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[QUOTE="satsuma, post: 5676825, member: 10141"]
Somewhere along the way, a sportswriter -- or maybe Darryn Peterson's agent? -- posed an irresistible question: [I]"But what if he's Kobe?"[/I] Despite all outward appearances that he isn't Kobe Bryant -- especially Peterson's lack of a sociopathic need to compete -- that meme has taken hold of the NBA. The GMs are reluctant to pass up the second coming of Kobe, and will be quick to rationalize anything that would make another player fall out of the #1 spot.

That example is illustrative but imperfect, because there was a GM who took Hakeem Olajuwon over Michael Jordan, and he got a lot less grief. I'm not saying that AJ Dybantsa or Cameron Boozer is the Olajuwon here, or anything near that, but I think there are valid reasons to pick either over Peterson.

It is interesting that some of the negative things that were speculated in the preseason about Dybantsa -- he won't buy into the team, he'll take nights off, he'll shut it down to prepare for the draft -- ended up applying to Peterson instead. I think Dybantsa has turned out to be the compromise between Peterson's star power and Boozer's workmanlike presence.

I think the draft goes Dybantsa-Peterson-Boozer, with an open question as to whether the second team made a mistake picking Peterson over Boozer. I think the response to that question would be to give Peterson the same amount of time Cade Cunningham got.
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