From relentless gym habits to a maturity that stunned Jusuf Nurkić, Utah’s top pick is securing veteran trust through a professional mindset long before his professional debut.
Jusuf Nurkić has spent more than a decade watching NBA rookies enter the league.
Darryn Peterson has barely arrived ... and Nurkić is already talking about him like he skipped that part.
“I’ve never seen in my 13 years a kid coming into the league and be that mature for his age,” Nurkić told The Salt Lake Tribune. “When I see a person like that and a player like that, I really want to help him.”
For Peterson, that kind of reaction might be worth more than another impressive workout.
What Utah couldn’t know on draft night was how quickly the 19-year-old would win over an NBA locker room.
So far … that process hasn’t taken long.
Nurkić told the Tribune that Peterson has been “nothing but great,” adding that “everyone loves him.” His work habits have even reached the point where teammates almost have to tell him to stay out of the gym.
Will Hardy is seeing it, too.
The Jazz coach called Peterson a “very serious young man” about his daily work and praised his ability to learn quickly. Hardy has also kept expectations grounded, acknowledging that the rookie will have good moments, bad moments and everything that usually comes with a first NBA season.
Peterson will make mistakes. He’ll force shots Utah wants back, miss defensive rotations and run into stretches when NBA defenses make life far harder than anything he saw at Kansas.
A rookie with the trust of his locker room gets room to work through some of that.
Peterson has spent his first months in Utah asking veterans and coaches questions, building routines and figuring out whatever he can do to help the team. That approach is already registering with the people around him.
There’s a difference between veteran teammates accepting the gifted rookie everyone knows is going to get opportunities and those same veterans actively wanting to help him succeed.
Peterson appears to have reached the second part before playing his first NBA game.
Utah opens its preseason Sunday against Denver before beginning the regular season Oct. 21 in Memphis. Once the games start, the Jazz will learn just how much Peterson is ready to handle.
Inside the building, though, he may have already cleared one of the hardest hurdles for any 19-year-old entering the league:
His teammates believe in him.
