Unsurprisingly, Peterson sees himself as a top-two prospect. We'll see if Utah feels the same.
For the Utah Jazz, the best possible game plan for the soon-arriving NBA Draft (now less than a month away near the end of June) is to stick to the script. Stay the course. Keep your head. Don't go off the beaten path, Robert Frost. With the Jazz having the rights to the remainder of BYU's AJ Dybantsa or Kansas' Darryn Peterson -- whichever is still available after Washington christens the draft festivities -- the goal is simple: take one of those two players and begin the celebration.
According to Evan Sidery, Peterson sees the draft in this same way, as he plans to keep his private workout schedule restricted to two teams: Washington and Utah.
That's a message from the freshman star to the NBA. Not only does he want to be taken in the top-two, he plans on it. Confidence or arrogance, he's got the resume to back up this decision, and doesn't care to waste his time with Memphis, Chicago, or any other teams that he expects won't even get a chance to draft him.
This isn't an issue of competitiveness or love for the game; it's purely business from Peterson.
By any stretch, the Utah Jazz shouldn't hesitate to fulfill his wishes if Washington does what everyone anticipates and grabs AJ Dybantsa first overall. Peterson is the perfect prospect to round out a roster that wants to win, and win now.
Boasting perhaps the most natural shooting streak in the entire draft class, Peterson is a three-level scorer. In high school, he finished around the rim far more often than we saw at Kansas, where he did the majority of his damage from mid-to-long range.
The reasoning for this wasn't clear, though many speculated that his struggles with leg cramps -- later revealed to be tied to his use of creatine -- could have hampered his athleticism. Perhaps a shooter was what Bill Self needed on his team and advised Peterson to prioritize those aspects of his game. That's not entirely unrealistic, as Peterson filled much more of a supplementary role in the later season than a priority one.
Peterson's freshman season was weird. Very weird. But the talent he displayed on a nightly basis makes him far too good a prospect to pass up with the second overall pick. Especially for a Jazz team that has the need for a starting 2-guard to pair with Keyonte George.
No, Peterson isn't diversifying with his pre-draft workouts, but I don't believe he needs to, either.
