Dyson Daniels, aka the Great Barrier Thief, is having an exceptional year with the Atlanta Hawks. As a full-time starter for the first time in his three-year career, Daniels is averaging 13.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.3 assists while leading the league in steals (3.0) and deflections (6.3) in 33.8 minutes per game.
Daniels has also notably avoided the injury bug. In addition to missing two games early in the season due to a strained right hip flexor, Daniels has always been available in Atlanta. That wasn’t the case in his first two years with the New Orleans Pelicans, who faced seemingly endless situations, often untimely injuries in recent seasons. Daniels noted that the Pelicans started 2024-25 with a 5-21 record, thanks to injuries to literally all of their core players, and he told Jake Fischer of The Stein Line that he A) believes the franchise is cursed, and B) is happy to have escaped.
“This organization is cursed,” Daniels told me Wednesday. “Every year there’s something new. I’m glad I’m not here anymore.”
His smile was ironic. “Because of the curse? I asked.
“Yeah,” Daniels said. “The curse, man. I had four or five ankle injuries there too. There’s something in that water over there or something. They had hamstrings. They had knees. They had concussions and all that too. I don’t know what it is, I guess.
There you have it: the Pelicans aren’t just unlucky. They are doomed, cosmically.
Seriously, Daniels seems to have an unbiased view of his time in New Orleans. He said he was “fueled” by the way his first two years went because “I wasn’t happy with the way I played,” but he doesn’t hold the franchise – nor no supernatural force – responsible.
“I’m not pointing fingers at anyone,” Daniels said. “I blame myself. I wasn’t consistent. My first two years, I had ups and downs. I had good matches and very bad matches. I didn’t find that consistency and we had a lot of players in New Orleans.”
Daniels and the Hawks visited his former team on November 3, and the Pelicans traveled to Atlanta on December 2. If they are indeed cursed, Daniels can rest easy: he won’t be near them for the rest of the season.
