Derik Queen Updates LinkedIn Profile After Being Taken by Pelicans in 2025 NBA Draft

Derik Queen has been busy lately, especially after the New Orleans Pelicans selected him with the No. 13 overall pick in the NBA draft on Wednesday evening. But Queen also made sure to make time to update his LinkedIn profile and notify people that he's officially a member of the Pels.

The Pelicans made no secret that they really wanted Queen, dealing an unprotected 2026 first-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks to move up from No. 23 to No. 13 to take him.

It's a big gamble by the Pels given that pick could, in theory, be the No. 1 overall choice. The Athletic's Jon Hollinger explained the situation.

"The pick New Orleans sent to Atlanta is a so-called 'superfirst' because it is completely unprotected, and it is the better of either Milwaukee's pick or the Pelicans'. In other words, the Hawks have a strong chance of generating a high lottery pick out of this, because A) the Pelicans are the Pelicans, B) Milwaukee’s Damian Lillard tore his Achilles, and C) only one of the two teams needs to be bad for the Hawks to reap a huge payoff."

Queen was fantastic in his lone season at Maryland, though. The 6'10" big man posted 16.5 points on 52.6 percent shooting, 9.0 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 1.1 blocks. The first-team All-Big Ten member also was an AP All-America honorable mention.

Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report ranked Queen 11th on his final big board, and he even got a pro comparison to talented Houston Rockers big man Alperen Şengün.

"Of course, Queen is a highly touted prospect for a reason," the B/R scouting report read following the pick. "His footwork, vision and interior scoring craft can give him real star equity if this ends up being the right system and he finds ways to mask his physical limitations."

In the meantime, one can guess that Queen won't be looking for a job any time soon on LinkedIn as he locks in with the Pels and begins his NBA career.