Three New Orleans Pelicans moves landed on ESPN's worst deals list. A controversial draft trade and a puzzling player swap highlight management's struggles.
The New Orleans Pelicans have seen a lot of changes hit their roster over the past year, which is no surprise when management shifts around the front office.
Joe Dumars and Troy Weaver are no strangers to running NBA teams and have been the duo put in charge of turning the Pelicans around and building a consistently winning team.
They came in at a weird spot where the team felt like it had more talent than they have shown in recent years. Trey Murphy is a budding star, Zion Williamson is a former first overall selection, Herb Jones is one of the defensive players in the league, etc.
They seemingly had two options: continue building around this core or try to rebuild and focus on the future. So far, it seems as though Dumars and Weaver have tried to have their cake and eat it too. That has not made them popular around the NBA World.
Recently, ESPN's Zach Kram ranked the 10 worst and 10 best deals made since the 2025 offseason. Three separate moves made by New Orleans have ended up in the worst deals category:
Trading Up For Derik Queen
This has been one of the most talked-about trades in recent NBA history. Not to the level of the Luka Doncic deal, of course, but it is about as controversial as draft night decisions get.
The Pelicans gave up their 2026 first-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks to move up 10 spots and select forward Derik Queen with the No. 13 pick in the 2025 draft. The big deal here is that there were no protections.
Queen has had an up-and-down rookie year, but is averaging 11.4 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists after suffering an injury in Summer League and not returning to basketball until the regular season. There is talent there.
The problem now is that New Orleans simply wasn't as good as they thought they would be, with injuries playing a large role, and now the Hawks are going to get a lottery pick. Helping this move's case is that the Pelicans have been playing well, and that pick has moved from the best odds to land the top pick to the eighth-best odds.
If it lands around eight, this deal will be scrutinized less. If it lands in the top four, which currently has a 26.3% chance of doing so, it'll be a disaster.
Trade For Jordan Poole
New Orleans traded CJ McCollum, Kelly Olynyk and a future second to the Washington Wizards for Poole, Saddiq Bey and the draft rights to Micah Peavy.
There is no debating that the Poole side of this trade has been a disaster for everyone involved. The guard is making $31.85 million this year and has been out of the normal rotation for some time now. He's making $34 million next season and the Pelicans will have to shop him around. That being an expiring deal could offer some flexibility.
Being able to acquire Bey and Peavy has actually been a massive success, which does help this from being completely awful. Bey has had a career year while being on arguably the best contract in the league. Peavy has inconsistent minutes right now, but he looks like he can at least be a contributor. This move wasn't all bad.
Signing Kevon Looney
This was thrown in with the Poole deal. There's not much to say about it, other than it seems to have mostly been a waste of $8 million. He's a good presence around the locker room and a mentor, but DeAndre Jordan really took that role over. Looney has appeared in just 18 games while being healthy. There is little chance that New Orleans picks up his option.