Cooper Flagg's future may hinge on Mavericks avoiding top NBA Draft target

Kyrie Irving's return next year will do wonders for Cooper Flagg's development. Having a top flight point guard orchestrating the offense will give Flagg the open looks he's struggled to get this season (even though that hasn't stopped him from a historically good rookie season). However, Irving will be 34 next year, coming off a torn ACL, and isn't a long-term option next to the 19 year-old. Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, the best prospect in college basketball, could be that longterm option.

But in his freshman year at Kansas, Peterson has demonstrated some troubling trends. Not on the court, where he's averaging 20 points and shooting over 43 percent from 3-point range, but on the sidelines, where he's actually spent most of his time. Peterson has played under 25 minutes in seven of his 15 games this year, including just 18 minutes against Oklahoma State on Wednesday, which coach Bill Self said is "Certainly a concern."

Of course, any injury is a concern, but the longterm concern here — for Self and the fans of teams that Peterson is potentially drafted to, like the Mavericks — is that these cramps are moreso Peterson just deciding he no longer wants to play.

Peterson would be a perfect fit on the Mavs, if things go right

Every potential top draft pick receives massive scrutiny leading up to the NBA Draft. For instance, the biggest knock on Anthony Edwards was that he might not enjoy playing basketball enough. Imagine if the Wolves passed on him because of that.

With that being said — Peterson's situation feels different. Either he really is cramping every game (which is the official story), which is highly concerning as an injury outlook, or he's not actually cramping and is voluntarily not playing simply because he doesn't want to. Neither is particularly encouraging.

Peterson wouldn't be the first highly regarded top prospect to spend most of their time on the sideline for no real reason. Shaedon Sharpe did something similar in his one year at Kentucky, never taking the court because he was preparing for the NBA Draft, and now he's a key player for the Trail Blazers.

Still, it's nerve-wracking to think that the Mavericks first first-round pick after drafting Cooper Flagg could require picking a guy who subs himself out of games weekly or passing on a rare kind of guard prospect. Scary!

Cooper Flagg will be a superstar no matter who he is surrounded with. But when building a team around a young star, missing on top-five picks is the quickest way to ruin everything. And Darryn Peterson may well not be a "miss." He could be the best guard in basketball within five years. But a strange season in Lawrence is at least giving some reason to be concerned, and if the Mavericks end up with a top-three pick in this draft, these issues — whether injury-related, effort-related, or something else — are going to be impossible to ignore.