The world is not ready for Darryn Peterson
Even though Bill Self has landed a handful of #1-ranked-overall prospects in his tenure — Andrew Wiggins, Josh Jackson, Josh Selby — none have the pedigree of freshman Darryn Peterson. Self even said so: "To me, Darryn's the best player we've recruited since we've been here," Self told 247 Sports.
Having done a good amount of Watching Stuff — and we’re about to do more! — it’s easy to see why Self said this. Respective to Bill Self’s style of play, we’ve never had a prospect like Peterson, a ball-dominant creator who pisses intensity. Anytime someone has posited that a player in his class is better than him, Peterson has pretty much handed that player his own butt. The hype is wild, and it should be.
While we’re waiting around, let’s roll some more of that beautiful Peterson footage.
Whatever you think of Bill Simmons as a talent prognosticator these days, Simmons saying that “Peterson is basically Kobe” is eyebrow-raising. Simmons also slotted Peterson into Team USA for 2028, which is incredible praise that suggests Peterson might be already one of the best 15-25 players in the world, at least in the estimation of “The Sports Guy.”
In the video above, we see a little bit of just how dominant Peterson is on the ball.
Early, at about :54, is a very good example of how his combo of speed and skill comes together.
He’s 6’5’’, but he plays with the craft of a smaller guard who needs ball-handling to create space amongst bigger players. He’s big, but he plays low. This is a good thing. It reminds me a lot of James Harden, who could collapse his frame for the sake of ball security and fleet movement, while also taking advantage of being a bigger-than-average lead guard.
Peterson is an elite finisher at the rim against premium competition — Prolific Prep is basically a finishing school for top prospects, and the speed and skill of Peterson is readily apparent as you watch him do… anything. Not a lot of wasted movement, which is saying something for such a high-usage guard who is asked to do almost everything.
He gets into space, and when he’s there, he can damage the defense in a lot of ways. Pull-ups, big bouncy finishes with a delicate touch, a visible need of the ball when his team needs a bucket. Excuse me for a moment… Ahhhhhh!
I’m talking about the on-ball stuff, which is definitely the easiest to pick up on when you’re watching highlights. I encourage my sickos to watch the whole thing, because his hands on defense is probably something that is easily overlooked, but in the interest of time…
Let’s talk about some other stuff quickly. Vibes?
Yes, Peterson was brave enough to subject himself to the gauntlet of Greg Gurley’s journalism. In the era of incentivized brand-building for bigtime NIL recipients, Peterson seems pretty lowkey. I like that. I like it a lot.
“Who’s the best defender in practice?” the only good Shawnee Mission South basketball player ever asks DP. “Me!” he says. I LOVE IT actually.
Are you ready for it? We tip off so soon.
C'mon, man. Even Bill Simmons hasn't listened to or cared what Bill Simmons said for many, many years and he's a very dumb guy. Smarter people figured him out long before that. Plus, you've got to be incredibly talented to play like Kobe and provide any value. Our current #1 Kobe admirer, Jayson Tatum, is painful to watch for long stretches of time (and was a significantly less effective college basketball player than the significantly less talented Josh Jackson). My hopes for this season are 1) Bill Self is able to be on the sideline for every game and 2) It looks like he hasn't lost it, Hunter Dickinson was just that bad the last two seasons. Anything beyond that will be 2022-style gravy.