Joe Dumars is acting quickly to make his mark on the New Orleans Pelicans.
A trio of trades within 10 days has kickstarted a roster overhaul, including the additions of veterans Jordan Poole and Saddiq Bey, along with a second lottery-level pick in the first round of the NBA draft.
Dumars used the No. 7 overall pick he inherited to draft Oklahoma guard Jeremiah Fears. He used a recently acquired late first-round pick to trade up for Maryland forward Derik Queen at No. 13.
“When you’re building out a team, whenever you have these tent-pole moments — draft, free agency, trade deadline — it’s an opportunity for you to make a statement about who you are as a team,” Dumars said. “We’re really trying to define who we are.”
It’s been a decade since Dumars, who won NBA championships as both a player and executive with Detroit, stepped down from his perch in the Pistons’ front office in 2014. This is the first time since then that he’s run an NBA franchise’s front office — this time in his home state of Louisiana as Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations.
In New Orleans, he decided his first move would be to keep coach Willie Green and injury-plagued franchise player Zion Williamson for now while making key changes to the supporting cast.
First came a trade with Indiana last week that gave New Orleans a second first-rounder this year at No. 23 overall in exchange for a 2026 first-round pick.
On Tuesday, Dumars sent guard CJ McCollum and center Kelly Olynyk to Washington for Poole and Bey.
And during Wednesday night’s first round of the NBA draft, Dumars used his recently acquired 23rd pick and another 2026 first-rounder the Pelicans had to move up and snag Queen. The Pelicans’ recent trade with Washington also gave them the rights to the Wizard’s 40th overall pick in Thursday night’s second round. They added 6-foot-8 Georgetown wing Micah Peavy.
An aggressive approach “is the only way I’ve ever had success in this league,” Dumars said. “I’ve been around aggressive teams my entire life in this league, in this business, as a professional.
“We are going to be aggressive in this front office,” he continued. “We want our players to be aggressive. We want our approach to be aggressive. We want to show up.”
In both Fears and Queen, Dumars said he targeted players who could “impact winning,” regardless of their stat lines.
The 6-foot-3 Fears — named to the SEC All-Freshman team last season — gives the Pelicans a point guard whose explosiveness with the ball and ability to create his own shot will “compromise defense,” Dumars said.
“Just his ability to get anywhere on the court like that is a unique ability.”
The price to acquire the 6-9 Queen, who also could play center and was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year, was steep. But Dumars said he’d thought through the risk-reward calculations and was going to make the deal he did as soon as he had a taker.
“When you have a chance to get two lottery picks in one draft, you’re accounting for the following year,” Dumars said. “When you identify a player that you think can be part of the foundation here, you go and get him. That’s what we did.”
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