on those players like the front office has in the past.
\nPoole, who has been sidelined since November 4 due to a quad strain, participated in some parts of Tuesday\u2019s practice, according to Borrego, who said the plan is for Poole to go through a full practice on Wednesday (Twitter link<\/a> via Guillory).
\nIn a subscriber-only column for NOLA.com<\/a>, Walker takes a look at the latest disappointing turn of events in the Williamson saga. This was supposed to be a \u201cget-right\u201d season for the former No. 1 overall pick, Walker writes, but hamstring and adductor strains have limited the two-time All-Star to just 10 appearances, and the Pelicans haven\u2019t played well with or without him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two of the league\u2019s most promising rookies had the best games of their respective NBA careers on Monday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[34556,7068,34502,20395,27063,34557,9,24,63,122,124,123,34504,20397,34506],"class_list":{"0":"post-66262","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-dejounte-murray","9":"tag-derik-queen","10":"tag-dylan-harper","11":"tag-herbert-jones","12":"tag-jordan-poole","13":"tag-kevon-looney","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-queens","18":"tag-queens-headlines","19":"tag-queens-news","20":"tag-saddiq-bey","21":"tag-trey-murphy","22":"tag-zion-williamson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}