Austin Ainge made sure to do his homework.

Ahead of the 2026 NBA Draft, Kansas guard Darryn Peterson had canceled all of his workouts except one with the Washington Wizards, who held the top pick.

Some speculated that the 6-foot-6 guard was trying to send a message. Maybe he didn’t want to move to Salt Lake City? Maybe he was just that sure that he’d go No. 1?

Ainge, the Utah Jazz’s president of basketball operations, wasn’t going to leave the franchise’s most important draft choice in years to chance.

So before the Jazz drafted Peterson with the No. 2 pick on Tuesday night, they made a visit to his hometown.

Alongside a cohort of Jazz executives — Avery Bradley, Justin Zanik and Danny Ainge — Ainge traveled to Canton, Ohio.

“We were very comfortable with him in the combine,” said Ainge, who had met with Peterson and other draft prospects last month in Chicago. But the Jazz wanted to be “extra sure.”

“And we had the time,” Ainge added. “With us only having the No. 2 pick, we were not doing a ton of draft workouts, and so [we thought], ‘Let’s just go out and see him and see where he’s from, get to know him even better, and just make sure that — if we ended up with him on draft night — that we have the best plan from day one.’”

In Peterson’s hometown, Ainge said the Jazz brass learned everything they needed about their future pick.

They discussed his fit with Utah’s system. They asked the 6-foot-6 guard about his knowledge of the current roster.

“We talked about the way we play basketball, about our ball movement,” Ainge said. “... He loved the sound of that, and he liked to hear that we’re going to go all in trying to win next year as many games as we can.”

They “showed him how amazing the Jazz fans are, and how many sellouts in a row” the Delta Center has seen, Ainge said.

Ainge also said the Jazz were “very comfortable” with Peterson’s health after he spent his freshman year at Kansas dealing with cramping and lingering injuries.

“He’s been working out twice a day, every day, and he feels great,” Ainge said, adding the Jazz’s doctors felt good about the medical records Peterson provided teams.

Outside of basketball, Ainge was also able to learn a little bit about Peterson’s personality. When they arrived for the meeting, Peterson was in the middle of getting some new tattoos.

“He’s got a lot of movie characters tattooed on his arm now,” Ainge said. “He was showing us that, so that was kind of a fun little meeting. We talked about his family and what we would do if he ended up with us, and we all left very excited about the possibility.”

The trip was ultimately enough to sell Peterson on the Jazz.

“It was a great conversation,” Peterson said Tuesday, knowing he was headed to Salt Lake City. “We talked about the good stuff that [they] have in store.”

And, despite some online speculation that Peterson didn’t want to end up with Utah, he said he felt comfortable with the prospect of joining the franchise after meeting with the Jazz at the NBA combine.

“I remember telling my agent after the meeting in Chicago, there was something about Utah,” Peterson said. “So, for them to come and meet again, I felt the same way. I knew that, if they were to take me, that I was going to be super comfortable once I had to get there.”

With days to go until the Jazz’s pick, Ainge sat down with Jazz owner Ryan Smith to let him know who the pick would be.

“I would say a few days ago is when I kind of locked it in,” Ainge said. “Then I sat down with Ryan and said, ‘Hey, let’s do this,’ and he was all on board and excited with what we ended up with.”