Intro 

To be honest, I wasn’t very high on Derik Queen coming into the season. I had him in the 25 – 35 range. I wasn’t sure about how his game would translate to the NBA, especially since he is a big who wasn’t a floor spacer or much of a rim protector. Plus I thought he was slow. 

But as The Dude says in Big Lebowski, “New shit has come to light”. 

We’re only 10 games into the season but what I am seeing from Queen both on film and on the stat sheet has him flying up my board. Plus, I started to go back and re-watch some of his pre-college film. When you combine the pre-college film with the college film, you’re looking at a larger sample size of games and it really starts to hit you the more you watch this guy play – he’s just really freaking good at basketball. 

As I watch more film of Queen, what stands out the most is the combination of size, skill, basketball IQ, assertiveness and competitiveness. It can be a tricky balance, being assertive offensively and looking for your shots – while at the same time, not forcing shots, letting the game come to you, involving your teammates and making the right basketball play. – Sometimes that’s a shot but sometimes it’s a pass. Queen has that balance nailed down. 

When you’ve got that balance nailed down and you’re a 6’10”, 250 lbs big man with a ton of skill and competitiveness, you start to really be intrigued by Queen as a prospect.

Alright, before diving in any deeper, let’s take a look at some data. This will help give some context and further paint the picture of just how good of a prospect Queen is. 

Queen is in some good company here, a list of high major freshmen since 2008 with high BPM, high TS% and high FTr (Free Throw Rate). So it bodes well for Queen that his FTr is so high and that it stacks up well with the other players on the chart. 

A few things I will point out from that chart. First, high major freshmen who score very high in all 3 of these categories have a very high hit rate and almost always become stars at the NBA level. 

Secondly, one thing I’m realizing as I do more draft scouting is that a pre-draft prospect’s FTr is a strong indicator for future NBA success. As you can see on the chart, all of the players listed there have a FTr of at least 35. Most of them are 50 or higher. 

Thirdly, it bodes well for Queen that while 3 point shooting is not his forte (at least not yet), other bigs listed on the chart (Mobley, Towns, Davis and if you lower BPM filter to 10, Embiid shows up too) are all guys who did not shoot the 3 ball much at all in college either. But all of those guys (Mobley, Towns, Davis and Embiid) all ended up being either fairly respectable shooters in the NBA (or an elite shooter, in Towns’ case) – while being good enough in other areas of the game (inside scoring, mid range, passing, put-backs, etc.) that they still provided lots of value for their teams, regardless of whether their 3 point shot was falling. 

Some other stats I’ll point out. Queen is currently averaging 17.5 PPG and 25.4 points per 40 mins. These are very high numbers for a freshman, in terms of volume scoring – especially considering he’s not a guard/wing who is initiating offense and he’s barely hitting any 3’s. Not only are those volume scoring numbers very high, but Queen’s at 65.4 for a TS% which is also extremely high – especially for a freshman. 

You simply do not see high major freshmen put up numbers like this where both the scoring volume and the scoring efficiency are this high. It makes me think that Queen really does have the potential to be a star big man in the NBA. Perhaps a 1st/2nd option on a good team – a big you can run your offense through. Plus, he looks just as good on film as he does on a stat sheet. 

Diving into Some Film

Here’s a little compilation I made of some of the most impressive plays from the past few months:

Now, let’s unpack what we just saw in the video. 

Let’s start with the scoring. If someone asked me to describe Queen’s game in two words based on the film I see, I’d say ‘Skilled big.’ When you watch these clips, it’s very clear that he’s highly skilled for a big. He’s very comfortable with the ball in his hands. 

When people talk about players having ‘a bag’, they usually talk about guards, wings – perhaps forwards. They’re not generally talking about bigs. But Queen is different. He’s a big, with a bag. And he’s got really good touch, which you can see on the play where he hits the turnaround fadeaway jumper off one leg. And you can tell he’s got good touch from his 78% mark at the free throw line. 

Queen can post up on the low block. He can operate from the elbows in the mid-post and be an effective roller out of the PnR. He’ll score out of the dunker’s spot on dump-offs. He’ll convert tip-ins and put-backs. He’ll run the floor in transition and finish there—he’ll come up with steals and take it coast to coast for buckets. 

Queen truly can score the basketball in so many different ways. He makes it look easy and does everything instinctively, clearly having put in a ton of work on his craft and having a high basketball IQ. 

Next, let’s touch on the passing. In the video, we see Queen hit cutters and make one-handed cross-court skip passes. We see him kick the ball out to open shooters and make simple (but effective) outlet passes to start the break. We also see Queen throwing hit-ahead passes at the length of the floor, right on the money and with some mustard on them – to get the ball to his teammate fast and beat the defenders down the floor. We even see him making lob passes from way out on the perimeter. 

Pretty much every pass in the book, Queen can do it. 

I said how rare it is for a big to be so good at both volume scoring and scoring efficiency at such a young age. Well, it’s also rare for a big to have this level of passing ability and processing/feel at such a young age, too. It’s even more rare for a player to have all 3 – volume scoring, scoring efficiency, and passing as a freshman. 

When you watch Queen on film (and remember that he’s doing all of this stuff as a freshman), he truly has some Embiid in his game, and he has some Jokic in his game. There’s some Sengun in there, and there’s some Demarcus Cousins. A little bit of Domantas Sabonis. Offensively, he’s also got some Bam Adebayo in him. And if we’re going further back, there are also some similarities between Queen’s game and guys like Zach Randolph and Al Jefferson. 

Now don’t take these comps too literally – they’re not exact 1 to 1 comps. I’m just saying that there are some shades of all those guys in Queen. And, of course, the one-legged turnaround fadeaway that he hit vs Villanova was reminiscent of Dirk Nowitzki (and Jokic). But when you think about some of these comps, you watch the film and look at the stats, and it starts to become more apparent that we’re talking about a top 5 pick here. 

The other thing I want to call out regarding Queen’s offensive ability is ball handling. His handle for a big is excellent, especially for a freshman big. In recent years, you look around the league, and the best players are often the ones with the slickest handles. Guys like Trae Young, Kyrie Irving, Steph Curry, James Harden, and Jayson Tatum have the ball on a string. 

Even when we look at bigger guys, the ones with the best handles (compared to other players of their size) are often the best players. Paolo Banchero, Chet Holmgren, Evan Mobley, Jokic, Embiid, Wembanyama, Giannis. These guys all have excellent handles compared to other players of a similar size. 

Even bigs like Trayce Jackson-Davis and Oso Ighodaro. They both had good handles for their size, too. Both are succeeding at the NBA level. But both of those guys were 4-year college players, so they had a lower ceiling. The guys I just named who were 1 or 2 year college players ended up becoming stars. Queen could be next. His handles and ‘bag’ for a player of his size (and age) are superb. 

A couple of years ago, I heard someone (I forgot who) on an NBA draft podcast say that the two biggest things he looks for in bigs when watching the film are their hands and feet. Like if a guy has bad hands (can’t catch passes or hang on to rebounds) or bad feet (poor footwork when making moves to the basket and around the basket, gets called for traveling, falls over his own feet when trying to slide defensively) those are all red flags. Well, Queen has excellent hands and excellent feet. He has some of the best footwork you will see in a modern big.

There were also some defensive clips in the Queen compilation video above. There were a couple of clips of Queen getting out on the perimeter, playing some D, poking the ball away, and getting some steals, along with some interior defense and rim protection. 

Queen is not an elite defender, but he’s currently got a blocks percentage of 4.6 and a steals percentage of 2.5, which are very respectable marks—especially for a freshman. I think at the NBA level, he’s a guy who (somewhat similar to what we’re seeing from him in college and what he showed in high school) will hold his own on D and won’t be a liability.

He’ll protect the rim a bit and be able to defend the perimeter a bit, too. 

He won’t be elite on D, but he should at least be a neutral defender. Considering how good he is on offense and what his potential to become on offense eventually is, we’re talking about a hell of a prospect here. I mean, guys like Sabonis, Jokic, Cousins, and Sengun have all had times when they were considered poor defenders. But they were all still star bigs because their offense was that good. Queen could be better defensively than those guys.  

The other thing I like about Queen (which you can see on film) is that he plays with toughness, an edge to him. Not only with how he plays but also with force, aggression, and physicality. But also his game face – he’s got this tough guy look on his face a lot of the time – which shows his teammates and opponents that he means business – he’s there to win, not to make friends. He doesn’t back down from anybody. He’s got confidence and a swagger to him. 

Guys with that type of toughness and confidence – it’s often those types of intangibles that you see in players who end up being stars (or at least really good role players) at the NBA level. 

Weaknesses 

It’s hard to come up with any. All I’ve got is what I touched on a little bit earlier—that Queen is a big who’s not a 3-point shooter or a great rim protector/defender. Because of that (as well as some concerns about speed and athleticism), I can see how some folks might not put him in their top 5 draft picks for 2025. 

They’re fair concerns. But I think Queen brings enough good things to the table and enough star upside to put him fourth on my big board—especially since I’m now as high on the other prospects I have ranked below him. 

Role Projection

I have seen some folks on Twitter say that they think Queen is more of a four at the NBA level. I think they’re basing that on him being 6’10”, and they think he’s too small to play center. I don’t buy that at all. Queen is 6’10”, about 250 lbs with a 7’0″ wingspan. He’s big enough to play the 5, in my opinion, especially with more teams these days playing a small ball 5. 

Pretty much any player in the league right now who is 7’0″ + and/or 250 lbs+ is a center. You even have some guys (like Draymond Green, Isaiah Jackson, and Nic Claxton) who are under 7’0″ and under 250 lbs who play the 5. 

Queen doesn’t have the mobility or the perimeter shooting ability to play the 4. He’s definitely more of a 5 than a 4. 

I would also add that because he is much better suited to play the 5 (he might not do so well at the 4) and isn’t much of a 3-point shooter, it does make it a tricky fit for specific teams to add Queen to their roster. For example, a team like Portland probably should not draft Queen. The Blazers just drafted Donovan Clingan with the 7th pick. Clingan and Queen would likely not be a good fit to play together since they’re both better suited to play the 5, and neither gives you much shooting. Plus, they also have Deandre Ayton. 

The right team for Queen would be one where he can play the 5, a team that can put some good shooters on the floor around him, and a team that could use more scoring so that Queen could be utilized as an offensive hub and potentially develop into a first/second option for his team. 

A team that already has plenty of scoring might not be the best fit because they won’t need Queen to score much, and he won’t be able to fully showcase his skills or take his game to another level. 

That said, Jayson Tatum was on a Celtics team early on in his career that had a bunch of good wings (Jaylen Brown, Hayward, Morris, etc.), and he was still able to develop into a superstar, so I think sometimes we overemphasize team fit in draft discourse. But then again, maybe Tatum is an outlier. 

Conclusion 

There’s not much left to say. I see Queen as a top-five pick. I could see a case for maybe putting him in the top three. But as of now, I’ve got him ranked 4th on my board, after Dylan Harper, Cooper Flagg, and Kasparas Jakucionis. 

I’m very much looking forward to seeing how Queen does over throughout the rest of the season and into the pre-draft process.