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Welcome into the scores official 2026 NBA mock draft. Potentially one of the best draft classes this century. Yeah, I would honestly I would say so when you look at the way that this freshman class dominated college basketball to a level I haven't seen and I can't even remember honestly. I do think there's a great chance that this is one of the most Lotus classes we will see for quite some time. At the very least I think the last decade. There's a Hall of Famer. I think within these 14 picks we're going to talk about multiple time allstars. These guys, even for the most casual of college basketball fans that might only watch the NBA, there's a really good chance you've seen at least 10 to 12 of
these 14 picks play because they all made a major imprint on college basketball last year. And more importantly, the NCAA tournament that everybody's watching. Yes. Which is extremely rare. I mean, spoiler alert here, we have one guy in this lottery that did not play in the big dance. That almost never happens. Let's let's get right into it. I think let's not waste anyone's time. Uh because the first pick here, we're not going to get crazy. First overall pick, the Washington Wizards select AJ Debonsa, small forward out of BYU. I
mean, there was a conversation a lot of times throughout that college season. Could it be Boozer? Could it be Peterson? I think the last stretch there, despite BYU going down early in the tournament, this guy was far and away the best player in college basketball. He averaged 26 points a game, seven rebounds a game, and four assists. There's not really anything he can't do. And I think yes, which what was once would have been a very difficult decision for whoever gets the number one pick here to try and decide between these guys. I think he's done enough to clear himself. My question is, does AJ Deansa end up a Washington Wizard or hear me up, this is the conversation that's been going around.
I thought you were going to talk about this. You know where he went to college. You know where he went to high school. that state Utah is there at the number two pick. Do they offer the Wizards a package of Ace Bailey and the second pick to keep AJ Debonsa in the state? And if you're the Wizards, do you accept that package? So regardless of the package, I kind of think the theme of this year's draft is really almost it's so talented and loaded that it's less about, you know, especially giving up assets to get there and less about, you know, who you think is the best of the group and maybe it's the best fit. And Debba for the Wizards, I think, just fits in seamlessly with what they
already have on the roster. So, I think, you know, moving back and taking a Darren Peterson or Camboozer isn't really worth it, especially with the number one pick that the Wizards have been like dying to have for the last I don't even know how many years, even with Ace Bailey in the world. Because I could see Utah wanting to do this. They want to keep their guy there and Danny A loves to mix it up there at the top of drafts. I mean, the owner there, is it Ryan has helped AJ Deansa get his NIL deal to go to BYU? you I mean he's been in touch with and been u alongside this kid since high school. So there's certainly an interest from the Jazz.
Yeah. I do think it's interesting too before we get to the second pick here quickly what you look at the makeup of this Wizards team because a lot of people think that this could be maybe a top six seed in the East next year with the Bonsa in the mix. And it couldn't be more similar to what we just witnessed with Cooper flaging the Mavericks. Yeah, Anthony Davis is there. He's there again. They've got a veteran point guard or an older point guard Kyrie Trey Young, however you want to slice it. Obviously, I think Kyrie's a bit better and you get the first overall pick who's like this goddy, talented, small forward, power forward, Cooper Flag, Asia Devonsa. So, Wizards fans, hold
your horses a little bit. That being said, they do have like an awesome young core already established. We haven't even mentioned like Alex Sars there, Keshan George. They've got a lot of guys. So, um I think this is a great time to be a Washington Wizards fan, which might be words that haven't been said in I don't even The last 51 season they have was in 1970. Yeah, it's been a long time. Uh, Washington Wizards select AJ Debons first overall. Second overall pick, we have the Utah Jazz. Who do you have them going with?
Yeah. When you say the Wizards, you think are ready to win this year? I kind of thought the Jazz would have been ready to like play competitive basketball this year. And here they are with the number two pick. It seems like this is something they've been working towards for the last three years to finally have, I think, a pick as high of quality as this one is. I think Darren Peterson's the obvious choice here. I don't think there's much to decide. Um, they've taken a lot of swings on guys like Cody Williams, Isaiah Collier, Kyle Filiposki. Like they've had a lot of kicks of the can. This kind of feels like a four pitch walk. Like we don't need to be swinging for the fences or,
you know, reaching outside of uh outside of the norm with this. Peterson, I think his length and ability um will or sorry, his positional length will allow him to be I think a great defender immediately is a really smooth scorer that I think can get to the hoop and score pretty much at all three levels. I don't think there's any question about Peterson when it comes to his talent. There was a world where he was the first I thought he was the best player in college basketball halfway through the season. And obviously the injury uh concerns are there. Whether it's, you know, whether or not you believe that
the cramp issues were because he was taking too much creatine. I got no idea, but I do think Peterson's just as capable of being a star in this league as Debons is. So for the Jazz, that's one of the reasons why I would say yes, AJ Debons is their favorite of the two. But I don't think there's any real reason to give up assets to take anyone else. No, I mean, we're talking about the second overall pick here, and shout out to the guys on the writing side of things here, Michael Chandler, Jonathan Veta, Sam Austri, they put together an article of their uh lottery mock, and
they had some comparisons, and they had Darren Peterson as Kobe Bryant. So, anytime Kobe Bryant goes second overall in an NBA draft, I think it's a big deal. And for the record, I don't think that's like an insane It's Yes, it's a stretch. This is Kobe Bryant we're talking about. But in terms of the game, the makeup of everything, if you haven't seen Darren Peterson, go look him up. You're going to see some Kobe Bryant. I'm sorry though, but when like when the biggest question mark for Darren Peterson is like, "How much do you care?" And all we talked about Kobe is the mama mentality. It's like it's a bit of a stretch.
It was a physical comparison, not a mental one. U Darren Peterson goes to the Jazz. On to pick number three. I'm picking here. It's Cam Boozer. the big conversation is Boozer versus um Caleb Wilson. One has the higher floor, one has the way higher ceiling. Cam Boozer, I think, has the highest floor in this draft. I think he's bust proof, like definitively bust proof. You know exactly what you're getting out of him, and we saw that all year at Duke. You saw that down the stretch there in March Madness. He's going to score inside. He's going to He'll probably develop his shot a bit more, which I'm excited to see, you know, what that means for him. Um and he's going to rebound the hell of the
ball and that's it. He's like a smaller Giannis basically. He was the most dominant player in college basketball. Like you could talk about Debonsa, but like with the way Camboozer operated, it was as if he'd been playing in college hoops for three or four years and was a senior. He was so seasoned. My concern is kind of has to do with that and the Grizzlies. We saw this same Grizzlies team just take a guy who was far and away bigger and better than everyone in college in Zakiti. and everyone knew kind of what Zakiti was going to look like in the NBA, right? And he's not bad. Like I don't I think Zach Edit's been a very serviceable player so far, but you know this the ceiling. You can see it in plain sight.
Boozer, unless he becomes like a three-point assassin and gets his jump shot up a little bit. You know exactly what he's going to do. I think he's still going to be an all-star. I think he's going to be a good player. But do they think about taking a big swing on the potential with Caleb Wilson? For me, if I if it's just if we weren't going back and forth here, I'd probably say Caleb Wilson would be the prediction because I do I think I'm on with you there. I mean, Wilson's not going to stretch the floor like Boozer can. But, I mean, there's definitely like this physical edge that Wilson has that I don't feel like Boozer does. And you're wondering whether or not, you know, like you said with Edy,
is his size uh and like the way he played something that dominates college but doesn't get to a dominant level in the NBA where Wilson might have that kind of ceiling. Yeah. Well, enough talk about we'll move on to the guy that we're talking about there with Tail Wilson. We've got Boozer going three. Caleb Wilson is the pick at four of the Bulls. Uh you wanted to remind me that the last time the Bulls had the fourth overall pick in the NBA draft, it was one Patrick Williams. And it looks like they're trying to replace Patrick Williams with this pick because yeah, Caleb Wilson would be the obvious one.
And that last second take from the Bulls paid off because they only had a 20% chance of being in the top four. So, you've got to be ecstatic if you're a Bulls fan because in my world, there's a chance Camboozer could be the fourth overall pick to the Bulls, which would be pretty incredible. One of those chef's kiss kind of moments for guys like us who like to tell short stories on the internet. Yes. Duke to Bulls. Yeah. Something maybe his dad also did. So, yeah. Wilson was like a guy who missed the final month of the season with a broken thumb and wrist and which was a shame because I felt like he was really
starting to peak and take off in at the college level before the injury. again, ridiculous, ridiculously explosive player that just kind of plays with this motor and aggressiveness and tenacity that's going to be hard to tank with. You know, you get a lot of teams in the NBA that are trying to do the everything they can to be inside the lottery here or in these top four picks. And with a guy like Caleb Wilson on the floor, that's going to be hard to do. And that's a thing that Bulls fans are going to love. Yeah. I was going to say that's that's the one guy here. This is like the solidified top four in pretty much every mock ever for good reason. These are the four best players. Wilson is always in there, but I don't think
people know as much about him because he was hurt. Yeah. Didn't have the biggest showing at UNCC. But Bulls fans, anyone out there, even Grizzlies fans maybe, like don't get it twisted. This guy is very, very, very good. And uh yeah, I think the Bulls are be going to be they're drafting a small forward power forward, fourth overall, the exact same way that they drafted Patrick Williams. I think they're they're going to appreciate these results a little bit better. Um another guy who I'll say right now, probably an all-star. I think we'll Yeah, I mean, again, very good. talk about the impact that Cooper Flag and
Conan had as rookies. I think we've got maybe double, who knows, triple the amount of guys that can make that type of impact as rookies. Absolutely. So, there's the four the four that we said are kind of solidified. Now is where things get a little bit interesting because obviously the Clippers come in and swoop up the fifth overall pick. They stole it. Um, obviously they had the trade protection thing with the Pacers and they're in a weird spot where every player on the board here, the next like 10 are all like point guards basically. All guys that can play guard and they traded for like an all-star point guard halfway through the season
and Darius Garland. So, they're in a bit of a interesting fit. They also have Kawhi Leonard on the team who's not getting any younger. They're in win now mode. I think a lot of people want to see this pick be Kingston Flemings, Darius Auff, and just say screw it, we'll take the best player available. I actually think the best player and the best fit available is going to be Braden Buries out of Arizona. We saw what he did uh all the way down to the Final Four in March Madness. Very, very good player. Sneaky old for a freshman, which doesn't really make sense, but I think he's 20 already, right?
He's already 20. Um, which again, not exactly sure how he's he was a freshman. There was some weird stipulations, but nonetheless, he's got a little bit more age on him than some of these other guys. I think he can come into that Clipper system and instantly be a contributor far more than an Auff or a Waggler or a Fleming could be solely because he can play defense. Yeah, defense. And he does not need to be as or he is not as ball dominant as some of those other guys are. And I think the Clippers like defensively have fallen off a little bit as Kawhai's gotten older. Yes. Um and I think Burries would be a great fit. So, this is one of those spots where as we get to five and later, a lot of the time it
should be about fit for some of these teams because a lot of these guards are super close in terms of yes, their ceilings and their floors. And Burries can play, I think, lends him his game style lends itself to shooting guard a little bit more than just being a ball dominant point guard. They have that with Garland. I don't think you want to move Garland off of being a point guard. That's what he's best at. He's great at passing the rock. So, I think you bring in Burries, you put them at shooting guard, and suddenly you have Darius Carlin, Braden Burries, Kawhi Leonard as your top three guys there. I like that a lot.
Yeah. Um, moving on to pick six, the Brooklyn Nets, who I don't even know where to begin with this team. Well, you said the Pacers I mean, the Pacers are probably the biggest losers of the draft lottery. I think the Nets are second because when it comes to the third worst record in the NBA and ending up with the sixth pick in a draft where the top four are a lot more uh like are I want to say bigs but like forward small forward power forwards you could play them you know Darren Peterson more of a guard but there's some length there and guys that can play at all three levels whereas you get here and you're pretty much guard has to be the pick like there I would not look farther down uh and try to fill another position despite the
fact that the Nets took three guards in round one last year. Uh Yaggore Demond, Nolan Trayor, Ben Serof, like they took a lot of swings at guard. I don't think they're super excited about what the results were in year one. And who knows, maybe Demond takes another step, but I don't think that should keep the Nets from ultimately going to a guard with this spot. Auff is just I mean, he's a loaded guard class, but there is just no more efficient shot maker than Darius Secuff. He shot 44% from three, over 50% from two uh in his year at Arkansas. And there's just nobody's more polished offensively to immediately make an impact uh as a highlevel scorer on pretty much any team in the NBA to be honest with you.
Now, he's going to be the worst defender of like any player in the lottery. So, that's really the thing to think about for the Nets. But for them, I think they should just be taking the best player available. Akuff could be the Allen Iverson comparisons have been running rampant since people saw him in the NCAA tournament. And man, if you see him play, you get it. Yes. Let me pull out the uh comparison that our team had. Damen Lillard. Damen Lillard, right? Not far off guy that can't really defend and can light it up. I think him and Peterson are the two guys. And this doesn't happen
often when you're watching guys play in college where like these are NBA moves. These are NBA players. Peterson hitting like some his mid-range game is insane. and Akoff like they're making every shot a lot of the times out of these high high volume highscoring college guards they'll shoot 30 shots a game and miss 20 of them. Well, you think of like Cam Thomas with the Nets years ago or a couple years ago and like I'm not making that comparison with Auff because again you heard the shooting percentages like this guy would take 20 plus shots a game but he's making them at an insanely efficient rate. I cannot wait to see him play in the NBA. 44% from three last season and almost 50% from the field for a an unders sized
point guard. Incredible. Um very obvious Brooklyn Nets pick. And I agree, he's better than Cam Thomas, don't get us wrong, but an Auff Michael Porter combo there. All offense, no defense. That's a problem. Will be interesting. I think you got to take him. You got to Yeah. Moving on to seventh on the list. A guy who fell a little bit, I think, from um preseason and then maybe the first half of the college basketball season. He's still up here. Oh no, it's not actually. We've got Keaton Waggler. I forgot. Yeah. Keem Waggler who roast did the opposite. I was going to say another guy, but um Keaton Waggler the Sacramento Kings.
The rise that this guy's had where he went from like what? Three star recruit. No, two star. He's like 250th ranked player in the class uh like consensus rankings. He was like 115 pounds as a freshman in high school and just has just consistently filled out. Like I this is one of the great stories of this is the story of the draft in my opinion because this kid was fantastic on a team that played in the final four. Yeah, he's he's he's an elite shooter. I mean set records for Big 10 freshman last year with some of the games that he had. Um can distribute as well and again we're kind of at the point where it's pick your poison. You know, there's a bunch of very
talented guards here. Which one has the most upside? Which one, you know, do you know what you're getting with the most? And I think for a Sacramento Kings team that has become directionless once again with this weird combination of like 35year-old basketball players over there, they're looking best available/h highest potential. And I think with Waggler and the rise that he just had in a year of college basketball, going from like you said 250 recruit to a lottery pick in a in the span of like eight months is insane. It's only up I think from here for this guy. He's 662. He's a got some height for a point guard. Um, yeah, I think he far and away is probably he's probably the
best player on the board right now. And I think he's got far more potential than anybody else we're about to name here. I think Kings fans will be happy. Again, this is and they're probably the next two guys as well are like guys where if you look at other draft classes, these are like bonafide top three picks. Oh, yeah. I mean, we'll get to 10 and I'll talk to you about a guy who like a couple years ago would definitely be the number one pick because you just look at projectability. Right now we're talking about guys that have projectability but also can be instant impact production type of players. And like we're talking about guys we're going to talk there's guys we're talking about at like 12 13
14 that I know are going to be day one starters some of these instant contributors. Yeah, you're right. So Waggler's the pick at seven onto the Atlanta Hawks who have the eighth overall pick here in a very favorable spot um after taking the Knicks six games in that first round and now they get to draft eight in a loaded class. So, they've got a lot of they don't have as many needs as a lot of these other teams we've been saying. So, positionally, you know, what's the best fit here for them? Well, I think we're talking about teams that are winners here as we go through uh and see the draft fall their way. I mean, the Hawks would have to be incredibly excited to still see Muel Brown Jr. on the board because this is a team that
was had the second best defensive rating in the NBA after the All-Star break and they're in need, I think, of a true point guard. So, when you look at Brown, he's not a terrific defender, but offensively, like this guy is a great ball screen playmaker with elite range that, you know, has some problems when it comes to turnovers and like offball instincts. But I do think in on this roster with this group that's ready to clearly ready to win now and is a competitive team at the moment, they're going to be very excited about adding a guy who I think, you know, has the same potential that a Keaton Waggler does or almost what a Darius Auff does. And there's some questions that I'll be
curious of when it comes to the back injury he dealt with uh to close out the season. Kept him off the floor for some key games for Louisville. Um but ultimately, this is a guy who played a lot of basketball last year between the transition from high school. I think he was playing with like a I think it was a U8 national team as well in the summer. So, he just played a lot and could probably benefit from the rest. And if teams do like the medicals as they review him in the draft process, then I think he's going to be a great pick for the Hawks and where they're building towards right now.
Yeah, I think that basically the only thing that Atlanta really needs to do is replace CJ McCollum or have somebody waiting in the wings and how does like a far more athletic actual point guard um who's also yeah like 19 20 years old sound as a CJ McCullum replacement. Credit to you Atlanta for that absolute swindle of a trade with the Pelicans. I Pelicans fans, I feel for you guys. Like I don't De Jonte Murray for everything that they've had. This isn't a Pelicans bashing show, but of all dra like of all drafts for the Pacers and Pels, this really has to suck. Yeah. Very nicely done. Uh on to pick number nine. This is the guy that I got confused with Waggler. Kingston Flemings. This is a guy for a lot of people. This is a falling
a fair bit. Yes, he was around top five. He was ahead of Akuff for like a good chunk of that season. I mean, some people might still have him at four or five or six. Of course. Actually, our writers had him at five over a bunch of these guys. So, again, a guy that could go really anywhere here in probably I'd say five through 10. Uh I'm a big Kingston Flemings guy. You're lesser of a Kingston Flemings guy. I just love a point guard who can like really get downhill and get inside and get gritty. and he's an excellent defender, which I really like. Um, the comparison that they had for him was Dererick Rose. So, if you can get Derrick Rose at ninth overall, the Dallas Mavericks, certainly you'll take it. We'll see if
that if that becomes true. I think the big problem was didn't have the best shooting numbers in college. For everything that he did, there was some struggles there. Right. The things I think things tapered off in the latter part of the season against that high highest level of competition the Big 12 offered for them at Houston. I mean, defensively, he's not really the player type of player you typically see come out of Samson's program. Like, he's not a highle defensive player. He's a good shooter. Like, from three, he was over 38%.
My question is he likes to play a lot in the mid-range. Like, how valuable is that? I don't think he's the greatest of scorers at the rim or willing to play at the rim as much as I would like. Um, he's an interesting player that I think is still capable of being a very productive NBA player, but I think I like the ceiling more on pretty much all of these guys ahead of him. But I could be wrong about that. Yeah. I was super high on him. I was super high on Houston and that didn't work out. So, I don't know. Maybe it's more like I thought the defense if he had a little bit more complete on the defensive side, then I would I'd feel, you know, as good as,
you know, the elite defense. It'd be like a Braden Bur No, it' be like a Braden Bur type of Yeah. Yeah, like that would be a great better fit for the Clippers. Like the reason we had Buries at five is we feel his defense is a good fit there. Nonetheless, like you look at the spot that Dallas is in with Cooper Flag. They've got Kyrie Irving coming back. Like they've got some pieces. Mia Jerry's there now. So I'm fascinated to see what that team looks like. I think they'll be better than people think for sure. I think they'll kind of look to take We talked about this. I talked about this cash last time.
Not the same by any means, but a Spursesque trend in the right direction with some of the pieces that they have coming. the ninth. You got the ninth pick in a loaded class to add to like you said Cooper flag and Kyrie coming back. Yeah. So certainly nothing that Mavericks fans should be upset about. Pick number 10, Milwaukee Bucks. This is our first I don't even think that this is controversial, but I think this players prototype like you said is very interesting. Well, yeah. think a ment like so we've got Nate Ament going to the Bucks at 10 and I mentioned it earlier how I think that there's this is a guy in another class that I think there's a chance teams would fall in love with he could
be a top three pick because he has so much projectability like a 610 wing that can score at all three levels at times look like the best player in college basketball and some of his most productive games last season were against some top level competition in the country but there was some serious lows for him too where the shooting splits were really ugly and he was dealing with some injuries and did miss time that probably impact this. But this is all about what the Bucks do with Giannis. Like if you're going to keep Giannis on the roster and still look to compete, I think a Yakel Lendorg or a Leber and Phylon are much better options. But if the Bucks are looking to tear it down um and they're in a
position where they don't have all their own picks, I think Ament is a guy that has a super high ceiling because he can get a bucket anywhere on the floor. like he it was kind of like the way I saw Trey Johnson get buckets at Texas. I know we didn't see him playing at the highest level this past year in the NBA, but this is a guy who's slender, needs to fill out um be a little bit more physical. Can he get to the free throw line at the rate he did in college in the NBA? That'll be one of the question marks for him. But there's there's some serious intrigue with this guy with the 10th overall pick.
Yeah. There's there's a lot of upside. There's also um it's it's hard for him to kind of not avoid these just given, you know, his stature and everything. There's some Zachary Reese comparisons. Yeah, I mean I think so. And Reach was first overall pick going 10th. Mind you, he hasn't exactly panned out, but um the shooting struggles we saw a little bit in the tournament stuff, I could see it. But again, if you're Milwaukee and you can get a former first overall pick comp at 10 here with Giannis out the door, I think that you'll certainly take it. And there's a bunch of other guys that they could go if they keep him like you said. So, should be an interesting spot
for the Bucks still. Uh, I've got the Warriors pick here at 11 and I've got them going. This is kind of things open up again here. This is where things get fun because you have four teams that were playing or three teams that were playing in the in the playin that I think feel like they're competitive rosters as it is. Yes. So, first with Golden State, I think the pick is Leberon Phylon Jr. I love this guy. I think he's honestly like as close to a polished scoreer already as like we mentioned with Peterson and Auff. He's definitely a step below, but pure shooter. Averaged
22 points a game for Alabama. Stayed another year because he just kind of had to polish some things and I think it absolutely worked for him. Um, and for a Golden State Warriors team that is in a terrible spot, like let's be honest, Jimmy Butler is probably I don't know when he's supposed to be back. He miss he's gonna miss most of the season. They've they're rolling out Porzingis right now with Al Horford backing him up at center. Um, Brandon Pumpsky and Steph Curry is the guard tandem. You need some depth there because Dan Anthony Melton isn't the answer long term. Um, bringing in a guy like Phylon, he can play point guard, he can play shooting guard, wherever you want to put him to end up in one of
those spots, whether it be the starting shooting guard, maybe over Pumpsky, the backup point guard is Steph. Those guys aren't going to be healthy all year either. Um, I think this is the spot for him. You can argue with the Warriors. Like I said, Porzingis obviously not the most durable guy, so they could go in a different way. and take a bigger man down low. But I think for a team that's been as dependent on guard play as the Warriors have been for so long, when you have a guy who can score as good as Phylon can, I think if he was a freshman and at the same level he is right now, I think he jumps a lot of people in the board, the sophomore aspect brings him down a little bit. Um, but I like this
pick a lot for the Warriors. Yeah, I think for Phylon, it's the question of how Nate Oat's system at Alabama translates for some of these guys in the NBA. Brandon Miller's career hasn't been like a massive ascension like some probably expected. Um, and we've seen a lot of dynamic scores at Alabama since Oats has been there. But Phylon like even in a role as a three-point shooter um alongside Steph would be really interesting. The Warriors have a lot of good options. Like we could go to number 12 with OKC, but like Ada Mara would be a great option for them too. Yakel Lendore could be an option, but Marorrow with OKC I think makes too much sense because you look at this roster the Thunder have and
it's absolutely loaded with depth. But they have three players that have player options that they'll decor Kendrick Williams. So I think with those three they bring them back, they're going to be a 15 players on the roster. I think it makes too much sense to walk away from Isaiah Hartinstein and bring in a Daim Mara who's just an instant plug-and-play option because of his size and his ability to protect the rim. Um, nobody in college basketball or in this draft class is at a level that he is when it comes to rim protection and he's also an excellent passer and at 73 like he's going to scoop up those easy finishes for you in a roster that's loaded with talent. I think Mara makes
way too much sense for this team as they look to continue to navigate having all of these assets and continuing to keep the competitive not just a competitive window, but a window where they're far and away the best team in the NBA. Um, this is one of those ways to be able to um make the pieces fit uh when it comes to managing the cap and how they operate uh all of these assets and players they have on the roster and then what they do with the future. It's a great point because you have Jaylen Williams and Chad Homegrren's massive contracts kicking in. Isaiah Hartenstein as good as he is.
It was a luxury when they weren't paying anybody. That's what it was. And now it's like we can have basically an Isaiah Hartinstein prototype and a guy that plays defense probably better than Hartinstein does already, or at least he profiles out to have something better, can still pass a little bit and can still score a little bit. It makes too much sense for them to do a swap. And it's hilarious that we're we're sitting here. We're not talking about the numbers game or, you know, dollars and we're just talking about, oh, they've got too many good players. How are they going to make room on their roster of too many good players?
It's not even that they don't have the money. It's like we've got to be smart in the way in which we spend it because we have so much talent because we have like a borderline starter here as like the 13th guy on the roster. It's crazy. And even like we're we're at the 12th pick and this is a plug-and-play guy in my opinion. Yeah, exactly. So, Thunder Go with Mara. Uh 13th to the Heat the my last pick here and then you've got the last pick of the draft. Another Michigan man, uh, Yakel Lundborg. Really, really cool story. He's another guy where I think the floor is decently high, the ceiling
is decently low. Where he played four year or did he play? Yeah. Four years in college. I mean, you want to almost be a hater because he was there were so many quotes this season where he's like, "Why is a freshman guarding me?" It's like, well, this is college basketball. You see all the freshman dominating the sport. Like, yeah. And you played three years at UAB. Like, you weren't at Michigan. I'm a Yaxle guy still just because I did follow him in his early days there. But a guy who could have gone in the first round, probably at the end of the first round if he declared for the draft last year. Normally you don't see a guy come back for his senior season and improve his draft stock. That's exactly what
Lendorg did. Had an awesome run with Michigan. Obviously won the championship. Can space the floor. He's very physical. Um he'll he'll muck it up down low. He'll grab boards. He's I mean you missed when that comes to that. People might not know but at UAB he was playing center. Yes, we're talking about a guy that's six foot nine. So, when it comes to that competitive motor, like he put it on display at UAB and then became a bit more of a floor stretcher at Michigan shooting. I believe he was above 40% from three. He was over 50% for like the last 10 to 12 games of his college career, too.
Yeah. So, very serviceful guy. The fit with Miami, I think, again, they're another team that could go in a couple directions. Do they want to find like a Norm Powell kind of back? Kylon would have been someone that I think a lot of people are mocking. makes a lot of sense, but I don't we didn't have him follow again. Like, yeah, they started DaVon Mitchell last year. I think that's somewhere they could upgrade, but Andrew Wiggins again, another player who we don't know exactly how healthy he's going to be at this point in his career. Bam's not going anywhere. Yel Lindborg, a fine guy to throw in the front court there. He's he's kind of got the heat
culture aspect to him where he's a seasoned vet already coming into the NBA. I think he's a positionless kind of position. He's positionless. Can shoot the three. So, I think he goes in the lottery. Is it to Miami? He's also a guy I said this to you before. I think I could see a team maybe even as high as eight just be like, you know what, we know what he is. He's a very solid player. We're gonna take him. He's a senior. He's ready to play now. We're going to take him. I don't think a team should, but I think a team could. I mean, you could see, again, I think this is the guy we're the most wrong on or could potentially be the most wrong on because he could go a lot earlier
because he is very NBA ready. you know, Golden State with Jimmy being gone for most of the season. Maybe they take Yeah. uh take him as a guy to plug in and play instantly. Who knows what OKC wants to do. Maybe they don't see this Mara thing making sense. They could take him. I mean, there's, you know, teams like Atlanta or Sacramento can go a lot of directions. Who knows? Yeah. So, there's pick 13 and last but not least, pick 14. The lottery, the one I teased off the start, the only guy on this board that did not play in the tournament. Tell us about I don't actually I'm not even going to attempt
the name. I don't want to butcher it. Hans. Yeah, Hans Steinbach uh with the 14th pick to the Hornets. I He's the one guy on this list that did not uh play on a team that dominated college basketball this year. Like he was a major impact player though for a team that just didn't have high level guard play. This is a guy with eight 19 points, 12 rebounds, two assists at Washington per game. And he's someone who shot 34% from three. So there is potentially some projectability to be to stretch the floor. He's 6'11. He's not he could play the four, play the five. The Hornets, I think, definitely need that here. I really like Steinbach when it comes to the offensive impact he can make. He's not going to be the rim
protector a day is, but this is someone that fits in really well when it comes to, you know, the am I allowed to say the big three for the Hornets, Ball, Canipple, Miller. This is the fourth guy that I think that would be a good fit here because he could play the five and Cal Brener is the better, you know, rim defender for them defensively. Uh, and they could complement each other really well. And I think Steinbach's a really good player that's flying under the radar in this class. I think the Hornets fans again, you've got pick 14 here. You might not be expecting much, but expect a little bit something considering how
successful that team managed to be with a center tandem of Musa Diabate and Ryan Kulk Brener. Um, this is certainly an upgrade regardless of if he's a natural center or not. You can play a little bit of small ball which lends itself perfectly to the makeup of that team with all the guys that can shoot there. you can get him swapped in for Miles Bridges every once in a while because he's he's 6'11. So, play a little bully ball down low. Um, this is an upgrade regardless of any way you slice it. And again, anytime you can make almost an instant upgrade to a starting position or like the first guy off the bench like the way Caulkrunner was at the 14th pick of a draft, that just
speaks to how deep a class can really be. So, yeah, I mean, you've got playing teams adding borderline starters here at the end of the list. Well, you've got uh the potential likely NBA champions adding a national champion center who is definitely going to see the floor immediately. And then again, the pick after him as another national champion that was a first round pick in last year's class that decided to stick around another year. Yeah. So, there we have it. The official mock. I cannot wait for this draft to go down. I cannot wait to see how everything unfolds here. Um, again, like there's not many times you can sit here pre-draft and look at a list of
players and be like, "Allar, all-star, Hall of Famer." Like, yeah, we haven't called the Hall of Famer out. No, we're just going to say Hall of Famer at least one. But, uh, seriously, like an embarrassment of riches for all the teams that managed to sneak into this lottery here. So, don't take that for granted. Uh, let us know in the comments if you agree with these picks, if you disagree, if you think certain guys can jump into this or fall out. Um, but yeah, very excited to see how everything unfolds. We'll catch you guys in the next one.
