![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PSN_R1S1_KU-House-Ads-300X50-4X_B.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBecause of the way DP\u2019s lone season as a Jayhawk played out, there are plenty of people out there who want no part of him in the top spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I get it. It\u2019s risky to take a player with that kind of injury history, issues that not only took Peterson out of nearly half of KU\u2019s season but also impacted how effective he could be when he was on the floor for Bill Self\u2019s team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You know what else is risky?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Passing on him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to sit here and say that I\u2019d take Peterson with the No. 1 pick if I were making the decision because I\u2019ve got no stake in the game. I\u2019m not making the pick. It\u2019s not my job \u2014\u00a0and future \u2014\u00a0that\u2019s on the line. And my name won\u2019t be the one that is dragged through the mud for years, maybe even decades, if I make the wrong pick.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So, with real empathy for the men and women charged with making these decisions, I wish them nothing but luck and good fortune no matter what direction they decide to go.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just know, in case you care, that if it were me in those shoes, I\u2019d take Peterson. And I wouldn\u2019t hesitate for one second.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Peterson and his people clearly agree. On Monday, reports surfaced that indicated he planned to only visit Washington, which holds the No. 1 pick, and no one else before next week’s draft. <\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfc0 Take a peek at a few mock drafts \ud83d\udc40<\/p>\n
\u2022 ESPN.com<\/a> \u2022\u00a0CBS Sports<\/a> \u2022\u00a0The Athletic<\/a> <\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0SB Nation<\/a>. \u2022\u00a0Yahoo! Sports<\/a>. \u2022\u00a0NBA Draft Room<\/a> <\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0NBADraft.net<\/a>. \u2022\u00a0Bleacher Report<\/a>. \u2022\u00a0SI.com <\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s not just about his all-around game, NBA-ready frame and the fact that the Kobe Bryant comparisons, when he\u2019s really cooking, are not crazy at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s the fact that, for one, Peterson looks and acts the part in every way. I\u2019ve seen it up close and talked to the guy one-on-one. He\u2019s wired different. His mind was made for this. And I wouldn\u2019t hesitate to hand him the keys to just about any franchise, not to mention to those at the bottom of the league that need a lift.\u00a0<\/p>\n For two, while I haven\u2019t paid super-close attention to everything DP has done since leaving Kansas, everything I have seen has led me to believe that the past is in the past. He\u2019s worked out and tested well. His training sessions remain and look elite. And his interviews and answers about what went wrong at KU were both open and honest and also provided a real explanation for what happened.\u00a0<\/p>\n The only question coming out of those sessions \u2014\u00a0at least from the parts I read about and saw on video \u2014\u00a0is are you worried it\u2019s going to happen again?\u00a0<\/p>\n I wouldn\u2019t be. I\u2019m not. And I\u2019d take him with the No. 1 pick 10 times in a row, plugging him into the starting five and putting everything imaginable behind him to make him not only the face of my franchise but also one of the emerging young faces of the entire league.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some of this opinion is based on what I saw and experienced myself during my recent year covering the guy. But even more of it is based on what others have said, none carrying more weight than KU coach Bill Self.\u00a0<\/p>\n I know that Self is not an NBA GM or even an NBA head coach. But the guy knows ball. He knows talent. He knows people and personalities. And I\u2019ve never heard him gush about someone the way he gushed about Peterson for the better part of 2+ years.\u00a0<\/p>\n DP\u2019s time at KU didn\u2019t play out anywhere close to the way he or Self thought it would. But if that kind of production and regular performance is still in the cards for him, he\u2019s going to be a star.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say AJ Dybantsa isn\u2019t. He\u2019s a tremendous player with great size, incredible athleticism and serious upside. But DP is the more polished dude right now. Not to mention the more NBA ready.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dybantsa is going to need help to reach his ceiling, with the right role and roster and people getting him involved in a way that best suits his skills.\u00a0<\/p>\n Peterson can take the ball on Day 1 and run the entire show while making others better and leading a team in scoring at the same time.\u00a0<\/p>\n That, to me, is the kind of thing you want from a No. 1 overall pick.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, if it\u2019s me offering my advice to an NBA GM, I\u2019d simply say forget the risk of his past health issues and eliminate the risk of looking foolish by passing on him.\u00a0<\/p>\n It could happen, of course. In fact, there are plenty of people who think it will and Dybantsa will go No. 1. And the most recent mock drafts appear to have it being a 50\/50 split, with a lean toward Dybantsa.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n If AJ does go No. 1, Peterson absolutely has to go No. 2, but even that puts at least one man \u2014\u00a0Washington Wizards GM Will Dawkins \u2014\u00a0on the hook for looking foolish in the years to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s one thing for the team at the top, with all of the pressure that comes with the No. 1 pick, to pass on a guy like DP, but for two teams to do it? That\u2019s crazy talk and something we haven\u2019t seen since Michael Jordan went No. 3 overall in the 1984 NBA draft, behind Hakeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowie.<\/p>\n There isn\u2019t always a ton of intrigue around the No. 1 overall pick. Most years, we know well in advance who it\u2019s going to be. This year, the fun on draft night starts right away, with yet another Kansas Jayhawk vying to become the top dog in his draft class.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2014 For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.co<\/a>m<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Throughout the 2025-26 Kansas basketball season, one of the more popular topics in both college and NBA circles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":762251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,6,12],"class_list":["post-762250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba-draft","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116758264395532846","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n