Hometown Hero? Derik Queen’s Fit with the Wizards

Hometown Hero? Derik Queen’s Fit with the Wizards

maryland freshman Derek Queen uh was not as good defensively and and that’s that’s part of the challenge here I think so I would love your perspective on Derek Queen i would say he was he is the most popular choice from what I’ve seen uh from the Wizards fan base of of guys that will be likely available to them at six there have been some rumblings uh you know from from draft analysts that he’s slipping a little bit maybe with people because of a bad combine i wouldn’t take a whole lot of stock in the combine with him because it literally just validated what you saw on the court i think that you’re not drafting this guy for crazy explosiveness it’s everything else he does so I think if you’re taking Derek Queen in this range you’re just really betting on the things he does well and being able to add to that and not focusing on you know maybe the the things that you see as limitations yeah so um I have him rated all I think a lot lower than it sounds like Wizards fans have him i wonder how much of that is because he went to Maryland and they they’re they’re hopeful that the local guy can and he played with Bub some growing up you know like that’d be cool and fun yeah interesting i didn’t know that that’s that’s very interesting i mean oh some t-shirts at the very least so I’m trying to just skim across here there’s the things that are popping out to me are like the you know 20% on threes and not very many attempts only looks like about 30 or so this over the course of the season yeah um he’s not really a particularly impressive rebounder for his position there’s not much playmaking um you know more turnovers than than assists also not many steals not many blocks and then you combine all that with as you say the the the bad combine where he graded out um into I would call it the penalty area in Yoda for agility and and ver vertical so you know I talked about the bon the the bonus that I give for draft position you know draft being top 10 in the consensus draft and he he has that bonus and I still have him basically at the bottom of the first round i thought that might be the case you know in the 20s so um usually I have anywhere from 25 or so you know 20 to 25 first round grades on players and he’s the last one in this draft at uh 23 so I I’m I’m not quite that low on him i am lower than than Wizards Twitter some of this I I was assuming is maybe just because I overanalyze a lot of the Maryland players because I watch every minute that they play as a collegiate athlete and sometimes that’s a little too much for for draft purposes but uh in high school he started out here in in the Baltimore area and was an insanely productive scorer actually shot the ball reasonably well from the high school line early in his career went to Mont Verd Academy played with Cooper Flag and literally everyone else in the first first round here essentially Liam McNeely Jason Newell all these other guys rob Wright that’s going to BYU next year uh that was good at Baylor this year like loaded team and developed this weird hitch uh especially from the free throw line and was just like a catastrophically bad uh free throw shooter toward the tail end of his high school career somehow totally overhauled that between summer of senior year of high school and freshman year at Maryland which uh led to him being a pretty decent free throw shooter this year he’s got good touch overall around the rim and late in the year a lot more threes started to go in and the misses early in the year were hideous like he was barely hitting rim he was hitting the side of the backboard and you know hit two threes in an NCAA tournament game looked really smooth like so I I I suspect he will be able to shoot a reasonable percentage at times so I think if it works you’re just banking on a grab and go center that can he’ll be the best ball handler of the bigs at his position he does make some zippy passes but also gets out over his skis a little bit where you see some of those turnovers uh it just I just don’t know what he does defensively like that’s that’s what I worry about and and to your point like everyone thinks the SAR pairing works well with him because he he’ll be the rebounder that makes up for Sar i don’t think he’s a good enough rebounder to be to be the one that evens that out like he’s solid um but I think you he’s not huge right like he’s probably 610 in shoes so you just you need him to be so elite like at ending defensive possessions I think is his way to contribute defensively and um also I’d point out that you know he’s at um what was uh nine rebounds a game yeah well I do the 11.8 rebounds per 40 sar was at 10 before before he came to the NBA right i believe he was above 10 per 48 you know whatever i mean Sar I understand the concern about his rebounding but I don’t think that’s much of a concern to be honest yeah he’s a guy I would give a fun bonus to one he’s a super likable kid and two when it’s when it’s working it is fun as to watch a guy grab a rebound go coast to coast you know like cross another guy up and then like euro step through the lane and like hit like a reverse layup and you’re just like wait are you allowed to do that as a college center so yeah you know there’s some cool things there um like I said you’re really betting on the things that work working I think

Derik Queen, the Maryland Terrapin and DMV native, has the skills, touch, and feel to make noise in the 2025 NBA Draft — but is his game NBA-ready? Kevin Broom and Matt Modderno break down Queen’s fit with the Wizards, including his elite footwork, passing out of the post, and whether his three-point shot will be reliable enough at the next level. Could Queen stay home and anchor Washington’s frontcourt for years to come?

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