Pelicans rookie Derik Queen roasted DeAndre Jordan over his new deal. The video is great.

The New Orleans Pelicans brought back DeAndre Jordan on the first day of free agency, which surprised basically nobody. The 37-year-old center is essentially a locker room guy at this point, and that’s fine. The team has not confirmed the terms, but it’s almost certainly a veteran minimum deal given where Jordan is in his career.

What happened next was the fun part. Derik Queen, the Pelicans rookie big man who came over from Maryland in a trade that cost New Orleans a lot of assets, heard the news and immediately started giving his mentor a hard time. Queen posted an Instagram story with a caption that read: “Yea yo, you didn’t have a choice.” Will Guillory of The Athletic caught it and shared the clip.

The joke here is that Jordan didn’t exactly have a line of teams fighting for his services. Queen knows it. Jordan knows it. And the fact that Queen felt comfortable enough to say it out loud says a lot about their relationship.

Jordan came to New Orleans midseason and quickly became a key figure in the locker room, especially for Queen. The veteran has been through it all — he’s a former All-NBA guy who bounced around later in his career and settled into a mentorship role. For a rookie like Queen, who had a pretty up-and-down first season, having someone like Jordan in his corner is huge. Jordan can tell him what a bad game actually looks like because he’s had a few himself. And he can push Queen on defense, which is where the kid needs the most work.

Queen has said publicly multiple times that Jordan helped him learn the ropes. The Pelicans clearly see value in keeping that dynamic going, even if Jordan’s minutes are sparse. It’s not every day you see a rookie roast his veteran mentor on social media, but Queen pulled it off without crossing a line. That’s how you know the bond is real.

New Orleans is betting on Queen’s development, and bringing back Jordan is a small piece of that commitment. As long as Queen keeps improving and Jordan keeps offering the occasional piece of wisdom — and taking the occasional joke — it’s a good look for everyone involved.