Things are going from bad to worse for the New Orleans Pelicans, whose poor start has reminded fans of their awful offseason moves. They made arguably the worst offseason move of the summer by trading the 23rd pick and an unprotected pick in the 2026 NBA Draft to the Atlanta Hawks for the 13th pick and the draft rights to Derek Queen.
Queen has looked fine thus far, but the Pelicans have the worst record in the NBA, and that probably isn't going to get much better. That means it's entirely possible that they traded a top-5 pick in what is shaping up to be an outlandishly good 2026 NBA Draft.
AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, and Cam Boozer all have the talent to be 5-time all-stars. And it's not like the Pelicans didn't know they would be bad enough to possibly have a high lottery pick.
Worse still, they traded the Indiana Pacers back their 2026 first-round pick in exchange for their pick in the 2025 NBA draft, which was the selection they traded for Queen.
Hindsight is 20/20, and the Pelicans had no way of knowing that just days after making that Pacers trade, star Tyrese Haliburton would tear his Achilles in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
The only team that has had worse luck than the Pacers in the last few months is the Pelicans. They could have held onto that pick, their own pick, and been sitting pretty with two potential top-10 picks in next year's NBA Draft.
Three winless NBA teams this morning: Nets, Pacers, and Pelicans.
— Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnor) October 30, 2025
New Orleans owned both its own and Indiana’s 2026 firsts, then new GM Joe Dumars traded both in June. And now both picks are have top 3 odds in a loaded draft.
Gulp! pic.twitter.com/QtfA9MY2Nu
Joe Dumars has the New Orleans Pelicans in free fall
All of these failed moves lie at the feet of recently hired GM Joe Dumars. Dumars previously ran the Detroit Pistons into the ground after initially being a fantastic GM. Unfortunately for Pelicans fans, he appears to be doing it again already.
There was his baffling decision to acquire Jordan Poole even though he is making more than $30 million a season for the next 3 years. Meanwhile, they also have Dejounte Murray, who's making similar money over the next two and is currently injured.
Those two players clearly aren't a part of their long-term plans, and even Zion Williamson may not be, leading to questions about what their plan is exactly. Does Dumars even have a plan? The best anyone can tell is that he is hoping to strike gold with Queen and Jermaiah Fears, but he may have mortgaged their future to do so.