Let’s take a moment and savor this moment in Utah basketball history: Darryn Peterson is the newest member of the Jazz after being selected second overall in Tuesday's NBA Draft.
In a pre-draft process that overstayed its welcome, Peterson was always on the top of this writer's board. The numbers speak for themselves. Peterson is a 6-foot-6 guard with a near 6-foot-10 wingspan who averaged 20.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.6 assists on .438/.382/.826 shooting in his lone season at Kansas. He can score and create at all three levels, which is rare enough on its own.
The other factor that stood out to me is his malleability. He has size and speed. He can play on or off ball. He can shoot and defend. You can slot that type of player in any lineup and pair him with any player. Rotations and team building with Darryn Peterson will be a breeze. Peterson himself said of his future teammates:
"The guys you just named are all great players. All their games complement mine, and I complement their games."
Jazz President of Basketball Operations Austin Ainge agreed:
"He's just a really talented player. And the thing we like best about him, for a 19-year-old, he just feels very complete. He can drive left, he can drive right. he can shoot off the catch, he can shoot off the dribble, he can guard, he can play pick-and-roll, he can play off the ball. He feels like he can help all of our talented players in a lot of different ways."
Now consider the situation Darryn is leaving. His Kansas team gave him almost nothing in the way of spacing, ranking 211th nationally with just 7.4 made 3-pointers per game, and he had exactly one teammate who shot 35 percent or better from deep. In Utah, that flips entirely. He walks into a roster with shooting, size, and shot creation at nearly every position. Let’s look at how he fits next to each piece the Jazz are building around.
Keyonte George
George and Peterson are both combo guards who can play on and off the ball, which is a feature rather than a redundancy. Who can complain about two guards who can shoot, drive, and pass? Stagger their minutes and one of them is always on the floor to run the offense. Play them together and they space the floor for each other, because both are real pull-up and catch-and-shoot threats. Peterson as a secondary creator also takes the heaviest initiation load off George, which should help his shot selection and turnovers. The pair also gives Will Hardy a true two-man game: pick-and-roll, dribble-handoffs, and the kind of read-and-react actions that let a secondary creator take pressure off the primary one.
At Kansas, Peterson averaged 1.4 steals, with active hands, good off-ball reads, and shot-blocking instincts for the position. He can take the tougher defensive assignment of the two, letting George hide on the weaker perimeter matchup, and that alone would ease one of Utah's bigger problems.
While DP has a more quiet demeanor, Key can lean into his role as a vocal leader. We saw George greet and hug Peterson on lottery night. Of George, Peterson said:
"Keyonte (George) and I will be one of the best backcourts in the NBA.”
Lauri Markkanen
Markkanen is the ultimate end point for everything Peterson does well. He spaces the floor, he's a reliable kick-out target, and he punishes any defense that helps off him. In college, Peterson rarely had that release valve. Here he has one of the best movement shooters in the league waiting on the weak side.
The size angle matters too: Lauri playing as a jumbo small forward demands a larger defender, increasing the chance that the 6-foot-6 Peterson will have a size advantage against his defender. Just as important, Peterson gives Markkanen the downhill creator he has lacked, a guard who bends the defense and finds him instead of asking him to self-create.
Jaren Jackson Jr.
With a roaming shot blocker like Jaren Jackson Jr. behind him, and a opefully re-signed Walker Kessler in the middle, Peterson can defend more aggressively on the ball, knowing mistakes get erased at the rim. Jackson's shooting stretches the floor the same way Markkanen's does, and he gives Peterson a lethal pick-and-pop partner. Expect plenty of Horns action with both of them at the elbows. There's a defensive bonus, too: JJJ is foul-prone, and Peterson's point-of-attack defense keeps drivers away from him, which should help keep Jackson on the floor and out of foul trouble.
Walker Kessler
Assuming the Jazz re-sign Kessler, he is exactly the kind of center a guard like Peterson should love to play with. He's a dive-and-lob threat in pick-and-roll, and a high screener who can free up Peterson's lethal pull-up 3. His vertical gravity at the rim makes Peterson's own finishing easier by occupying the help defender. The relationship runs both ways: Kessler's rim protection lets Peterson get up into his man, and Peterson's rim pressure should generate easy dump-offs and offensive rebounds for Kessler.
Ace Bailey
Right now Ace Bailey thrives as a midrange shotmaker, hitting 39.1 percent on midrange jumpers as a rookie, and Peterson's shooting gravity should give him even more room to operate. Bailey spent much of his rookie year sharing the floor with multiple non-shooters; next to Peterson he could feature in genuine five-out lineups. He's also an excellent catch-and-shoot 3-point shooter, which gives Peterson another reliable assist outlet. Defensively, Bailey's 7-foot-1 wingspan and 1.2 percent block rate (good for the 85th percentile among wings), make him a second roaming shot blocker alongside Jackson, again letting Peterson play up on his man.
And the timelines line up. Bailey is only a few months older than Peterson, so the two will grow up together as the pieces Utah builds around. The one honest caution is that both lean on the midrange, so Hardy will have to manage the shot diet, but Bailey's cutting and spot-up shooting off Peterson's drives should smooth that over.
Depth players
Ideally you only have one non-shooter on the floor at a time. If Isaiah Collier and Cody Williams can’t improve their shooting, Peterson’s gravity will make it easier for either of them to slot into lineups with him. Likewise, you can only play so many non-defenders. If Peterson’s perimeter defense translates, it makes lineups with Brice Sensabaugh or Kyle Filipowski easier to balance. Svi Mykhailiuk remains an underrated connector and spacer, who should fit seamlessly next to Peterson. His low usage will be welcome in lineups with multiple players hungry for the ball. John Konchar is a defensive pest, who paired with DP could move Utah’s perimeter D from the red into the black when they share the floor. This applies to Cody Williams as well.
The overall fit
On paper, Peterson slots into this roster about as neatly as a prospect can. The spacing he never had at Kansas is everywhere, the defensive infrastructure lets him gamble, and there's a creator, a stretch big, and a lob threat for every action Hardy likes to run. And Peterson is coming into a great situation as a rookie -- he joins a squad ready for playoff contention with an open runway for Peterson to become its franchise-defining star.
I couldn’t be more excited to watch Darryn Peterson and this new era of Jazz basketball.
