The Pelicans Are Clearly Dealing With An Injury Curse As Rookie Derik Queen Is Out 12 Weeks After Tearing A Ligament In His Wrist

Logan Riely. Getty Images.

Throughout the NBA, there are a handful of organizations that are most definitely cursed. I know that might sound silly, but it's really the only explanation. I'm not talking about "cursed" in the sense that you never win and have gone multiple decades without ever winning a title. That's different. You're not cursed, you just stink.

What I'm talking about are franchises that, no matter what they do, year in and year out they continue to get absolutely destroyed by injury. The Injury Curse is real, and all you have to do is look at the New Orleans Pelicans

How else do you explain something like this? Derik Queen has been a Pelican for about 15 seconds, and not even he's safe from this curse. You can go down the list when it comes to this team and the Injury Curse, and it's nothing but pain

- Zion getting hurt (again and again)

- Herb Jones having a breakout year and then immediately getting hurt and only playing 20 games 

- Dejounte Murray coming in from the Hawks and immediately breaking his hand and then also tearing his Achilles after just 31 games

- Brandon Ingram going down with a severe ankle injury in December of last year before he was traded

- CJ McCollum got hurt

- Jose Alvarado got hurt

That was all just last year! Unfortunately, it wasn't the first season the Pelicans have dealt with this type of stuff either. Factoring in this new Queen injury, I just don't know how anyone could argue that we aren't witnessing an Injury Curse at play here. You don't have to believe me, but listen to former Pelican Dyson Daniels tell you himself

“That organization's cursed. Every year there's something new. I’m happy I’m not there anymore…I had like four or five ankle injuries down there as well. There's something down in that water down there or something. They got hamstrings. They got knees. They got concussions and stuff as well. They get everything down there. I don’t know what it is. Playing hard I guess?” 

I have no idea how you break this curse, but at this point, the Pelicans have no choice other than to try anything and everything. Bring in sage, perform exorcisms, do something. Not only do your fans deserve to actually see the talent on the floor, this latest injury could potentially have pretty massive implications for their future.

Why?

Because you have to remember how the Pelicans got Derik Queen in the first place.

An "unprotected 2026 1st round pick" of whoever finishes with a worse record between the Pelicans and Bucks? There's a reason immediately after that trade, everyone thought Shams got hacked. As it turns out, even the Hawks couldn't even believe the Pelicans were putting that pick on the table

Outside of maybe the Luka trade or the BOS/BKN trade, was that the quickest "yes" to a trade proposal of all time? Not to add insult to injury, but the guy the Hawks took at #23 (Asa Newell) has also looked pretty damn good in Summer League

But back to the Pelicans. 

The good news is it's only mid-July so a 3 month recovery period still has you ready for around Opening Night, but this obviously rules out any preseason play, and who knows how quickly the Pelicans rush Queen back. Even if he's ready to play health-wise, will he be ready to play basketball-wise? Unless the Pelicans believe that no matter what happens, they'll finish ahead of the Bucks in terms of record, it's still not a great sign that the player you traded up for by sacrificing an extremely valuable pick while putting zero protections on it is now having wrist surgery before the season even starts. Especially when you factor in that there will surely be more injuries to come as a result of this very obvious Injury Curse unless the Pelicans do something about it.

It sucks for a young player who both the franchise and city were excited for to already be on the shelf. I was fascinated to see how Queen fit next to Zion and what the hell the Pelicans' plan even was, considering they also have Yves Missi and Kevon Looney also in the center rotation. The spacing on this team is……certainly something. 

Hopefully, Queen's surgery/recovery goes smoothly, and we look back at this just being a small bump in the road of an awesome NBA career, but I wouldn't blame any Pelicans fan for being a little triggered/terrified at the moment. The Injury Curse will simply not leave this team alone, and we aren't even at training camp yet.