It’s been exactly one month since the Utah Jazz won the NBA lottery, and each day the pressure mounts as we get closer to draft day. In some drafts, the #1 pick is a foregone conclusion, like with Cooper Flagg and Victor Wembanyama. The thing that makes this draft so unique, and a great one to be #2, is that the top three players all have a case to be the #1 pick. You could even argue Caleb Wilson and not get laughed at. With the luxury of of having so much top-tier talent at the top also comes the anxiety
to make sure that you aren’t the team that ends up picking the worst of the three.
AJ Dybantsa is favored at FanDuel to go #1 at -475, which is up from yesterday at -450. That seems to be the consensus more and more around the league. For Utah, that leaves them with the decision between Cam Boozer and Darryn Peterson. That choice is one of the biggest choices the Jazz will ever make. Do they go with the guard that had one of the weirdest seasons in recent memory in Darryn Peterson? The creatine story is a hard one to believe. But if he’s healthy and looks like he did in his high school tape, he could be an all-time scorer in the league with defensive chops as well. Or do they go with the hyper-efficient big who sits at the top of every raw and advanced stat? But who isn’t a good rim protector and seems to get a large portion of his points in the post, a place that he probably won’t use as much in the league.
That is the question the Jazz have to answer. Chances are that both players will be great, and you can’t go wrong. But even that brings pressure because when you’re drafting in the top 3 in a draft like this, you don’t just want the All-Star, you want the All-NBA player.
For Jazz fans, it’s easy to say who you would pick, but when the pressure is on come draft night, and they have to submit their pick, that choice gets really hard, and that pressure might be daunting. All we can hope is that the Jazz have done their homework and will make the best possible choice.
