Derik Queen isn’t wasting time feeding the panic around the New Orleans Pelicans’ preseason.
After a road loss to the Miami Heat, the second-year center jumped on social media to push back on the overreactions surrounding Jamahl Mosley’s early on-court product. Queen made it clear he thinks the noise is premature.
“By Oct 21st all you Pels fans will never remember this day,” posted Queen. “Stay over there!
Trust & believe. It’s preseason for a reason.”
That message fit the bigger theme coming out of New Orleans: the Pelicans are trying to build something new, and Mosley is asking for patience while he installs it. Queen has been direct about what was missing last year under Willie Green, but his focus now is on what the team is trying to become.
The biggest change, according to Queen, is how Mosley wants his players wired. This isn’t just about knowing assignments or talking better on the floor. It’s about making defensive rotations feel automatic.
“Pretty much (Mosley) just wants us to dream about (the rotations),” Queen said. “He wanted us to, he wanted us to sleep about the rotations.
He wanted us to wake up about the rotations. He just wanted us to think, like he wanted us to implement the rotations in our everyday lives.
So I think that’s definitely going to help.”
Mosley has even brought NBA officials into training camp to call the runs, and Queen said he’s using that setup to learn instead of dodge contact or complain about whistles.
“I've not been talking to them,” Queen smiled. “It's just trying to learn from them on how to get foul calls, how to not foul people. But it's been fun with us playing under their whistle.”
For Mosley, the goal is obvious: make the rotations so familiar that the Pelicans can execute them without thinking. For Queen, that kind of comfort could be the difference between logging 30+ minutes per game and spending too much of his second season on the bench because of foul trouble.
In Other News...
Pelicans Fans May Not Expect Zion In This Training Camp Debate
Training camp has already produced one small, friendly debate inside the Pelicans locker room, with Derik Queen weighing in on which players have been the most explosive above the rim. After watching practices, Queen put Karlo Matkovic at the top of his dunker rankings, with Trey Murphy III and Yves Missi also drawing notice for the kind of finishes that tend to stand out when the pace picks up.
The list offered a little snapshot of what has been showing up on the court, and it also explained why Zion Williamson was not near the top of it. Queen said Williamson has not been dunking much in practice, a detail that says more about what has been happening lately than about Williamsons well-known athletic ability. For a team that knows how much rim pressure Williamson can create, it is still the kind of training camp note that makes people lean in a little closer. [Read more 🡒]
Pelicans Final Roster Spots Just Got More Interesting
The Pelicans end-of-roster picture got a little clearer this week as they added another look at Jalon Moore, a rangy forward who spent his college career at Georgia Tech and Oklahoma before going undrafted. Moores path to New Orleans has already been unusual. After tearing his Achilles in a pre-draft workout and missing last season, he was brought in by the Pelicans earlier to help secure his G League rights, then resurfaced with the teams Summer League group this month.
Moores return gives New Orleans another chance to evaluate a young player coming off a long layoff, and it also underscores how much business still needs to be sorted out around the final roster spots. The Pelicans have been using Summer League to sort through those decisions, and Moores presence now adds another layer to a picture that had already been shifting behind the scenes. [Read more 🡒]
Jordan Poole Is Forcing A Pelicans Lineup Decision
Jordan Poole has given the Pelicans something to think about early in preseason, and it is the kind of decision a coaching staff would rather have than the alternative. His play has looked sharper and more disciplined than it did a year ago, with the kind of shooting and creation that can ease pressure on the rest of the offense, especially when Zion Williamson is on the floor and the half-court gets crowded.
New Orleans now has to weigh whether Pooles early run is enough to bump him into the starting conversation for the next game against Dallas. The fit is appealing because his playmaking could help stabilize the group, but the bigger question is whether this version of Poole holds up long enough to matter once the games start counting for real. [Read more 🡒]