While the team surely has the pieces in place to make the postseason, like they did in 2024, this current roster has a lot of new faces and young players that may take time before they are contributing to winning basketball. It’s not really a knock on Queen, but rather a knock on the Pelicans for giving up so much to move into the back end of the lottery. Now, coming off an injury-riddled 2024-25 campaign, the Pelicans will want to turn things around to avoid regretting their draft night deal. Hawkins was definitely on the NBA’s radar during his breakout 2022-23 season with the UConn Huskies, but his stock took a major jump after his performance in the NCAA Tournament, which ended in a National Title victory for the Huskies.