There's no denying that the New Orleans Pelicans have had a disastrous start to the 2025 season. They sit at the bottom of the Western Conference at 2-15, are on a nine-game losing streak, have fired their coach and don't own the rights to their first-round pick.

All of those things are certainly bad, but there have also been a few bright spots to take away from this team so far. A couple of rookies are looking like potential future All-Stars, and a couple of 

Here are four guys who have been pleasant surprises to start this disappointing campaign:

The biggest thing to take away from this season in the search for positivity is that Queen looks like someone who can take the reins of this franchise, should they move on from Zion Williamson.

Queen has quickly become a viable offensive hub. The team just runs so much smoother with him controlling the speed of the game. He is capable of taking over fourth quarters and has a star personality. 

The Pelicans also have a +17.9 net rating with the 20-year-old on the court, so the numbers back up the eye test.

Advanced analytics are not as kind to Fears as they are to Queen, the team is a -7.7 net rating with him on the court, but he certainly passes the eye test for a guard that is supposed to be a freshman in college.

He turned 19 just over a month ago and already looks super confident in getting to his spots in the paint. He could stand to be a bit more efficient, but that will come with time.

The largest areas of growth for him will be developing a high-volume jump shot and becoming more of an initiator/playmaker for other’s, but the team should be happy with where he is right now.

Matkovic has been a sparkplug for this team off the bench and woken them up to go on a run on multiple occasions.

He’s a lob threat, has started to stretch the floor a little bit more and has progressed as a playmaker. There’s not much more that the team could ask for from a rotational big. It would be nice to see his role increase when he comes back from injury.