Two rookies, and former high school teammates, stood on the court at American Airlines Center late Wednesday night and swapped jerseys.

One of the rookies was the sure thing.

The other one, folks weren’t so sure about at all. Especially considering what it cost to get him.

Cooper Flagg, the Dallas Mavericks forward drafted with the No. 1 overall pick, is the prodigy nobody ever doubted.

Derik Queen, the New Orleans Pelicans forward and main character in one of the most talked about draft night trades in recent history, is showing that you probably shouldn’t have doubted him, either.

Queen left Dallas on Wednesday with Flagg’s jersey. More importantly, Queen left with a victory. It was Queen’s second victory in two nights. The Pelicans wouldn’t have gotten either one of them without Queen, who delivered two doubt-removing performances over a 24-hour span.

All of a sudden, everyone else saw in Queen the same things that Joe Dumars saw back in June.

Dumars, in his first year as Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations, traded away the Pelicans’ 2026 first-round pick to move up in the draft from 23 to 13 to select Queen. The decision was heavily criticized. The scrutiny grew even louder when the Pelicans started the season with six straight losses.

The thought of a bad team with no way to get a lottery pick in next year’s draft had Pelicans fans in an uproar.

Then came Tuesday night when Queen lifted the Pelicans to their first win with one of the best all-around fourth-quarter showings in the past 30 years. Queen finished with 12 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and four steals in the 116-112 victory over the Charlotte Hornets. Most of that production came in the fourth quarter. Queen is the first player to record 12 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals in any quarter since the NBA started keeping track of play-by-play back the 1996-97 season.

The victory snapped a 13-game losing skid for the Pelicans. It was their first win since March 30, which was around the same time Queen had last won a game. The date was March 23 when Queen drained a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer to lift Maryland over Colorado State to advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. During the timeout right before Queen hit the game-winner, Maryland coach Kevin Willard asked who wanted the ball.

Queen’s response?

“Give me the (expletive) ball.”

Pelicans coach Willie Green made sure he had the ball often in crunch time against the Hornets. Queen played the entire fourth quarter.

“DQ was amazing,” Green said. “We needed every ounce of what he gave us.”

Queen displayed all the versatility that made Dumars take the risk in June. While many want the Pelicans to have the luxury of getting a high first-round pick in 2026, Dumars instead chose the “Why wait?” path.

“When you have chance to get two lottery picks in one draft, you’re accounting for the following year,” Dumars said. “When you identify a player that you think can be one of the foundations here, you go and get him. That’s what we did. We targeted Queen. We thought he could be a heckuva addition here, and we were really aggressive about going to get Queen in this draft.”

Queen followed Tuesday by recording 11 points, seven rebounds and three steals in the win over the Mavericks and his former Montverde Academy teammate Flagg. On Saturday in a loss to the San Antonio Spurs, Queen finished with 13 points, seven assists, five rebounds and a pair of blocked shots. Oh, and he also knocked down the first 3-point attempt of his career.

His performance Saturday caught the eye of Hall of Famer and Spurs’ great Tim Duncan, who was in attendance. Duncan sent a text message to Pelicans’ broadcaster Antonio Daniels during the game.  The message was a simple one. 

“I really like that Queen guy.” 

Dumars likes him too. He believes in him. More importantly, Queen believes in himself.

He said so at his introductory news conference. He used all the talk about the trade as motivation.

“I’m going to say it here,” Queen said that day. “I don’t think nobody in that (2026) class is ever going to be better than me. So I block all the noise out. Joe’s got a lot of faith in me. Most of those guys, I beat on in high school so it doesn’t really matter. I know the NBA is a whole different level, so I just have to continue getting better. Just beat on them next year when they come in and make Joe look like a genius.”

This time two weeks ago, the Vegas odds had Queen 14th in the rookie of the year race. He’s currently up to eighth, just one spot below teammate Jeremiah Fears, taken with the No. 7 overall pick.

Fears wasted little time proving what type of talent he is. Queen needed a little more time. He missed all of training camp and preseason after tearing a ligament in his left wrist in Summer League. His rehab consisted mostly of riding an exercise bike and conditioning work.

“Those three months of being sidelined were tough,” Queen said in his thick Baltimore accent. “There was no room for working on my game. Just legs and conditioning. I got thrown into the first game and it was them trusting me and being more comfortable.”

Queen isn’t going to wow you with his athleticism, but he’ll win you over with his skills and basketball IQ. He’s a playmaking big man. The “Baby Jokic” nickname that some gave him in college doesn’t sound as outlandish now.

Queen, who turns 21 in December, is just scratching the surface of his potential. And he’s having fun while doing it. On a spin move to the basket against the Mavs, he looked over to the Pelicans’ bench and stuck his tongue out before finishing the play with a dunk.

But don’t take that play as him not being serious. He is.  

“He’s so intelligent,” Green said. “You guys aren’t privy to the questions he’s asking. He is asking questions every film session. He makes you think and makes you go back to the drawing board to make sure you have good answers for him.”

And he’s willing to listen. After the Charlotte game, Queen was sitting at his locker for a postgame interview. Teammate DeAndre Jordan, in his 18th NBA season, instructed Queen to stand up for his interview.

“You’re a big dog, you had 12, 8 and 7 tonight,” Jordan reminded him. “Don’t sit down. Make your presence be felt.”

Less than 10 games into his NBA career, he’s presence has indeed been felt.

He’s become a fan favorite in a week. Social media has been busy trying to come up with the perfect nickname for the baby-faced rookie. Some of the suggestions are a play on his initials DQ and their correlation to fast-food chain restaurant Dairy Queen.

Big Blizzard. Baby Blizzard. Big Freeze. The Big Treat.

And some nicknames, like the Big Easy, have double meanings. The Big Easy describes how effortless Queen plays while also paying tribute to the city that has quickly embraced him. That wasn’t always the case. Just four months ago, there were many asking  “What in the world is Joe Dumars doing?”

But now, the draft night trade by Dumars and senior vice president of basketball operations Troy Weaver doesn’t seem so bad.

They believed in Queen. Queen believed in himself. Now, fans are starting to believe, too.

“That’s why Joe and Troy did what they did,” Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado said. “They saw it. It’s working.”