Washington landed the No. 1 pick Sunday in Chicago, giving the Wizards the most valuable draft asset in the 2026 class and a choice that has already generated debate across the league. With BYU wing AJ Dybantsa widely considered the frontrunner to go first, veteran commentator Skip Bayless offered a different take on X Sunday, pushing the case for Kansas guard Darryn Peterson as Washington's selection.
"Gut feeling: Wizards should plunge on Darryn Peterson, highest risk, highest reward. Highest talent with some George Pickens in him, some inexplicable. Not buying the Creatine excuse. But better built for pro than college basketball in small-town Kansas," Bayless said.
Peterson averaged 20.2 points and 4.2 rebounds across 24 games this season before declaring for the draft, a campaign that was significantly disrupted by cramping issues he has since attributed to high doses of creatine.
Peterson's health answers have not fully silenced doubts about his Kansas availability
The creatine explanation, which Peterson detailed in an interview published by ESPN on Friday, is the central question now attached to his draft stock. He told ESPN he had never taken the supplement before arriving in college, and that postseason bloodwork revealed his baseline creatine levels were already elevated.
Gut feeling: Wizards should plunge on Darryn Peterson, highest risk, highest reward. Highest talent with some George Pickens in him, some inexplicable. Not buying the Creatine excuse. But better built for pro than college basketball in small-town Kansas.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) May 10, 2026
He missed 11 games and exited several others early. He said the cramping stopped after he quit using the supplement and has reported no issues since resuming training in Los Angeles ahead of the combine.
CBS Sports college basketball analyst Gary Parrish has been among the more pointed voices on the subject, questioning whether cramping alone explains Peterson's decision to withdraw from a marquee home game against Arizona without an injury report listing and with his own coach expecting him to play that afternoon.
"Whenever I felt anything like that come on, my initial thought was that it might get to that again," Peterson told ESPN. "And I can't let that happen and be embarrassed and have that on TV and all that. It kind of put me in a tizzy because I didn't know what was causing it. Nothing has ever been wrong with me before."
Parrish's position is that cramping episodes in basketball typically look a specific way on the sideline, and what was visible did not always match that picture.
He averaged 24.5 points per game in the postseason. His draft stock, per multiple reports, remains firmly in the top three.
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