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Ex-NBA Star Defends Derik Queen Amid Rumored NBA Draft Slide

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Sean Deveney | Last updated May 30, 2025 1:24 PM ET

Depending on whom you listen to around the NBA, Maryland center Derik Queen is either the most skilled player in the draft, destined to become the second coming of Kevin Love, or he is a vastly overrated big man whose skillset to does not very easily slot into the modern NBA.

The truth is usually somewhere in the middle, but there is no doubt that around the league, Queen's status as a top pick has been slipping. While some mock drafts still have him slotted staying local to the Wizards at No. 6, many have begun pushing him down outside the Top 10, to Portland at No. 11 or the Bulls at No. 12.

Queen did not perform well in shooting drills at the NBA combine, which is an area in which teams want to see improvement from him. He shot 52.6% from the field this year, but as a guy who rarely shoots 3s, that should probably be higher. Queen also struggled in athletic testing at the combine.

Writes The Ringer, which mocks him to No. 11: "Scouting Queen is a never-ending back-and-forth between marveling over his skill and fretting over how he’ll adapt to the NBA—the speed of the game, the size of the athletes, the ruthless accountability. If he doesn’t become a semi-dependable shooter or a lob threat, what are the conditions in which he’d thrive? There are still too many instances when, because of his lapses in attention to detail, he leaves opportunities on the table for his talent to impact the game."

This all caught the attention of Quentin Richardson, the former NBA star and co-host of "The Knuckleheads" podcast. Richardson politely disagrees with the latest Queen projections.

Seeing little stuff about Maryland young star Derik Queen sliding down draft boards because of athleticism. Crazy to see. This kid is easily a top 5 top 10 pick!! If he were from overseas nobody would care about his athleticism. Look at where Joker started. Not saying he could…
— Quentin Richardson (@QRich) May 30, 2025

He wrote on Twitter/X: "Seeing little stuff about Maryland young star Derik Queen sliding down draft boards because of athleticism. Crazy to see. This kid is easily a top 5 top 10 pick!! If he were from overseas nobody would care about his athleticism. Look at where Joker started. Not saying he could be Joker but Joker is not athletic either. Queen can do it all on the court and that should matter."

Even with his mediocre shooting, Queen did average 16.5 points and 9.0 rebounds this season.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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