Nobody really understands why Joe Dumars and the New Orleans Pelicans made their draft day trade with the Atlanta Hawks. In fact, Atlanta thought the trade was so lopsided in their favor that they asked the Pels’ front office for clarification multiple times.
The Hawks traded the 13th pick (Derik Queen) for the 23rd pick (Asa Newell) and the rights to a 2026 swap between Milwaukee and New Orleans. Through six games, the Pelicans are 0-6 and look to be even worse than expected. You know a season is going poorly when the media argues that head coach Willie Green should be fired less than two weeks into the year.
For what it's worth, I like Newell as a prospect more than Queen. While we haven't seen really anything from either player at the NBA level, Queen is a poor fit next to Williamson and has a skill set that often cannot translate to the next level. While Newell doesn't have the star upside that Queen has, he makes sense on every team as a high-flying floor spacing four. Sometimes having no weaknesses is more valuable than having elite strengths.
Even if you value Queen over Newell, however, this was a horrible trade.
New Orleans has the second-worst defensive rating in the league and the third-worst offense. There isn’t a single player on the team who is a clear positive on both ends of the floor other than Trey Murphy III. With this consistent level of low performance, there really isn’t much Green could do to improve this team without looking for additional talent.
The Hawks could earn a top pick in a loaded 2026 draft
There is a good chance the Pelicans hand the Hawks the top-seeded lottery odds at the end of the year. The only other winless team is the Brooklyn Nets, who represent a true challenge in New Orleans’s race to the bottom. But the Nets have young talent who are trying to carve out an NBA career on a tanking team. While they might not be the most talented, they are putting their lives on the line every night, as Hawks fans saw in their narrow win over the club.
The Pelicans, on the other hand, are just sad. The Nets are supposed to be bad; they’re tanking. But New Orleans traded this year’s first round pick just a few months ago. They clearly expected to be good, even if the rest of the world knew how foolish this was.
With this hopeless outlook, there is reason to suspect Zion Williamson could be done with the Pelicans. Williamson is finally healthy and in good shape, and although he has struggled in the early part of the season, he is likely eager to compete in the playoffs soon. Of course, there is no chance this New Orleans team will be a playoff team anytime soon, given the state of the Western Conference. They lack a second star, a starting center, and just overall depth that takes years to find.
While it wouldn’t make sense for the Pelicans to trade him this season, given they do not own their pick, vibes are not exactly stellar as is. Trade rumors from Williamson could cause the team to mentally collapse.
Looking ahead to the 2026 draft, the top three prospects are all elite talents. Darryn Peterson is a classic Kobe-inspired offensive virtuoso; Cam Boozer is an elite two-way 4/5; and AJ Dybantsa looks like a Tracy McGrady regen with high-level defense.
If the Pelicans continue their fall into the basketball abyss that is the lottery race, Atlanta could look back at the Asa Newell trade as the start of an exciting era of Hawks basketball.