When the New Orleans Pelicans traded for Jordan Poole from the Washington Wizards this past offseason, they probably didn't expect that he would be the second-most impactful player they received a few months into the year.
Tacked onto that trade was forward Saddiq Bey, a former Detroit Pistons first-round pick who had missed the last year of basketball due to a torn ACL suffered in late 2024.
Bey is averaging 15.1 points, 5.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists per night on 44.4/32.0/80.2 shooting splits this year. He hasn't been lights out from three, but can hit big shots when they are needed. This has been the second-best statistical season of his career.
Even before the injury, Bey had started to slip from the early production he had with the Pistons. He wasn't bad, but just looked more like another role player.
In the second season of a three-year, $20 million deal and through 33 games with the Pelicans, Bey has found a new home after fearing that his basketball career could have been over.
Tuesday night's performance against the New York Knicks shows exactly how valuable the 26-year-old can be. New Orleans was set up against one of the most dominant offenses in the NBA, while owning one of the worst defenses, but Bey stepped up and helped carry the Pelicans to a 41-point quarter.
Bey had a career-high 23 points in the first quarter. That was just one point shy of the franchise record, currently held by Trey Murphy and Anthony Davis. While he didn't have the best night after that, Zion Williamson, Murphy and Jordan Poole picked up the slack the rest of the way.
While he hasn't that exact type of performance before this season, there have been plenty of times where he is the only thing working on offense. There was a 14-game stretch where he averaged 19.1 points 7.9 rebounds with less than a turnover each game.
At the end of the day, Bey is a hooper. He has the respect of his teammates. They are quick to bring up the fact that he had a 50-point game when asked about him having those types of scoring outbursts this season.
He can shoot at times, but he can always put his shoulder into someone and force his way to the rim. He's strong, confident and exactly the type of player that New Orleans needed to find for this season.