Darryn Peterson has the Jazz believing their rebuild is endingTim MacMahonJul 9, 2026, 07:00 AM ETClose
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THE UTAH JAZZ gave their summer league squad the day off Sunday, but rookie No. 2 overall pick Darryn Peterson showed up to the team’s practice facility in the morning eager for a film session with coach Will Hardy.
Hardy and Peterson reviewed the rookie’s spectacular summer league debut clip by clip, which will be routine for them early in his career while focusing more intently on the defensive end of the floor. Hardy asked the 19-year-old about the term “Raven,” which is Jazz jargon for the defensive shifting technique the coaches teach to emphasize utilizing wingspan with arms extended wide.
In passing, Hardy mentioned that the term is a nod to one of his favorite athletes, Pro Football Hall of Fame safety Ed Reed. Peterson, who was 5 years old when Reed played his final down for the Baltimore Ravens in 2012, responded with a perplexed look.
“Then the conversation evolved into, ‘Well, do you know who Ed Reed is?'” Hardy told ESPN as he sat next to Peterson a couple of days later. “And when he reported no, I was upset. So, we had to pivot away from basketball for 10 minutes and make sure that we got a good dose of Ed Reed highlights.”
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After a YouTube detour, Peterson had a full understanding of the reference, an appreciation for the playful side of his 38-year-old coach’s personality and somewhat begrudging respect for Reed.
“He was nice,” reported Peterson, a native of Canton, Ohio, whose dad, Darryl, grew up in Cincinnati. “I’m not going to say too much. I’m a Bengals guy.
“I’m sorry, Ed.”
Hardy will happily accept their football fandom differences as he gets to know the former Kansas guard, a priority given Peterson’s potential to become the face of the franchise the Jazz have been seeking during the coach’s entire four-year tenure.
Peterson opted not to visit Salt Lake City in the predraft process due to his belief that he should have been selected with the No. 1 pick. The Washington Wizards instead opted to take BYU forward AJ Dybantsa, who will face Peterson and the Jazz in Thursday’s prime-time showcase game at the Las Vegas Summer League (9 p.m. ET, ESPN).
Peterson silenced any doubts about his zeal for joining the Jazz immediately after being selected. He stressed in several interviews that night that he felt “super comfortable” during his meeting with Hardy and the Utah contingent at the scouting combine in Chicago. Peterson expressed appreciation that Jazz CEO Danny Ainge, president of basketball operations Austin Ainge, general manager Justin Zanik and vice president of player development Avery Bradley traveled to Peterson’s hometown to meet with him days before the draft.
Over the course of 17 days and two Salt Lake City Summer League games, the Jazz are confident their rebuild is coming to an end. With Peterson’s potential and Keyonte George coming off a breakout campaign, Utah’s backcourt has the chance to be special, especially alongside 2025 No. 5 pick Ace Bailey and midseason addition Jaren Jackson Jr.
“What excites me the most is being able to be a part of the young core,” Peterson reported. “It’s just a great basketball organization. I think everyone would agree with me, and we’ve kind of talked about it: It’s time to win. So, to be a part of that is like a dream come true for me.”
GEORGE HAS HAD a constant presence around the Jazz’s summer league team. The 22-year-old guard has attended every practice, and he sat courtside along with Jackson and other veterans for each of the team’s three games during the Salt Lake City Summer League.
George planned to have an even better viewpoint during the Jazz’s Las Vegas opener. The fourth-year player intended be on the Utah bench as a volunteer assistant coach, but the NBA office opted not to allow it.
George’s single-game assignment would have been symbolic of the mentoring relationship he has instantly developed with Peterson. George offers advice to Peterson on some of the finer points of NBA guard play, pleased to help his new long-term backcourt partner take his first steps toward fulfilling his immense potential.
“You tell him something, he does it right away,” George told ESPN before watching Peterson’s 25-point, 12-assist performance during Utah’s win over No. 3 pick Cameron Boozer and the Memphis Grizzlies in his second summer league outing. “Obviously, the talent is there, the ability is there, the pace is there. I mean, just from the first game, you see what he can do in the league. He’ll be special for sure.”
George and Peterson were already friendly before the draft, having met through renowned skills trainer Phil Beckner.
Peterson, who possesses a unique blend of confidence and humility, listens intently to every bit of advice given by George.
“Every day, he’s been pushing me and telling me what he sees and telling me what I need to be better at in practice and games,” Peterson reported. “He’s going into Year 4 now. So, I don’t know if that’s a vet or not, but to me, that’s a vet. He’s been here in the league four years, so he’s somebody I would definitely lean on throughout the season.”
THE JAZZ BELIEVE Peterson and George have the potential to form one of the NBA’s best backcourts.
After struggling in his first two years, George averaged 23.6 points and 6.1 assists per game last season. Peterson is widely considered one of the most offensively gifted guards to enter the league in recent years. Several scouts told ESPN that Peterson has the potential to win scoring titles and praised his ability to already make advanced reads.
In his first official appearance in a Jazz uniform on Saturday, Peterson poured in 28 points in 27 minutes to lead Utah to an overtime win over the Atlanta Hawks in the Salt Lake City Summer League opener, prompting a rival scout with decades of NBA experience to rave, “It all looks so easy for him.”
Hardy’s intention is to have George and Peterson share the responsibilities of initiating the offense and handling the ball instead of labeling one the point guard and the other the shooting guard. The coach points out that the teams making deep playoff runs all feature multiple dynamic creators.
“I think it’s really exciting,” Hardy reported. “It gives us some flexibility. It’s going to take a little bit of time for us to get the rhythm of it perfect. But they have a tremendous amount of potential together, both sides of the ball.
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“We need to let them live in the environment together a little bit and try to see what they do. I’m going to try my best not to overcoach them early because there’s a lot that I can learn from watching them play off of each other.”
Hardy has been encouraged by how quickly Peterson and George have bonded and by how comfortable the guards are communicating with each other. They were among several players who recently hung out at Hardy’s house as the coach cooked dinner and the group watched World Cup soccer games.
At some point, George hopes to show the rookie around Salt Lake City, but Peterson hasn’t shown much interest in going out.
“Nah, he’s too busy walking his dog around downtown,” George reported.
Peterson acknowledges that his sole priorities at this point are hooping and hanging out with his pooch, Denim. He jokes that he wants to win “Dad of the Year.”
Of course, Peterson also has Rookie of the Year ambition, a goal that seems within his reach.
Peterson is the caliber of prospect that Jazz power brokers had in mind while they endured a total of 125 losses over the past two seasons. Utah was fined by the league office for what the league office determined were tanking tactics — “overt behavior … that prioritizes draft position over winning,” as commissioner Adam Silver reported in a statement after hitting the Jazz with a $500,000 fine before last season’s All-Star break.
The Jazz signaled that they intended to make the massive leap to competitiveness next season by trading for Jackson, a two-time All-Star power forward, at the February deadline — and then shut him down to get surgery on his knee after he played a few games. They still needed some long-awaited lottery fortune to fully execute their plan and finally got it when they landed the No. 2 pick.
And they added to their future draft assets at the start of free agency. The Jazz originally intended to re-sign starting center Walker Kessler in restricted free agency, but they agreed to an aggressive sign-and-trade offer from the Los Angeles Lakers and acquired unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033 along with first-round swaps in 2028 and 2030.
“You’ve got to get a little lucky,” Jazz owner Ryan Smith told ESPN. “I’m going to call it what it is. I’ve been on the unfortunate side of that where we slid back, and it’s a lot harder to draft at 9 and 10 than it is at 2.
“I think Utah’s got a pretty bright future.”
