Underrated vs. Overrated with NBA Draft Expert Krysten Peek

I think there’s also, I mean, we kind of know what the first tier is. And that’s at the top with AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer and Caleb Wilson. 

After that, the storyline is kind of the lead guard lottery with the amount of point guard lottery or point guard freshman one-and-done players that we’re going to see taken off the board. Andy mentioned Keaton Wagler, obviously Darius Acuff Jr. had a wonderful year. Brayden Burries, Mikel Brown Jr. and Kingston Flemings. So that’s kind of the next storyline. 

But in terms of what I’m doing, I’ll be in Chicago at the combine with Andy. And then from there, I’ll go to different pro days and workouts, just trying to get a grasp of how this whole thing is going to shake out. I’m excited. This is collectively my favorite group of one-and-done talent in the last 10 to 12 years. I love this group of talent and I think there’s going to be a lot of productive pros.

Andy Katz: You know, one thing, Krysten, I’m curious, because you’ve done a great job at the high school level and working your way up with these players. I remember early in my career, I was doing a lot of that and I was talking to a lot of these players. Now I’m getting them further down the road. I can’t get over the character, how articulate, how worldly all these players are. When I interview these guys now, when they get to college, I enjoy it, the engagement, and I definitely feel a change in interviewing 17, 18, 19-year-olds compared to a decade ago. 

What have you seen on the ground level as to why that is the case?

Peek: I think what we’re seeing is the fact that, well, NIL has definitely changed the landscape because now players are signing shoe contracts, Nike deals, like Tyran Stokes and Brandon McCoy Jr. did this past year. AJ Dybantsa, when he was a senior in high school, was also a Nike athlete. So they’re having to grow up faster and to speak about the world — and how well traveled they are. 

Whether that’s playing for Team USA in the FIBA U17s over in Istanbul, a few years back — Team USA ran away with that — or the U-19 team that we saw in Lausanne, Switzerland. I went to both tournaments, and just seeing the way that these players are getting way more comfortable at a younger age at being and acting professional. 

I think social media has changed that landscape, absolutely. NIL has changed that landscape. And when you see someone like AJ Dybantsa elect to go back to his elementary school in Brockton, Massachusetts and announce that he’s declaring for the draft, that’s a level of awareness that I don’t think we’ve seen from an 18- or 19-year-old kid in a while. This is the same elementary school where he went back, before the season started at BYU, and gave away shoes and backpacks as a back-to-school initiative. He’s gone to Jamaica and done the same thing in his mother’s hometown. 

So just the sense of awareness in terms of what your platform is and being able to capitalize on that. I think we’re seeing players grow up faster than we have in the past.

Seth: Yeah, there’s a physical component to that, by the way. These are grown ass men. I mean, whenever I go to the Peach Jam, I cannot believe what a high school junior and senior looks like. 

All right, let’s dig into some of the fun stuff. We’re gonna post up Krysten here a little bit — we asked her to give us some lists. Now, at the top of the draft, there does seem to be a very, very broad consensus about the order of at least the top four. Her top five are Dybantsa, Peterson, Boozer, Wilson and then Acuff.

I want to ask you about Darryn Peterson, who obviously caught a lot of flack over the past season. He was in, he was out, this sort of mysterious cramping issue. Everybody’s saying, no one’s going to take him. No one’s going to take him. Wow. He dropped all the way from No. 1 to No. 2. And that might have happened anyway. But I do still see residue from that, Krysten, of people saying, or you know, these anonymous quotes, I don’t question his talent. I question his competitiveness. 

How much is there real questioning about whether Darryn Peterson is gonna be as good of a pro as he’s always been projected to be?

Peek: Zero question or hesitation on DP and where he’s going to project as a pro. I’m at the high school level. I went to a couple Kansas practices during the preseason. I went to the BYU game where he had 18 points in 20 minutes and he outplayed AJ Dybantsa when it was one vs. two and all of the GMs were there to watch the game. I have zero reservations. 

I do think the full body cramp was real. And then you follow that up with a hamstring issue. And then when you’re coming back from a hamstring issue — injury — you gotta be able to decipher, is this my hamstring tightening up or is this the onset of full body cramps coming back on? Because it’s never happened to him before. So Kansas erring on the side of caution — look, do I think that they could have communicated it a little bit better? Absolutely. But I do not question his love for the game of basketball, his work ethic and his integrity as a player and a teammate. 

I know he’s a great teammate. I know he loves to get in the gym. Those, I do not question. I do know that teams are going to really dive into the medical, and that’s gonna be their main point of emphasis when they’re bringing Darryn Peterson in for workouts during the pre-draft process.

Everything surrounding him, who he is as a player, I don’t buy that at all. And this is a kid and a player that I’ve known probably longer than a lot of these talking heads and podcasters that are just reading a little bit too much into it.

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Andy: Cameron Boozer, this was another sort of ridiculous narrative early on, because, you know, Carlos wasn’t — and I hate to say this — the best athlete. I mean, I guess he just wasn’t as quick because he’s just so big. And Cameron is sort of built similar. As the season progressed, it was just so clear: He’s a winner. He can score. He can defend. It doesn’t matter whether or not he can win a sprint. And so you’ve got him, like most people, in that top three.

What did you hear, what have you seen in terms of Boozer’s growth — and maybe he’s gonna be there anyway — over the course of the season, onto the draft boards?

Peek: It’s wild to me that in any other year we would be talking about Cameron Boozer as the bona fide No. 1 pick in the same sentence that we were talking about Cooper Flagg being the bona fide No. 1 pick last year. He is the winningest player — him and his brother — the winningest player in all of high school basketball: Four state titles, a Chipotle National, three gold medals, three Peach Jam titles at the 15, 16 and 17U level. That’s never happened. He was MVP at the U17 FIBA World Cup. Like, he is just a winner. 

And then, we saw him do that exact thing at Duke this year: ACC Player of the Year, ACC championship, led the team to a phenomenal tournament run. And Braylon Mullins, if he doesn’t hit that shot, maybe we’re talking about them cutting the nets down at the end of this thing. He is a winner. He’s a connector. 

Everyone says he has a high floor, low ceiling. They’re calling him a Better Kevin Love. I think he is going to be better than what people are saying and calling him — his comp is Kevin Love. I think he’s gonna be able to come in, day one, and help any team that gets him in that top three conversation win some games. 

And that’s why you saw so many NBA teams, and now why they’ve had to kind of look at tanking and what had happened this year because of these four players at the top. I think AJ’s gonna be No. 1 and then whatever iteration of Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer, Caleb Wilson, it’s a win. It’s a win.

Seth: Yeah, well, I hadn’t heard that Kevin Love comp, but you know, guy played in multiple All-Star games, won a championship in Cleveland and he’s still playing in the league. So if he has Kevin Love’s career, that’s pretty good. 

All right, let’s go to Krysten’s top five underrated players in the draft — interesting selections. Now we’re getting the fun stuff. Dailyn Swain from Texas, Christian Anderson from Texas Tech, Hannes Steinbach from Washington, Jaden Bradley from Arizona and Morez Johnson from Michigan.

I guess some of those still have their eligibility in college, but I do expect all of them, as I’m sure you do, to stay in the draft. 

Which one of those five underrated prospects intrigues you the most?

Peek: The one that intrigues me the most is probably Hannes Steinbach, just in the sense where, I didn’t watch a lot of Washington games, I saw what he did for Germany in Lausanne, Switzerland last year, and just to see his progression. 

He’s also a name that I’m getting a lot of questions about from NBA teams during this pre-draft process. So he’s someone that I’m really curious to see. I think he’s going to go higher than people have him slated, just mentally, on their draft board. 

I also think, Dailyn Swain — I’m higher on Dailyn Swain than a lot of other people. They’re saying his shot isn’t there yet, but it’s very reminiscent, and it’s not even nearly as bad as Ryan Dunn. When he was going through the draft process, he only shot 23 percent at Virginia, and he’s been fine in the league. So I’m not really skeptical on his shot. I also know the talent coming in at Texas – He’s going to have his limited ball touches. And what he does as a wing and as a passer, I mean, this guy — five assists as a wing, not the primary ball handler in the NCAA Tournament against tough defensive teams. So he’s someone that I feel like I’m higher on. 

Then just down the list, I mean, Christian Anderson, again, played for Germany. We talk about this being a point guard first round, point guard lottery. I think he’s someone that is going to be able to impact the game right away next year in the secondary unit. 

Jaden Bradley, the same thing. He’s more slated in that second round, Big 12 Player of the Year. And Morez Johnson Jr. We talk about Cameron Boozer being a connector. Morez was that connector for that Michigan team. And there’s something to be said about a player that is just a winner and will do whatever it takes to win. He did that for the U19 FIBA team. He did that at Michigan. I think he’s gonna be someone that a lot of teams, especially in the back half of the first round, that they have value.

Andy: All right, so I want to skip to your sleepers here, and you got Ebuka Okorie from Stanford. He had a phenomenal freshman year. He got overshadowed, obviously, by Boozer in the ACC. But the name on here that I’m curious about your take on is Aday Mara. I think you could have made a strong argument that he was the MVP of Michigan’s national championship team. 

I remember, obviously, two years ago, people were like, Zach Edey, he’s too big. He can’t play in the league. You know, he was born too late. I look at Mara, I’m like, how can this player not be an impactful player in the NBA? The way he can play at both ends of the court, protect the rim, not just block, but alter shots. And when he gets the ball, how effective he is down in the low post. 

What are you hearing on Aday Mara? Where do you think he falls in this first round?

Peek: When you look at what he did in the progression from his time at UCLA and how he’s found a way to get better after every single season — that’s hard to do not only as a big man, but also it shows growth and continued growth. So when you’re projecting him and what he can do impactfully in the NBA, there’s still room to grow. That’s why we talk about players with high ceilings and that haven’t plateaued. Aday Mara is that player. 

When you look, especially at the center position and the players that are projected at the top of this draft — and we’ll talk about them after this — there are some lingering question marks, whether that’s Jayden Quaintance or Chris Cenac. So you’re looking at Aday Mara and you’re just like, okay, if we want the safe thing and we know what we’re getting from him, he’s our guy. So in that middle of the first round to the twenties, I think that’s where we’re going to see him slotted on draft night.

Seth: Yeah, and he’s the type of player who, in today’s NBA, is even more valuable than he might have been, you know, 10, 15 years ago. Okay, our next list is — we don’t want to call them overrated — we’re gonna call them questions to answer. Once you get past the first batch of picks, most players in this Draft have questions to answer. So these are the ones that Krysten flagged for us: Chris Cenac from Houston, Nate Ament from Tennessee, Jayden Quaintance from Kentucky — obviously coming off an ACL injury is his big question — Isaiah Evans from Duke and then Koa Peat from Arizona. 

Krysten, I want you to start with Koa Peat because I’m starting to hear just a little bit of chatter that he might come back to Arizona. To me, he was always kind of projected as a borderline lottery pick, maybe even a higher lottery pick. I’ve seen some mocks that have him maybe going in the 20s. 

But it surprised me to hear anyone even suggest that Koa Peat was coming back to Arizona. Do you think that actually might happen?

Peek: I don’t think it happens. Come on. No, if you are a projected top 20, top 25 pick, you stay in this draft because, as we all know, then you’re waiting an additional year to get to your second contract, potentially. And there’s no guarantees. You could go back and have happen what JT Toppin had happen and have a catastrophic, season-ending injury and not help your draft stock at all. 

So for Koa Peat, the only thing surrounding him is his size as a big and his outside jumper. And those are the questions that teams are gonna wanna see answered during this pre-draft process in order to feel comfortable in taking him in that top 20 range. I’ve known him, he comes from a family of football players. He obviously looks like a football player playing basketball. 

Seth, you and I, Andy, I don’t know if you were there in Vegas when he had that game against Florida. That was kind of like his coming out party. And what I kind of like about him is he’s got this chip on his shoulder. He knows what’s being said about him from people like myself or anybody else. And he is out here to prove people wrong. He’s a hard worker. He’s a very smart player. 

This is a player who, at age 15, played up two divisions on the 3SSB for Compton Magic and led 17U in scoring. So this is someone who has played up his entire life. He’s got the physicality. It’s just the shooting and the shot creation as a pick-and-pop threat at his size.

Andy:

All right, so can you give us a player or two — because there’s always one of these players — that could jump from projected maybe in the 30s into that back part of the first round?

Peek: Ooh, that’s a good one. You know, the name that I’m hearing questions about is the forward out of Santa Clara — how many players have we seen come through the combine from Santa Clara and completely help their draft stock?  — and that’s Allen Graves. What he did his freshman year: 6-foot-9, averaged 19 points, 10 and a half boards per game. Every time we go to the combine, I love the scrimmages because I know someone is walking into that gym and significantly helping their draft stock over just four games. We saw it with Jalen Williams. We’ve seen it countless times. There’s always one player, and I think Allen Graves could be that player this year.

Seth: That’s a big storyline to watch at the combine, by the way, because Graves is still in the transfer portal. I know Duke has been hot and heavy on him. I don’t know if that’s the place for him anymore based on who they’re bringing in. 

Peek: Well, they had it last year with Cedric Coward. Remember Cedric was, he was committed to Duke? My gosh.

Seth: Can you imagine if Cedric Coward was on Duke last year, by the way? Think about that. But yeah, that’s a great name for everybody to watch. 

We just had the NFL Draft, and the draft is all about hope, you know, for all of these NBA fans. I’m a long-suffering Wizards fan, so based on the team’s history, they will get the lowest possible draft pick, even being in the lottery. 

But yeah, the draft is all about hope and intrigue and gossip. And Krysten said something interesting at the top, which is that she’s going to be hearing a lot of smoke. I always say, we get lied to a lot as journalists. We never get lied to more than in these next seven weeks. 

Andy: I gotta get Krysten’s opinion on this one. There’s one name we’ve talked about on this show with this assumption he’s coming back and we don’t know. 

Krysten, what do we know about Rueben Chinyelu?

Peek: I don’t know. That’s a 50-50 toss-up. You think he’s coming back?

Andy: Yeah, see, I think we don’t know. Well, that’s one I think is going to be going into this process as one of the bigger unknowns. Does he have a month of May where he hears the right things? Maybe he doesn’t. So he’s an intriguing name, I think, to watch in the month of May, because it really does affect what happens at Florida come next season.

Peek: And I really like when players go through this process and test the NBA waters and they get the feedback from NBA executives and front offices. I think it makes them better going into next year’s season so they have stuff to work on and also more confidence when they’re actually coming out and going through a draft. You kind of know what to expect and you get a little, you know, little something before you have to be thrown to the sharks.

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