Analyst Names Pelicans-Hawks Trade As One Of The Worst Moves Of The Offseason

Was the draft night trade the worst move of the offseason? One could make the case and Bleacher Report's Dan Favale recently ranked it among the worst moves of the offseason:

"The New Orleans Pelicans shipped out the No. 23 pick along with an unprotected 2026 first-rounder (most favorable from them or Milwaukee) to move up 10 spots and select Derik Queen. The move was eviscerated in real time and doesn't look any better several weeks later.

This isn’t an indictment of Queen’s ceiling. His defensive, spacing and below-the-rim limitations are real, and the left wrist injury that will sideline him for roughly three months is a bummer. But he could still turn into a fantastic cornerstone.

Here’s the thing: If the Pelicans were this high on him, they should have simply taken him at No. 7 instead of Jeremiah Fears.

Spinning this as "They got their two guys" rings ridiculously hollow when what the package they gave up demands they be good immediately, lest they surrender a high lottery pick to the Atlanta Hawks. Making the playoffs in the Western Conference while relying heavily on two rookies and a trillion non-spacing centers is never a good bet.

Queen could make an All-NBA team next season (he won't), and this trade would still look bad, albeit much less so, because it represents a complete disconnect between New Orleans' self-evaluation and current reality.

Oh, and this says nothing of the Pelicans' decision to jettison CJ McCollum's expiring contract for Jordan Poole and Saddiq Bey.

Poole is coming off an encouraging campaign, but his offensive stock is nothing if not turbulent, he's not a true floor general, and the defense with any combination of him, Queen, Fears and Zion Williamson will be a big woof.

Bey is a good shooter, but he's not much of a defender himself, and he's coming back from a torn left ACL that cost him all of 2024-25.

On top of all that, the ever cost-conscious (read: notoriously stingy) Pelicans are adding over $40 million to their 2026-27 books for reasons that are, at best, not entirely clear—and at worst, completely nonexistent."

A widely panned move

There has been a lot of reaction to the trade, including from Bill Simmons, who had called the trade one of the five worst in the decade:

"New Orleans trades up ten spots so they can get Derik Queen and they give up their unprotected 2026 first round pick swap that they have with Milwaukee, they have the favorable, whatever pick it is they keep. They send that to Atlanta, who had to be deliriously happy, this was one of the five dumbest trades of this decade, I was speechless."

This move could potentially land the Hawks a top-five selection in next year's draft and the organization could end up getting another young cornerstone for one of the most talented teams in the Eastern Conference.

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