Derik Queen on slow start, second half | 2025 NBA Summer League Postgame

Derik Queen on slow start, second half | 2025 NBA Summer League Postgame

probably ask you this again in the preseason and then again for the actual first regular season game. But what was it like getting out there in your first NBA experience? Uh it was great. Uh I started off really really bad and then like my teammates stuck with me. Uh I mean I guess I call them vets for the summer league but but a few of the older guys uh was just was just giving me words of encouragement. The second half I got it going. Um and then I I I kind of picked it up. Was there any like one moment that it clicked? Bruce said he kind of talked to you at halftime and then he early in that third they kind of sat you down and talked to you a little bit. Is there anything that kind of helped you get going? Like no I mean no not really. It was just like like I don’t know like it was my game. Like I feel like it’s my game to like kind of be like nonchalant but like at times I should like be be physical at times cuz cuz that’s why I felt like I I messed up or turned the ball over a lot like I mean or I looked immature cuz I wasn’t physical enough. But so once I understood it in the second uh half, I felt like I picked it up. How much did that first bucket going in kind of help kind of get you going a little bit? Uh it was like it was a little bit of relief and then I think I came down turned the ball over. I was like and and I got spit from my mouthpiece in my eyes. So I was like so like and then the next one got got me going. So like I like and then we get and then we didn’t have enough uh enough time to really like uh play against each other a lot. I mean we did but like me to adapt to the physicality and the in the week I was there. But now like I feel like I have this game under my belt. I feel like I’m I’m gonna be great next game. What did you kind of see from Fars in that first game taking over that point guard role? Uh I think Fizz kind of did a good job. Uh it’s our first game. None of us going to be perfect, but Fizz Fizz know what uh what he got to do better. I know what he I got to do better, but I feel like it was a really good debut for him. Uh talked a little trash. Now that’s one guy I probably got to learn from even though he younger than me. uh uh cuz he was bumping a lot of people using his physicality, but um I felt like he he had a a great debut. Did that surprise you? I don’t see him chirping out there a little bit in that first half. No, no. I mean, he from Chicago, so you mentioned um you know, the next game, how much you look forward to um just taking this experience of of this game and and trying to improve. I know like turnovers was was an issue today, but I’m sure just getting more opportunity to play together. Yeah, just really redemption. Like it like I got to redeem myself cuz I know like I mean like I got 82 games. I mean like Twitter and probably Instagram going going crazy right now. So like I just got to redeem myself for for me and and all the outside noise also and my team. I mean you also had a double double. I mean it it was kind of sloppy but um I mean a double double is a is a double double but it it was kind of sloppy in the first half but I think I flipped the switch in the in the second half. I mean, like I I I adapted in the second half, but uh it even weave told me um it’s going to take me a week to figure it out, but uh I’m I I feel like I I got a little bit of a hang of it now. You you mentioned it sounded like you were trying to be more aggressive in the second half. Did you feel like you were kind of reading things better, too, like reading their defense, finding openings better? Uh no. Like sometimes I I beat my man and then I try to make an unnecessary move or a weak move and then he just played good defense and and got me to turn the ball over every single time. So like it was like so second half I kind of understood that. Oh, and actually what kind of what kind of got me going is one of the guys was talking trash and he was like he didn’t even get in the game. Uh and that’s when he was like you trash. You’re not even good at basketball. So I think that got me going. What’s what’s the key to keeping that switch flipped on Saturday? Uh really like I mean like pro I mean I I don’t know trying to be the best on the floor at all times probably. But um uh trying to compete it’s really not going to switch but like uh like the way I play is the way I’ve been playing all my life and then like I I mean a lot of people say I have to turn it turn it up like just just as as spurts. So, I I think this was one of the games where I had to turn up at Spurs to get used to the physicality and and the no calls and stuff, but I think I figured it out in the second half. I know you were talking about looking forward to playing with Eve. Uh, what was kind of your takeaways from that first experience? I really wanted to get him that live, but but Eve, yo, like I’m under the rim. He just he’s so athletic. Eve under the rim just grabbing all the all the rebounds and stuff. But like and and I I feel like he gonna be like a I mean we probably the same age, but he probably going to be like a good mentor, a good big brother cuz he because he did go through a whole 82 game. So uh and some of these so I think he going to help me out a lot. Preets for

Forward-center Derik Queen speaks with the media following the Pelicans loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in NBA Summer League on July 10, 2025.
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