{"id":780254,"date":"2026-07-04T18:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T18:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/780254\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T18:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T18:08:17","slug":"darryn-peterson-cameron-boozer-top-best-nba-draft-picks-to-watch-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/780254\/","title":{"rendered":"Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer Top Best NBA Draft Picks to Watch Today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5x\">The 2026 Summer League tipped off on Friday, with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/draft\/nba-rookies\/yaxel-lendeborg-posts-expectedly-good-summer-league-debut\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">few stellar performances<\/a> from first-round selections.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"60\">Saturday&#8217;s slate is even better, featuring four matchups spread across Salt Lake City and the California Classic, plenty of which have top-five picks.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"63\">Below are some of the top rookies to watch in today\u2019s Summer League action:<\/p>\n<p>Darryn Peterson, Jazz<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"69\">Selected with the second overall pick just after AJ Dybantsa, many are excited for Darryn Peterson\u2019s NBA ascension.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6c\">The combo guard saw a weird, injury-laden season with Kansas, but seems to have put his injuries woes behind him as he steps into the spotlight for Utah.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6f\">Even more, he fits the Jazz\u2019s system like a glove, offering off-ball shooting, defense and a hint of on-ball work.<\/p>\n<p>Cameron Boozer, Grizzlies<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6l\">Selected at third, Memphis forward Cameron Boozer is sure to have a chip on his shoulder, and that could be seen as early as the team\u2019s Summer League debut against the OKC Thunder.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6o\">Boozer was only the most statistically dominant 18-year-old of all-time, leading Duke to a heart-breaking Elite Eight loss in the process. From a frame and strength standpoint, few players will be ready to compete in the NBA than him.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6r\">He\u2019ll face steep competition from the word go, facing off against 7-foot-3 Aday Mara and OKC in his first game.<\/p>\n<p>Brayden Burries and Nate Ament, Bucks<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6x\">Following the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade, the Bucks were able to leave with two lottery picks in Brayden Burries at No. 10 and Nate Ament at No. 13.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"70\">Burries, with a great blend of strength and speed, should be ready to hit the ground running at the professional level. With a slighter frame, Ament may need a little more time to cook, though he\u2019s talented enough to thrive early.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"73\">The Bucks will face off against the Warriors, with lottery pick Yaxel Lendeborg having scored 19 points on 100% shooting Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Mikel Brown Jr., Nets<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-16\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"79\">The top Nets&#8217; pick in decades, Mikel Brown Jr.&#8217;s debut comes with the excitement of him making his essential return from a back injury.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-17\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7c\">Brown played in just 21 games in his lone season at Louisville, but was still able to showcase his potential with on and off-ball scoring, passing and play-making, and plenty more.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-18\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7f\">He&#8217;s now the crown jewel of the Nets&#8217; quick rebuild, sliding in alongside Egor Demin as a player that can play a few different positions. Brooklyn is set to face off against Sacramento and Darius Acuff Jr. Saturday.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 Summer League tipped off on Friday, with a few stellar performances from first-round selections. Saturday&#8217;s slate&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-780254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}