Why You Should Believe in Derik Queen at No. 3
A new contender emerges for the third overall pick.
It was the summer of 2023. I was busy with work, writing down notes as I scouted prospects for the eventual 2025 NBA Draft, when I saw a young big man throw one of the most impressive passes I’ve ever seen:
This is Derik Queen, the freshman forward out of Maryland, and the player I think the Sixers should draft with the third overall pick.
After heading down South to play high school ball in Florida next to Cooper Flagg, Queen returned to his home state for his lone college season and immediately emerged as the best player on a Maryland team that grabbed a 4-seed in the NCAA Tournament and made the Sweet Sixteen. He averaged 16.5 points and 9.0 rebounds, and won Big Ten Freshman of the Year over both Bailey and presumed No. 2 overall pick Dylan Harper.
A lot of other names have been floated for Philly at 3, from Rutgers’ Ace Bailey, to Baylor’s VJ Edgecombe, and even to Tre Johnson of Texas. Nothing in this article is meant as a specific argument against any of those players; each a fine prospect in their own right. Rather, this is about shining the spotlight on Queen, an incredibly talented big man who has not been talked about enough as an option for the Sixers with their first-round pick.
While his penchant for throwing high-degree-of-difficulty passes is what first drew me to Queen years ago, it was his absurd driving and slashing skills that stood out with the Terrapins. His finishing footwork is unmatched in this draft class, truly elite for a 20-year-old basketball player. He has Euro steps and spin moves, he loves to throw a defender off-balance by decelerating on his final two steps — and to top it all off, he’s a truly ambidextrous finisher around the rim, comfortable driving either right or left at a moment’s notice.
Additionally, for a Sixers team that needs to get bigger and stop getting bullied on the glass, adding Queen would be a huge boon to their rebounding prowess. At Maryland, his 24.5% defensive rebounding rate was first in the entire country among all Freshmen per BartTorvik, and his 9.0% offensive rebounding rate was nothing to scoff at either. Despite “only” measuring in at just over 6-foot-9 and with a wingspan just crossing 7-feet, Queen makes up for the supposed lack of length with ridiculous strength and soft hands that almost always catch the ball whenever it’s nearest to him.
If teams don’t land a good boxout on him, Queen is easily shoving them out of his way and scooping up the ball for two points on the putback.
The rebounding and the drives are great, but none of this answers the question most Sixers fans probably have about Queen — how does he fit next to Joel Embiid? On the surface, an undersized center who shot 7-for-35 from three in college doesn’t seem like a logical pairing next to the franchise center in Philly.
But this is where Queen’s game (and what it means to play next to a center in the NBA) is misunderstood. Sure, if Queen had shot better on threes in college, projecting his transition to the NBA would be a lot smoother, no argument there. He did shoot a respectable 76.6% on free throws, and flashed impressive shotmaking with floaters and the occasional mid-range. His shot form itself could use some work, but the hints of shooting touch are there.
Moreover, Queen can play the 4 and play alongside centers at the next level not because he’s an obvious 38% three-point shooter hiding in plain sight, but because defenses have to be worried about making decisions with the ball in his hands. When teams feel like they can ignore a player on the perimeter is when their offense becomes inhibitive to the team, and though the lack of a respectable jumper can often lead to that, it’s not a perfect correlation. Queen is too terrifying building up steam and driving downhill at the basket for defenses to disrespect him. He’s willing to attack and score at every opportunity given. If a defense tried to play off against him and hide a roaming rim protector on him, Queen will take shots and find ways into the paint to make the defense non-viable.
Not to mention, his passing skill makes him even more versatile on the perimeter. While his passing numbers look bad on the surface (67 assists to 85 turnovers in 36 games played), the tape tells a different story. This is a prospect who is capable of making complex decisions in dynamic situations on the court. He loves his lefty skip passes, his outlet passing is ambitious, but can lead to high-end outcomes, and he’s deadly attacking bent defense in the short roll.
Admittedly, his ambition as a passer is a double-edged sword. For every no-look dime he breaks out to find a cutter, there’s also a clip where he threw the ball five feet out of bounds trying to throw a full-court baseball pass to a teammate. What you think of his passing depends on how risk-averse you like your basketball players. Queen is someone who is willing to try anything and everything on the court, and while that increases his chances for the occasional blunder, it also accelerates his growth rate with the number of high-leverage plays he can make.
On the other side of the floor, concerns over Queen’s defense are a fair gripe. Maryland often played a funky zone defense that morphed into man-to-man late in possessions, and often kept him close to the paint instead of forcing him to cover space on the perimeter.
Similar to the risks he takes on the offensive end of the floor, Queen is a bit of a home-run hitter on defense too. He averaged 1.1 steals and 1.1 blocks per game, showing good potential as a playmaker due to his incredible hands, desire to swipe at the ball, and surprisingly nimble feet for his build. Of course, constant swiping at the ball meant Queen was liable to get burned if he missed, and his play-to-play discipline needs work. There were too many clips of him standing upright and not hustling to rotate the correct spot at Maryland.
However, if in the NBA he can be fully engaged on that end of the floor, the potential for improvement is quite obviously there. He’s never getting bullied inside, fully capable of grappling with the strongest players in the NBA (which these playoffs have shown to be an important skill), and his creative footwork shows how he’s more capable of hanging on the perimeter than he’s given credit for. He’s even got crafty old-man tricks already in his bag, like pulling the chair on a post-up as he does in the first clip here below.
AU would be the first to tell you I’m not one to hand out player comps to potential draft picks unless I really believe it, but Queen is one of those guys where I feel comfortable putting my neck out. Naz Reid went undrafted in 2019 before signing with the Minnesota Timberwolves, largely (in my estimation) because he was an odd player. You could probably count on one hand how many NBA big men there are whose primary talent is beating dudes off the dribble and finishing creatively at the rim. The Wolves got a steal because his abnormal archetype wasn’t appreciated, and when I watch Queen, I see a new take on Reid.
He might have a lower floor as a shooter (though worth noting Reid “only” shot 33% on not the highest volume of three-point attempts in college before improving in the NBA), but Queen is even more dangerous as a driver, possessing a devastating amount of raw strength and force that Reid didn’t quite have the moment he entered the league six years ago. Reid is one of the most important players on a team that’s now made back-to-back trips to the Western Conference Finals, and Queen — with his cross-section of size and driving acumen — can be an even more potent version of one of the most offensively versatile big men in the entire NBA.
While Queen isn’t a prospect without a chance of failure (Flagg is the only guy who fits that description this year), there’s good reason to believe in the big guy’s high-end outcomes. I’m confident in his ability to create good outcomes and results at the NBA level, attacking closeouts, running inverted pick and rolls, and isolating on the perimeter and in the post. And for the Sixers, a team that’s already littered with shorter guards and pure centers, Queen can fill the void at the 4 spot that the team so often faced last season. He’s big enough to give the team size where it’s needed, and he’s both quick enough and skilled enough to survive and thrive on the perimeter in the modern NBA.
And at the end of the day, who doesn’t want to draft the guy who hit arguably the most iconic shot of this year’s March Madness tournament?
Believe in Derik Queen.
Daniel Olinger is a writer for the Rights To Ricky Sanchez, and author of “The Danny” column, even though he refuses to be called that in person. He can be followed on X @dan_olinger.
“The Danny” is brought to you by the Official Realtor Of The Process, Adam Ksebe.
Anthony Bennett
I’m with ya on this evaluation of Queen. Firstly, the Sixers are going to need real NBA size and real NBA frontcourt, inside scoring as they move forward. As I have written here before, Embiid is on his last legs – literally. There need to be players under contract on this team who can slide into the Sixers frontcourt and, perhaps collectively, give the Sixers the kind of production they will lose when it all comes to a sad end for JoJo. And that end could come in a matter of months if his knee does what MOST of the highly damaged knees of centers over 30 do – which is to say, prevent him from playing any longer. Queen has the size right now to bang inside in the NBA. And the Sixers have a shortage of that on their roster. I also think the fact that he might LOOK like a guy who should be playing the four, drafting him is less of an obvious stab at an Embiid replacement (and potential for insulting the sensitive Embiid) than drafting a guy like Maluach. I’d almost compare the opportunity to draft an inside player like Queen while Embiid is still on the roster to the Sixers drafting undersized Charles Barkley at #5 overall in 1984, while Moses Malone was still our starting center. And Barkley became the dominant inside presence for the Sixers AND the lead scorer after Malone’s career in Philly ended. I think Queen has THIS kind of potential as a Sixers player. When you watch Queen’s college tape from this season, he just LOOKS LIKE his skills translate to the NBA as a more dangerous player than the other big men available. He has a nose for the bucket and a forceful way of getting there.
Queen has the skills to prevent the Sixers from turning into a typical, one-dimensional 2025 NBA team that lives or dies by the three-ball. None of the other “big men” at the top of this draft can do that. Ace Bailey is smaller than Queen by an inch or two in height and 50 pounds in weight. He also is almost a one-dimensional jump-shooting prospect whose defensive skill is no better, at this point, than Queen’s. Maluach is also one-dimensional as a inside defensive presence with no real upside on offense. He’s basically a bigger version of what Bona does for the Sixers. I think this Sixers pick needs to be used on a player with significant skill on offense above defense. We can draft inside defense in round 2.
It's also worth noting that the Sixers could probably trade down to maybe pick 5 and extract an extra, future first round pick out of the Jazz to then get Queen at a lower spot in the top 10. Hell, Queen could slip even further than pick 5 and give the Sixers a few more options for the best trade-down offer.