After Stephen A. Smith came out firing against Darryn Peterson’s behavior at Kansas, the 19-year-old’s draft stock has become the point of countless debates. An undisclosed NBA General Manager has now weighed in on the Peterson situation at Kansas, only days after those comments.
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Basketball analyst Jeff Goodman revealed on the Field of 68: After Dark podcast that an NBA GM has changed his stance on the 19-year-old in the last few weeks.
“I’m starting to get a little worried. Obviously, we got to see what checks out with the medical,” the unnamed NBA GM confided in Jeff Goodman.
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All these rumors that Darryn Peterson is trying to preserve his draft stock make little sense. For the 19-year-old, this speculation is already hurting his draft stock and chances of attracting top NBA teams. It is tough to see a scenario where the freshman will be happy with how he has been in the media headlines lately.
Jeff Goodman also alluded to the same fact, hinting that there might be more to the situation.
The whole Darryn Peterson draft stock debate has taken a turn for the worse since his bizarre request in the win over Oklahoma State. The top NBA Draft prospect scored 23 points in just 18 minutes, but asked to be subbed out immediately after hitting a three-pointer early in the second half.
Stephen A. Smith’s public criticism of Peterson and his current draft stock has drawn even more eyeballs to the situation. What started as a genuine rehabilitation process from a sustained hamstring issue has now blown out of proportion, with his demeanor and attitude towards College Basketball now being questioned.
For all the troubles, Darryn Peterson has been efficient for the Kansas Jayhawks in his freshman year. He boasts a points-per-minute ratio of almost 0.73, which is highly respectable for a starter.
There have been recent blips in his performance, especially in the loss to Iowa State and their latest upset at the hands of Cincinnati.
Only a medical will reveal why the 19-year-old has been managing his minutes so carefully. For now, though, head coach Bill Self has a lot of work to do to make this Kansas team ready for the conference playoffs and the NCAA Tournament.
Is the Darryn Peterson saga trickling into Kansas’ on-court performance?
While Darryn Peterson has always drawn media attention in his freshman year at Kansas, the entire debate has gone National and beyond just College Basketball. And that could be one reason behind their unceremonious loss to the unseeded Cincinnati Bearcats.
Darryn Peterson played 32 minutes but hardly looked his explosive self. The 19-year-old had a miserable outing from the three-point line, making just one of his 7 attempts. While at one point the entire offense used to flow through Peterson, the freshman looked like the odd man out against Cincinnati.
Melvin Council Jr. highlighted the ‘bad energy’ as he cut a dejected figure in the post-game conference.
” It doesn’t really surprise us. We knew we had bad energy coming in the locker room and stuff like that. But that can’t happen again, at all,” Melvin told the press.
While head coach Bill Self refuted the statement, he admitted the team suffered from a lack of effort and energy on the court. It is hard to deny that the negativity surrounding Darryn Peterson and the Kansas Jayhawks is not taking a toll on the players and the locker room.
But the conference playoffs are fast approaching, and Selection Sunday will also reveal Kansas’ NCAA Tournament bracket. Bill Self needs to protect the locker room and shield his players ahead of a crucial stretch of games.