If you want to start a lengthy debate with no obvious answer, ask a room full of basketball talent evaluators what kind of NBA player Derik Queen will be.

It seems obvious that the former 5-star prospect and McDonald’s All-American is destined to be one and done in his run with the Terps — and assuming he can clinch Big Ten Freshman of the Year and give No. 20 Maryland, which hosts USC tonight, a good run in March, more power to him. After Queen started the season completely off some draft boards, several analysts have him scratching toward the mid-first round of the 2025 NBA draft and maybe even a top-10 pick.

But the true enigma of Queen — who averages 15.9 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists for the 20-6 Terps — is what the future looks like for the 20-year-old once he hits the pro ranks.

As a regular Terps viewer, I ride a roller coaster. There are games when I’m convinced he will be the next great Maryland pro. There are others when I wonder if he’ll fall flat against bigger, faster and stronger competition.

Vexed by this question, I asked for some NBA insight. An NBA scout, who asked to remain unnamed to share his organization’s honest assessment, compared Queen’s NBA archetype to All-Star names, including Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis and Houston’s Alperen Șengün. A more realistic hopeful comparison might be longtime NBA vet Boris Diaw, a talented passer who was a good-enough shot (33.6%) from beyond the arc.

But, while being a playmaking, good-touch big has high upside, there’s also a low, low floor.

“You don’t see many guys like him playing a ton of minutes off the bench,” the scout said. “He’s a unique big, a really polarizing player.”

An unteachable feel for the game

The most impressive plays by Queen are subtle acts of beauty. In the first half of Sunday’s game against Iowa, Queen lightly flicked a Ja’Kobi Gillespie inbound pass right back to his teammate for an uncontested layup.

“I think passing is an underrated part of his game,” Fox Sports commentator Robbie Hummel said after the play. And, indeed, that’s the part the NBA evaluators are the most excited about.

He regularly holds the ball and slows his dribble to draw a defender out of a teammate’s driving lane. He can see “skip” passes — the passes that go across the court to teammates who aren’t directly next to him — and he executes them frequently. Among his highlights in a matchup with Rutgers’ high-wattage draft prospects, Queen hit Julian Reese on an outlet pass nearly the full length of the court for a transition layup.

People who have watched Queen for a long time think it is, in part, a product of playing with stellar teammates. At Montverde Academy, Queen wasn’t even the biggest star on his own squad: No. 1 overall prospect Cooper Flagg was the headliner. Liam McNeeley and Asa Newell, who also started for the Golden Eagles, are fellow projected first-round picks.

CBS Sports draft analyst Adam Finkelstein thinks Queen’s 2.1 assists per game undersell his ability: “I’m pretty bullish he can pass. I think it’s all contextual. We’ve seen him play with great teammates before.”

In this way, he’s not like other Terps big men who have underwhelmed in the NBA. Queen’s skill set begs for teams to play through him, because he can help others get a good look. While he can score, he doesn’t play with tunnel vision and try to draw straight lines to the hoop. Although the NBA scout said his team views Queen as needing a better shooter as a frontcourt mate, he credited Queen for making the pairing work with fellow St. Frances product Reese.

“There’s definitely some instinctual stuff there that’s special,” the scout said. “We can see he can get the ball up top and he’s comfortable operating and orchestrating. It’s one of his best skills.”

Great touch, iffy shooting range

As recently as Queen’s senior year, Finkelstein watched a “funky” wrist action in Queen’s shooting mechanics and figured he probably couldn’t course-correct before the 2025 draft. But, in college, the mechanical issues have evaporated, warming Finkelstein enough that he’s mocked Queen as the 16th overall pick this summer.

“A lot of teams want to see if he spaces the floor well,” Finkelstein said. “The progression of his shooting mechanics has impacted the way we talk about him offensively.”

Queen’s touch is great around the rim, complementing advanced footwork that leaves his college defenders tied in knots. Although he’s rarely above the rim — “he’s a quick jumper,” notes the scout, “but not a high jumper” — he can finish off the glass, and he has a respectable stepback jumper that is tough to contest.

But most of that happens within 10 to 12 feet. As a long-range shooter, he’s just 2-for-22 this season. While it’s encouraging that he’s over 75% from the free throw line, being a nonfactor beyond the arc is a big negative in the spacing-obsessed NBA — and it’s one reason the scout said his team views Queen as an undersize center instead of a power forward.

“The discussions we have is if he’ll ever be great as a shooter,” the scout said. “Maybe he could eventually get a little better, but it doesn’t seem like he’ll be as good as the best big-man shooters.”

Queen also is prone to inconsistency on the offensive end. Although his last five games have seen him reach double figures (including four double-doubles), he had a maddening stretch in which he followed up scoring 17 points or more with a single-digit-scoring game. He had a particularly brutal game on the road in Washington and played just 18 minutes. Although coach Kevin Willard is one of Queen’s biggest supporters, it’s common to see them clash on the sideline after errant plays.

Willard said after Sunday’s game (Queen finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds) that the biggest adjustment Queen has made to be more consistent recently is tweaking his style to compensate for how physically teams defend him.

“He’s not doing the same things he was doing earlier,” Willard said. “He’s going off the perimeter a little bit more. He’s going off the bounce a little bit more. I just think he’s adjusted really well to the physicality.”

Up-and-down sequences aren’t unusual for a player so young, the scout said, but they suggest Queen will be more of a project to become a productive NBA player. That might be tough for franchises to target if they’re looking for an early-impact rookie to turn around their fortunes.

A minus on defense

One part of Queen’s game that isn’t divisive is his defense. Most agree it has to get a lot better.

Queen isn’t quick laterally and, though he’s averaging a block per game, he’s not a high-flying rim protector. His athletic limitations make him a conservative defender who is on his heels against more mobile bigs. Against Iowa, the much-larger Terps struggled to adapt in the first half, giving up eight dunks or layups in the first 13 minutes.

This is the other reason the scout said he’s viewed by his team as a center — Queen will likely be limited to drop coverage defense and could get exposed as an isolation defender. Queen has helped himself a bit by reportedly cutting 25 pounds before his freshman year, losing some of the bulk that scouts expected (“he has to keep that up,” the scout said). But, even if he’s the smooth operator many evaluators think he can be on offense, his defensive limitations could curtail his pro playing time.

“In the regular season, it’s not so bad,” the scout said. “But you have a few teams on the schedule who hunt matchups, and he’d be the obvious one to hunt. And then, in the playoffs, everything gets turned up.”

While acknowledging these limitations, Finkelstein thinks Queen’s feel for the game could rub off on his defense. Players like the notoriously slow-footed Nikola Jokić have turned from turnstiles into relatively neutral defenders by anticipating where to be and when to make calculated defensive risks for steals and blocks.

“The reason for optimism defensively is because he’s such a high feel player; there’s a correlation with being in the right spots,” Finkelstein. “Maximizing that, and maximizing his conditioning and his body, is going to be essential.”

Measuring up against the competition

Given all these critiques, it might seem counterintuitive that Queen could be taken in the top 10 of the draft, especially given his quick rise. And yet ESPN mocks Queen 10th overall, and Tankathon has Queen ranked as its No. 10 prospect on its latest big board.

That squares with what the scout’s NBA team anticipates for Queen’s place in the draft: “Don’t be surprised if he’s in the five to 10 range. He’s going to have to come out in the draft. His stock will be too high [to stay in college].”

Queen’s malleability in the draft is as much a reflection of how much uncertainty there is near the top. Flagg is likely the first player off the board, followed tightly by Rutgers’ Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey. Beyond that, “there’s no real no-brainer big guy that jumps out,” Finkelstein said.

Willard would argue, however, that Queen is a no-brainer. He told CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander, “If he was European and white, he’d be the first pick in the draft. He gets a little penalized because he doesn’t have the greatest athleticism. He has better ball-handling skills than most guards. He’s like a 15-year-vet in the fact he knows and understands the game.”

“No matter who he’s playing with, it’s always the same outcome. Derik is always one of the most impactful players on the floor.”

Adam Finkelstein, CBS Sports draft analyst

Finkelstein has Queen as the fifth big man off the board, behind Flagg, Newell, Duke’s Khaman Maluach and France’s Noa Essengue. Outside of Flagg, that group is largely more athletic with more length but less offensively skilled. The players’ physical profiles square better with what works in the NBA compared to Queen, and the rim-running, shot-blocking types, such as Dereck Lively II with the Dallas Mavericks, have had early success recently.

“Those other guys who are in the conversation are ones who might be perceived as safer picks,” Finkelstein said.

Finkelstein remembered Newell, who is now a star at Georgia, struggled to get on the court at Montverde as a high school junior because Queen outplayed him. Although the NBA depth chart has little in common with high school high jinks, it speaks to something that has been a theme throughout Queen’s career and might be the best reason for a team to take a chance: No matter the competition, Queen always seems to find a way to stand out.

“For me, the sheer productivity is such a clear pattern for a guy who has produced at every single level,” Finkelstein said. “No matter who he’s playing with, it’s always the same outcome. Derik is always one of the most impactful players on the floor.”