For a while there, it seemed like Saddiq Bey’s sophomore season was going to be the high mark of his NBA career.
Back in the ‘21-’22 campaign, Bey was the third leading scorer for the Detroit Pistons with 16.1 points per game behind Jerami Grant and then-rookie Cade Cunningham. The highlight of his career so far came during this season when he put up a career-high 51 points in a March win over the Orlando Magic.
The following season though, Bey got off to a slow start and was eventually traded midway through the year by the Pistons to the Atlanta Hawks.
Since then, Detroit has blossomed into a legitimate title contender built around Cunningham while Bey spiraled into near oblivion with the Hawks as he hit rock bottom when he tore his ACL almost two years ago. There was a brief moment in time when Bey was projected to be part of the Pistons’ renaissance as one of the wings flanking Cunningham, but he was cast aside almost as quickly as he arrived.
A few months after tearing his ACL, Bey signed with the Washington Wizards, but did not suit up for them as he missed the entirety of last season before they traded him to the New Orleans Pelicans as a throw-in in the Jordan Poole trade.
New Orleans has functioned as something of an NBA no-man’s land for much of the past two decades—a place where All-Stars struggle with injuries (Anthony Davis, Zion Williamson) or stagnation (Brandon Ingram, Jrue Holiday, C.J. McCollum), and promising prospects languish on the bench before flourishing elsewhere (Dyson Daniels, Nickeil Alexander-Walker).
What could have marked the end of his NBA career instead became a turning point. Bey has made the most of the chaotic situation with the Pelicans to carve out a major role as one of the team’s most dependable players. Now 26 years old, he is averaging a career-high 16.4 points per game on 44.8% field goal shooting (Still much room for improvement, but a major improvement over his career 41.4% mark), 5.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and a steal.
Outside of his career-high showing in 2022, Bey is playing his best stretch of basketball ever in 2026. In his 13 games so far in this new calendar year, he is averaging 20.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and a steal. This includes 36- and 34-point games, the second and third highest scoring outings of his NBA career. He is thriving in New Orleans’ guard-less line-ups and it will be interesting to see how they handle the situation moving forward.
Bey has been too good to ignore and was even involved in trade rumors leading up to this year’s deadline, though the Pelicans ultimately decided on keeping him. He celebrated this with another 30-point outing as he led New Orleans in scoring in their 119-115 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
With the season that he is having, Bey’s resurgence feels less like a fluke and more like a long-overdue correction. This is what was expected of him after his encouraging second year and after years of instability, he has finally found a situation that allowed him to regain his rhythm.
Whether New Orleans becomes a long-term home for him or merely the stage for his reintroduction, what Bey is doing this season has put him back on the radar as a legitimate NBA contributor. Now that his body is healthy once again and his confidence has been restored, this could ultimately be remembered as the turning point that turned Bey’s career from a potential disappointment into a long and successful one.
