The 2025 NBA draft night will be talked about with the New Orleans Pelicans for years to come, both for what the team did that night and what it will keep them from doing in the following year.

Because of that night, the Pelicans no longer have their first-round pick in the 2026 draft. A class that is already being talked about as one of 'the best we've ever seen.'

New president of basketball operations Joe Dumars and general manager Troy Weaver traded it away, unprotected to the Atlanta Hawks, to select Maryland Terrapins big Derik Queen with the No. 13 overall pick.

It has been much-maligned. The team is 1-6, which could realistically have been a top-five pick. The Indiana Pacers pick that they also traded away is another conversation entirely, but one that doesn't help their optics right now.

Whether fair or not -- which it's not -- this is a cloud that will continue to hang over Queen's career. Conversations about it popped up again once head coach Willie Green stopped really playing him; a three-game stretch saw Queen play just 34 total minutes.

There are only two ways to get people to move on. Winning games and seeing Queen become the player that everyone in that building thinks he can be. Tuesday night's game against the Charlotte Hornets saw progress towards both things happening.

The 20-year-old played the entire fourth quarter after only playing six minutes in the first half. He was simply too impactful to take off the court. He finished with 12 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and four steals. Making clutch play after clutch play along the way, helping spark an 11-0 run to close out the game, coming from behind to win it.

"That's why Joe [Dumars] and Troy [Weaver] did what they did," said Jose Alvarado after the game, when asked about Queen's ability to impact the game in so many different ways. "And it's working."

Queen himself knows that the trade talk is happening, and is using that to his advantage. Alvarado isn't the only that has confidence that the front office is incredibly happy with that performance.

"It's a confidence thing," said the rookie in the locker room following the win. "Just [my performance] in the fourth quarter is just probably proving why [they traded the pick]." 

Green described Queen as an offensive hub. Not as a potential one, one already. That's a massive compliment to pay a rookie big. Those types of players are becoming more common, but are still exceedingly rare.

If the former Terrapins star can become an Alperen Sengun or Domantas Sabonis-type, two players that he has said Dumars sends him highlights of, then trading a first-round pick will absolutely be worth it.

More ambitious fans have thrown around Nikola Jokic, which is obviously the best case scenario.

The way that Queen sees the game is already impressive. He can carry the ball down the court; there are players smaller than him who have been on the team for years and can't do that.

This was the first time that Queen, the facilitator, really got to shine and it was a sight to behold.

It was just one step, but an important one to finally move on from the constant chatter about that draft day trade.