Derik Queen is a 6’10” power forward who plays for the Maryland Terrapins men’s basketball team. Despite being a college basketball freshman, he has proven to have great potential. His averages in the 2024–2025 season — 16.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game — show that he is poised to develop significantly as a player.
In addition, even as a freshman with little college basketball experience, the latest NBA mock draft projects Derik Queen as a top 10 NBA Draft Pick.
Future Hall of Famers Who Are Inspiring Derik Queen
In an interview with Jonathan Givony, the founder of DraftExpress, Derik mentioned that he has been studying some NBA players as he prepares for the transition into the league. These players are Anthony Davis, Nikola Jokić, Carmelo Anthony, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Joel Embiid.
Got a chance to sit down with Maryland’s Derik Queen and talk about the NBA players he’s studying as he prepares for the transition he’s about to make to the pro game. Anthony Davis, Nikola Jokic, Carmelo Anthony, SGA and Embiid are some of the guys he is watching right now. pic.twitter.com/JREp7YX8Ky
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) May 4, 2025
Anthony Davis: Davis averaged 24.7 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 3.5 assists while playing for Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers this season. Queen and Davis have some things in common — one of which is being power forwards. Another is the fact that they both entered the NBA after their freshman year.
Queen has stated that what he studies in Davis is the way he gets to his spots using specific movement patterns and speed. Davis is also very skilled at studying his opponents’ moves and maximizing his knowledge to defend and score points. As a fellow center and power forward, studying this will be great for Derik.
Nikola Jokic: Jokić is a center playing for the Denver Nuggets. On March 8, 2025, he finished the game against the Phoenix Suns with 31 points, 21 rebounds, and 22 assists, breaking a record by being the only NBA player to ever achieve this kind of feat.
This season, Jokić has demonstrated great shooting skills, averaging 43.9% from three-point range. Like Derik said, he has also shown great playmaking and finishing skills, making him a formidable player on the team.
Carmelo Anthony: Another power forward, Anthony differs from the former two because he retired after almost two decades of playing basketball.
Queen has stated that he watches Anthony from the mid-post area and how he uses his footwork to get open. These are skills that made it easy for Anthony to create scoring opportunities for himself and his teammates. Queen can make use of the lessons from Anthony’s style of play to become a better scorer and playmaker.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: Queen focus in studying the point guard, Gilgeous-Alexander, is seeing how he draws fouls, gets into his spots, and uses his shoulders to his advantage. With these abilities, he earned honors as an NBA All-Star for three consecutive years.
These strengths have helped the Oklahoma City Thunder guard get to the free-throw line, protect the ball, and guard against opponents — skills that will help make Queen an unstoppable player in the NBA.
KEEP READING: Why College Basketball Players Keep Transfer Options Open After Declaring for the NBA Draft
In areas like ball-handling, maintaining physicality, strength, and agility, three-point shooting, and defense, Queen has a lot of lessons to learn from these future Hall of Fame players.
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