{"id":307762,"date":"2025-11-22T21:20:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T21:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/307762\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T21:20:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T21:20:10","slug":"from-master-to-student-nikola-jokic-admits-he-sees-his-style-in-unorthodox-rookie-derik-queen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/307762\/","title":{"rendered":"From Master to Student: Nikola Jokic admits he sees his style in ‘Unorthodox’ rookie Derik Queen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heading into the 80th NBA season, many wondered how the New Orleans Pelicans<\/a> would look with Zion Williamson<\/a> in the best physical shape of his career. Although he started the season solidly, the Duke product had already experienced a brief pause due to injury, and it must be said that he\u2019s playing below the level we\u2019ve seen from him in previous seasons.<\/p>\n

All of this has translated into a disastrous Pelicans season, where they sit last in the West with a 2\u201314 record. But if there\u2019s one positive thing to take away so far this season, it\u2019s definitely Derik Queen<\/a>. In a great game against the Dallas Mavericks, who are also stuck at the bottom of the Western Conference, Queen shone with 20 points, seven rebounds and 11 assists, becoming the fastest center in NBA history to record a 20 points and 10 assists game. His 11 assists are also the most by a rookie center since Brad Daugherty in 1987.<\/p>\n

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Even though his team narrowly lost 118\u2013115, where his former high school teammate Cooper Flagg also dominated, Queen once again sparked comparisons to Denver Nuggets<\/a> center Nikola Jokic<\/a>, who recently said he sees reflections of his own game in Queen\u2019s<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, it feels good. He\u2019s gonna be a Hall of Famer, three-time MVP, NBA champion. Coming from him, it means a lot. I don\u2019t know if he gives out a lot of compliments, but definitely coming from one of the greatest means a lot,\u201d Queen said.<\/p>\n

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The flair in Queen\u2019s game is drawing comparisons with Jokic<\/p>\n

Watching the way Queen plays, it\u2019s easy to draw comparisons \u2013 the passing instincts, footwork, great post play, and, for now, the lack of finesse on his outside shot. All of it was also visible in the previous matchup, which was his second time playing against the Serbian center.<\/p>\n

The Maryland product had 30 points, nine rebounds, and four assists along with two steals and two blocks on 12-of-18 shooting. It was clear then just how similar the two centers are in their styles, and the media quickly rushed to the \u201cBaby Jokic\u201d nickname. To further emphasize how something truly special is hidden in the 20-year-old center was best confirmed by Tim Duncan\u2019s reaction<\/a> after the game against the San Antonio Spurs.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe can flat-out play the game,\u201d Antonio Daniels said<\/a> of Queen. \u201cI don\u2019t care how you look at it. His ability to do so many things well \u2013 he can shoot it, he can pass it, he understands angles. Right now, I\u2019m sitting here with my phone in my hand, and Tim Duncan just sent me a text about Derik Queen. He said, \u2018Man, I really like that Queen guy.\u2019 I said, \u2018Me too, bro.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Pelicans could start building a team around Queen<\/p>\n

Although his body type also resembles Jokic, there are some differences. Queen is an undersized center at 6-foot-9, with a 7-foot wingspan, which makes him even more unique. For now, next to Williamson, Queen plays exclusively at the five, but it\u2019s clear that with his mobility, he can easily slide to power forward.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s too early to make any predictions, but the fact is that Queen has caught the attention of more and more people around the league. And if the Pelicans continue to pile up losses, speculation about trading Williamson could become realistic, which would likely mean that GM Joe Dumars might start building the team around the 13th pick in the 2025 Draft.<\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Basketball Network<\/a> on Nov 22, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest News<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heading into the 80th NBA season, many wondered how the New Orleans Pelicans would look with Zion Williamson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[159366,761,760,1753,36974,355,6932,1756,159367,2116,99,9752,29771],"class_list":["post-307762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-brad-daugherty","tag-cooper-flagg","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-derik-queen","tag-nba","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-rookie-center","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports","tag-tim-duncan","tag-zion-williamson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}