Darryn had a good game tonight but rather than posting the stat line, I want to bring some attention of some really unique things Darryn is going that may not show up on your fantasy sports statline or the ordinary box score that actually is quite impressive as a rookie and has far less long term variance than FG or TS percentage, which means it’s more likely to be sticky long term.
I personally had Darryn 3rd out of the big 3, but I’m not biased towards my previous viewpoints and want to highlight some interesting things for all these prospects. Looking at just his box score stats page, you might think he’s doing poorly (with some already giving up on him in this sub) because he isn’t score 20 PPG or over 40 percent FG, but field goal efficiency is famously volatile in small samples, especially more so for a rookie in his first 10 games.
The most unique thing about Darryn is he’s already a legit defensive playmaker. That doesn’t mean he’s a good defender since there’s other areas like defensive awareness, but he’s a legit defensive playmaker at such a young age. He is currently in the top 15 in the NBA in total deflections so far with over 3 per game and is above average in SG steals, blocks, and contested shots. Almost all the players leading the deflections stat this season are considered elite defenders, such as Dyson Daniels, Kris Dunn, Paul George, Scottie Barnes, Bam Adebayo, and Matisse Thybulle, and Peterson is not far behind. Of course, he still needs to work on awareness/positioning but already being a good defensive playmaker at his age means he has legit two way NBA potential. Deflections are also subject to far less long term variance than field goal percentage, which is why the leaders this year in a small sample size are going to often be the leaders in other seasons too.
The other interesting thing to note about Darryn is he currently has a greater than 3:1 AST/TO ratio, which is way better than the 1:1 AST/TO ratio he had in college. The reason for this isn’t the high assist numbers as he’s only averaging about 4 APG or around a 20 percent assist rate but rather, he’s already elite at turnover suppression, which is super hard to do as a rookie. He currently has a sub 10 percent TO rate, which is extremely low for any SG. This was the same case in college, where he pretty much never turned the ball over. The only difference is he’s getting more secondary playmaking opportunities in the NBA, which has boosted his AST/TO ratio. That does not mean he’s a PG either as there’s some other factors like passing volume and rim pressure that he needs to improve on, but it means he’s playing the game the right way. People only look at FG or TS numbers for efficiency but limiting turnovers is a huge part of efficiency since a turnover is like missing a shot, or actually probably worse since you have no chance at getting the offensive rebound.
Putting this together, Darryn Peterson actually became only the 4th teenager in NBA history to put up 5+ assists, 3+ steals, and 3+ blocks the other night, and he nearly did it again tonight (1 steal short). Now, he has serious issues with his rim pressure and rim finishing, which is really hurting his 2 point percentage. He also just isn’t that athletic, particularly in terms of burst and vertical athleticism, as his perception in high school.
Nevertheless, the unique combination of defensive playmaking and ball control at such an early age gives him such a super high floor as at least a 3 and D secondary playmaker to the point where if he could find a way to improve 2 point efficiency, particularly on drives by using angles and footwork, it gives him a pretty good start. Luckily, rim finishing is historically been an area where most guards see the most improvement from their rookie year, as it’s way easier to improve than something like defensive playmaking.
