New Orleans Pelicans Swipe Back At Reporter Over Draft Day Trade

For weeks, we've been talking about how active the New Orleans Pelicans were planning to be this offseason. New boss Joe Dumars was spinning off trades pretty regularly for the last couple of weeks. All leading up to the NBA Draft...which is now here.

New Orleans Pelicans Youth Movement

The Pelicans have been accumulating more first round assets for this year's draft, while swapping out older, more expensive, players for a youth movement. With the speed and consistency of these moves, it was pretty exciting to see what they were going to cook up during the draft.

Entering the first round of this year's NBA Draft, the Pels had the 7th and 23rd overall picks. They were excited to see Oklahoma guard Jeremiah Fears drop to them at #7, where they scooped him up fast. Many mock drafts expected Fears to be taken inside the top 5 picks. So even if the Pelicans loved him, they probably didn't expect to see him sitting there at the 7th pick. They were probably so excited they tripped turning in their pick.

Pelicans Make Noise With Draft Trades

But they weren't done cooking. Maybe they were emboldened by having Fears fall to them at 7, but they decided to swing big to jump up from their 23rd pick. When they knew that the draft was rolling into the area where Maryland center/forward Derik Queen was projected to be picked, they made a move.

Queen was projected to go between 10 and 15 in the draft, and they found a dance partner with the Atlanta Hawks, who were willing to swap the 13th pick with the 23rd pick, and accepted one of the Pelicans' first round picks in the 2026 draft to make that deal. The Pelicans currently hold their own first round pick next year, as well as the first round pick of the Milwaukee Bucks. Whichever pick is higher will go to Atlanta.

Getting both Fears and Queen in the first round seems to be a huge score for the Pelicans. The critics are interestingly split, with some "draft grades" giving high scores on the Pelicans getting Fears at #7, but low grades on the move to get Queen at #13. But then you see other grades who are in the opposite position; low grades for the Fears pick, high praise for the Queen pick.

The Pelicans Upset NBA Writers With Moves

But NBA writer/podcaster Bill Simmons went really far with his take. Calling the move one of the "dumbest" he's seen in a decade:

It feels like the problem Simmons has is more about the cost of the trade than anything else. Which is a little weird for an NBA Draft take. Since these NBA pick trades seem to happen so often, it's like the teams themselves don't care about them as much as the reporters do.

That's the vibe the Pat McAfee Show seems to hold as well. They happened to have ESPN's Shams Charania on after the first round of the draft, and both of them shared a pretty rational take on the trade, which the Pelicans' social media caught. 

They used the video to take a swipe at Simmons and his "Ringer" podcast...

A Young Pelicans Roster Feels Exciting

If you think they gave up too much to trade for the 13th pick, whatever. But it's really hard to not be excited about a team that just added Jordan Poole and Saddiq Bey, to an existing roster of Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy, Herb Jones, and Dejounte Murray, getting two top 15 picks added in. Even if Fears and Queen are coming off the bench next season, that quality of depth is insane for a 2025 NBA team.