Breaking: Pelicans Lose Derik Queen, Nuggets Update On Jonas Valanciunas

Breaking: Pelicans Lose Derik Queen, Nuggets Update On Jonas Valanciunas

Breaking and unfortunate news here for the New Orleans Pelicans losing rookie Derek Queen. I’m Trevor Lane. This is the Basketball Bulletin. Make sure you subscribe right here to the channel. Turn on those notifications as well. We’re going to take a look at the latest on the Derek Queen situation, plus an update on Yonis Valenunis with the Denver Nuggets. Joining me is Donnie Freeman. Donnie, are the Pelicans at this point just actually cursed? to me this team was destroyed last year due to injuries and now here we go again. Yeah, the it’s not at all encouraging to hear this uh during the off season that uh he’s got to go ahead and get surgery. They’ve got several players are going to be recovering from surgery as well here as well. So yeah, it’s it’s not looking great. Um but you know they took a big gamble on him and and this team and hopefully things work out for them but right now not looking great especially on the heels of last year. Exactly. So Shams Tranio reports that uh Pelicans forward/center Derek Queen underwent surgery to repair a torren scaffold ligament in his wrist which is a word I definitely didn’t practice a few times right before we started this. Uh and will be re-evaluated in 12 weeks. I mean Donnie 12 weeks that’s the regular season. I mean, we’re talking about if he is not being re-evaluated. And remember, we always say, re-evaluate does not mean return. That doesn’t mean he’s back in 12 weeks. 12 weeks is when they’re going to check in on him again. And then if he’s given the green light, he’s going to have to start ramping up again and and getting ready to go and actually play. So, that has to be a concern because now the regular season is very much in jeopardy. I would say it’s unlikely that he’s able to play for the Pelicans to start the regular season given how far out we can project 12 weeks to be. Let’s not forget too, the Pelicans took a big risk in trading for Derek Queen. They gave up next year’s pick unprotected to the Atlanta Hawks. And that is actually the the better pick between the Pelicans pick and the Bucks pick. Either one of those picks could wind up being a lottery pick. Obviously, the Bucks are looking like they’re in better shape right now, but you never know what could happen in the NBA, but given the injury history that we saw this last year with the Pelicans, this could very well be a lottery pick that is given to the Atlanta Hawks for next year, just in exchange for moving back 10 spots. It was the 23rd pick in this year’s draft, plus the unprotected pick next year in exchange for number 13 to get Derek Queen. Now, Queen knows how important that trade is for his overall value and how much the Pelicans invested in him. This is what he said. He said, “I’m going to say I don’t think nobody in that 2026 class is ever going to be better than me.” So, he’s talking about the Pelicans giving up that pick, saying I’m better than everybody that’s in that class anyway. I I mean, pretty high on that 2026 class, so I don’t I like the the confidence. I like the confidence. Yeah. He said, “Yeah, I’m better than The only way kind of like I don’t love it is if it’s like a top like what 10 pick. Maybe I don’t love it at that point. Maybe maybe less than that. Top top six, top five maybe.” But it was it wasn’t just that pick though. It was also the 23rd pick in this year’s draft. So it’s 23 plus that pick next year. That’s true. For for Derek Queen. Anyway, if he hits, if it works out for him and the Pels, then no big deal. Then every then the Pelicans are fine. and if he winds up being the player they think he’s going to be, but now probably won’t be available to start the season for the Pelicans. And he may not be the only one. The Pells were one of the most injured teams in the NBA last season as Will Gillery reports. Now the Pelicans go into training camp late September with Trey Murphy, Herb Jones, Deonte Murray, and Derek Queen all recovering from surgery. uh for a team that was decimated with injuries last year. This is not the way you want to be starting things off this year. Yeah, that’s three starters, your new promising rookie you made the trade for, uh pro four of your best players on your team, period. That’s just not great. So, they’re going to be doing a lot of walkthrough film study stuff like that. Not really doing a lot of uh actual ball out there. And that’s fine. I mean, they’ve got they’ve got a season to kind of figure stuff out, but hopefully these guys are mostly all ready by the start of the regular season. They will need to ramp up, of course, like you kind of talked about earlier. Uh, but yeah, I I do still like this roster, but you just don’t want to see this in particular. Hopefully, this is the end of it, especially as it as far as like offseason injuries go. Um, but Queen was playing and that’s kind of one of the things that can come along with that. And and let’s not forget too, none of those names that I just mentioned are Zion Williamson who has a lengthy injury history of his own and we can probably project that at some point an injury will pop up for him too. Um hopefully not. He’s an amazing player and I want to see him out there and healthy and performing. The NBA is a better place when Zion is out there doing his thing, but he’s obviously got a lengthy injury history, too. You know, we look at the Western Conference and how stacked it is. Last year, one of the reasons why there was one less team that we would have projected being in the playoff mix actually in there was because of the Pelicans and because they essentially their their season was obliterated with injury. So to lose Derrick Queen this early in the process and and here’s the other thing that’s damaging, Donnie, for a young player like Derrick Queen, it’s not just well, okay, he may maybe he misses the first few weeks of the season, maybe the first month of the season while he’s ramping up. It’s missing the development. It’s missing the reps right now, the opportunities to get accustomed to the NBA game. There’s a lot of growth that happens during this first summer and he’s going to be missing out on all of that as well. So, an absolutely brutal blow for the Pelicans to be losing out on Derek Queen already. Um, and the Atlanta Hawks, I mean, depending on how injured the Pelicans get, the Atlanta Hawks are going to be keeping a really close eye on uh this Pelicans pick, and we’ll see ultimately where that that lands. I hope we don’t see the Pelicans go down that same path that they did last year where they just can’t get healthy. Yeah, they’ve uh they’re certainly a team that I think is interesting and they are one of the bigger question marks because if they somehow do put together a season where they are mostly healthy throughout it, uh they could be a really really feisty team to play against. I really like what they’ve built and what they are continuing to build there. Uh and Derek I think is going to absolutely fit perfectly into what they’re doing. But, uh, absolutely a question mark. These these teams like them or like Philly from last year that were just absolutely decimated, you don’t really know what to expect. Yeah. Yeah. Don’t know what to expect at all out of New Orleans. So, tough news there. Derek Queen out now. Uh, I would I would assume through the start of the season here now for the New Orleans Pelicans. Absolutely brutal. Uh, but let’s jump over to some some good news. The Denver Nuggets, I’ll tell you what, Donnie, the Denver Nuggets have had a phenomenal off season. I mean, so good. They made I love the trade for Valenunis. I love the trade for Cam Johnson. They did a great job there. They opened up flexibility. They had Tim Hardway Jr. They had Bruce Brown. This is a team that’s locked and loaded and ready to go. And check it out out of Denver. There was some concern. Will Valenunis actually report to the Nuggets? He wanted to go play to that with that team in Greece. And the answer is no. The answer, you check this out. Yeah, we’ve had um great conversations with him and and um there’s been uh nothing but healthy conversations in terms of him him honoring his contract and him excited to be uh to be a Nugget. So, there you have it. I was hoping he No, I’m joking. That actually You were hoping he was going to say, “We have no idea where he is. He’s never shown. He’s gone awall. We don’t know where he is. He’s gone rogue. You know, we can’t find him, right? Like I’m actually though in all seriousness kind of excited to see uh the Nuggets and and Jokic with a like he’s not a world beater of course, but a very serviceable backup for pretty much the first time in his prime and and it’s been a long time since they’ve had like two really solid bigs that they’re putting out there at the center position. So, uh, maybe maybe since Nerkage was there, maybe that’s the last time that they were able to put those two guys out there and that was maybe it. But don’t don’t be disrespectful. Don’t don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. I I’ll forever I’ll forever champion that uh he he was unplayable that year on LA and then he goes to Denver as their backup center and wins a championship, right? Isn’t that how that went? That is that’s exactly how that how that went. He I’ll never forget he threw that ball into the 10th row on a fast break and then got cut like the next day and then and then he you know maybe maybe that ball just happened to slip on purpose cuz he wound up in a better spot in Denver. Um so this is this is great news though for the Nuggets. There was there was some reporting out there from Europe that you know maybe Valenunis wasn’t still wasn’t super thrilled about being a Denver Nugget. Remember, they did pick up uh the team option on his contract for next year, giving him another $10 million guaranteed. That helped to smooth things over. And now the the Denver Nuggets saying, “No, he’s he’s excited to be here. We’ve had great conversations with him, and they’re going to have, I think, one of the better backups now.” Oh, yeah. In the NBA at the big position. I don’t know if I want to call him the best backup because, you know, you look at what Houston’s got. Do we consider Steven Adams the backup there? Clint Capella, you know, there there are some pretty good backups there, but he’s certainly among the very best backups if that’s indeed what he’s going to be here for the Denver Nuggets. That’s what we would project. And that’s just that’s a lot of physicality that Denver Front Line has to throw at teams on a night innight out basis. I mean, if you want, that’s 48 minutes of bruising between Jokic and Valenunis. Yeah. And my favorite thing about him is that he’s a ball mover, too. So, you don’t really have to change up what you do. Obviously, he’s not Jokic, but you can run some of the same actions and put him in a similar spot. So, he should be a pretty seamless fit. Uh and and yeah, he’ll give back some of what he he uh he can help you produce, of course, on the other end of the court. But really, what this team just they needed was like 10 to 15 minutes of backup center play where they don’t just fall off a cliff because Joic isn’t out there. And and I think that if they can even just stay even because Valenunis is out there as opposed to somebody else that’s not ready, uh that will be a big thing. And then also they they made the other additions like, you know, Cam and stuff like that. And also um the rookie from last year, Dron coming in as well. Like that’s going to be huge. Like I think Don Holmes. Yeah. Don Holmes coming back. Uh God missed all last season, but he’s been tearing it up in summer league. Has looked fantastic. So excited about him, too. The Nuggets, man. This is Tony. Tell me this. Who do you have if you had to put one ahead of the other? Cuz I think most people have Denver and Houston in a second tier right below OKC in the I do as well. Who Who like if you had to pick Denver or Houston, which one do you put in front of the other? Uh if I had to pick between the two, I’m picking Jokic. You’re picking Yic. That That is a great way to break the team that has Jokic. Yeah, I’m picking Yic. It gets the nod. I I can’t argue with that. I cannot argue with that. That’s my answer. But I think they’re both right there on that second tier um behind OKC because I think that the moves that they’ve made this off season, they they they’re two of the absolute winners this offseason and I think they’ve really separated themselves from that glut that pack of the Western Conference. There’s a couple other teams that may be able to do the same thing, but for now, I think it’s pretty obvious that these two have been huge winners. And so, uh I really like the additions that the Nuggets have have had. And you know, I still would feel this way even if they weren’t able to retain Valenunis because I think the other moves around. Then again, uh, Holmes coming in is another addition because he missed the whole last season. So that’s another addition for this team. I would still feel the same way. Yeah. You know, this is a a team that’s done so many good things. Tim Hardway Jr. and Bruce Brown might be two of the best bargains of the summer on veteran minimums. I I love the the Cam Johnson trade. you know, Valenunis, even if they It’s a great, it was a great move for them to make. Uh, turning Dario Sarich into a player like Valenunis. We’re seeing teams start to go bigger and bigger. We’re seeing it around the league. Look at what the Clippers did with Brook Lopez and Vita Zubats. Clint Capella going to the Houston Rockets. They’ve got three bigs now that are true centers. Now, you’ve got uh the Nuggets having both uh Valenunis and Joic. Teams are starting to play bigger again. And I think this is the right response here from the Denver Nuggets. We’re going to see Joic power forward minutes, aren’t we? Could they do it? Like I know Valenurus has occasionally shot the three. Jokic can of course shoot the three. Yeah, you could do it. Could you imag run Sangun and Adams and the Nuggets counter with Joic and Valenunis? They’re going to absolutely do that. I bet that you can also mix in Holmes in that as well. They’re going to do some double big stuff with him and stuff like that too and just go super duper big. And where these teams that are going to try to do that are susceptible is like in transition. But I mean if they’re winning on the other end of the court, then I’m cool with that every now and again. So I think it’s going to be interesting. I think you could do it for maybe five minutes a night. Yeah, I think you could do it in a specific matchup. The key is what you said there. every now and then. It’s the ability to do to be flexible and play smaller if that’s what the situation calls for. Play bigger if that’s what the situation calls for. I feel like this summer we’ve seen a lot more teams focus on having that kind of flexibility, that optionality with their rosters. The Clippers have done it. They can play bigger, they can play smaller, lots of different ways that they can play. Houston, the same thing. I think Denver’s got that as well. Uh a number of other teams trying to achieve that goal of being able to have the option to play many different styles. And I think that’s what we’re seeing now in the postseason because it’s so hard to just play one style and be good with that because matchups are are deciding whether or not teams are advancing in the postseason by and large. And so you have to have the ability to adjust to the threat that each individual opponent presents. And so having the kind of the options that I believe now Denver has, Houston has, some of the other teams out there are going to have absolutely critical. Um, so great news for the Denver Nuggets, not so great news for the New Orleans Pelicans with Derek Queen, unfortunately here. Everybody, let us know your thoughts in the comments down below. Valenunis looks like he is indeed going to be a Denver Nugget. Looks like we can finally put that to rest. But the Derek Queen situation, the Pelicans, do you believe in curses? Is that what’s happening here with the Pels and Derk Queen? Give me your thoughts in the comments down below. Don’t forget to subscribe to the channel. Till next time, see you and stay safe.

In this video Trevor Lane and Donnie Freeman discuss the surprising news about Pelicans rookie Derik Queen as well as an update on Jonas Valanciunas…

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