2026 NBA Draft Prospects

[WuTang_CMB]

U19 complete, USA won

https://247sports.com/season/2025-basketball/recruitrankings/

Mikel Brown JR really showed , arguably should have won MVP .. AJ Dyb won

Forward A.J. Dybantsa led Team USA to the title in the FIBA U19 World Cup over the weekend. Dybantsa was named MVP of the tournament, which the United States capped off with a 109-76 victory over Germany in the final.

Dybantsa is headed to BYU this fall. The 6-foot-8 forward averaged 14.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.1 steals in 20 minutes per game for Team USA.

Louisville-bound guard Mikel Brown also had a strong tournament for the United States. Brown was the team's leader in scoring at 14.9 points and passing at 6.1 assists per game.

Dybantsa and Brown are part of a strong group at the top of the 2026 NBA Draft class. Those two are joined by Darryn Peterson (Kansas), Cameron Boozer (Duke) and Nate Ament (Tennessee) at the top of the earlier pre-draft rankings.

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[DG88]

2026 draft will be deep and talented. All top 3 prospects could go #1 in the draft. After them lot's of talented players to choose from. It's mainly a guard and forwards draft, not many bigs. I'm hoping we find a future PG to nurture behind Quickley.

[ImaBeatDatAzz]

Man there’s some elite talent in this draft. I wonder if we just pivot and tank if our record is in the 8-10 area by the all-star break.

[Prestige]

The Raptors could conceivably be in the lottery again. We’ve had two straight years of Play-In teams winning the #1 pick. Adding Dybantsa, Boozer or Peterson to this team would be amazing.

[DreamTeam09]

The Raptors could conceivably be in the lottery again. We’ve had two straight years of Play-In teams winning the #1 pick. Adding Dybantsa, Boozer or Peterson to this team would be amazing.

Shhhhh, there's a poster around here that says that's no man land and ATL winning the lottery is a once in a lifetime occurrence & shouldn't be taken as the norm, even though since the new lottery odds, the crappy teams usually fall several spots
But hey, can't be too optimistic around here

[OakleyDokely]

Can't really judge the strength of the draft until they start playing college games. Every year prior to the season there are multiple legit #1's people are hyped about until reality smacks many of the prospects in the face. Ace was supposed to be can't miss last year around this time and after a rocky college season he went 5th in an average-ish draft.

[Jerry Lucas]

Can't really judge the strength of the draft until they start playing college games. Every year prior to the season there's multiple legit #1's people are hyped about until reality smacks many of the prospects in the face. Ace was supposed to be can't miss last year around this time and after a rocky college season he went 5th in an average-ish draft.

That stupid article that I hated from the day it came out where Givony said 4 guys can challenge Flagg for #1, completely ruined the discourse around the 2025 draft class for the entire season, and now it's already looking like it's going to ruin 2026 draft discourse.

No one is going to take it seriously how good Peterson, Boozer and Dybantsa are because of how recent Givony's stupid ESPN article was, being published during the draft cycle that just ended and still relatively fresh of mind.

[OakleyDokely]

Can't really judge the strength of the draft until they start playing college games. Every year prior to the season there's multiple legit #1's people are hyped about until reality smacks many of the prospects in the face. Ace was supposed to be can't miss last year around this time and after a rocky college season he went 5th in an average-ish draft.

That stupid article that I hated from the day it came out where Givony said 4 guys can challenge Flagg for #1, completely ruined the discourse around the 2025 draft class for the entire season, and now it's already looking like it's going to ruin 2026 draft discourse.

No one is going to take it seriously how good Peterson, Boozer and Dybantsa are because of how recent Givony's stupid ESPN article was, being published during the draft cycle that just ended and still relatively fresh of mind.

All those guys look good, but usually 4-5 guys are hyped prior to the season and you're lucky if one guy emerges as a legit #1 in the tier of a AD, Zion or potentially Flagg. Excelling at the college level as a freshman is actually quite hard, even for the most talented HSers.

[LBJKB24MJ23]

Can't really judge the strength of the draft until they start playing college games. Every year prior to the season there's multiple legit #1's people are hyped about until reality smacks many of the prospects in the face. Ace was supposed to be can't miss last year around this time and after a rocky college season he went 5th in an average-ish draft.

That stupid article that I hated from the day it came out where Givony said 4 guys can challenge Flagg for #1, completely ruined the discourse around the 2025 draft class for the entire season, and now it's already looking like it's going to ruin 2026 draft discourse.

No one is going to take it seriously how good Peterson, Boozer and Dybantsa are because of how recent Givony's stupid ESPN article was, being published during the draft cycle that just ended and still relatively fresh of mind.

All those guys look good, but usually 4-5 guys are hyped prior to the season and you're lucky if one guy emerges as a legit #1 in the tier of a AD, Zion or potentially Flagg. Excelling at the college level as a freshman is actually quite hard, even for the most talented HSers.

i'm wondering if there will be a day when the ncaa (and related) pay the college kids enough money that they will stay in the program because the money they are making is more than the NBA rookie scale contract. Cooper Flagg supposedly made or picked up $28M in contracts and thats only the start of his 1 year in college. tip of the iceberg?

[Jerry Lucas]

Can't really judge the strength of the draft until they start playing college games. Every year prior to the season there's multiple legit #1's people are hyped about until reality smacks many of the prospects in the face. Ace was supposed to be can't miss last year around this time and after a rocky college season he went 5th in an average-ish draft.

That stupid article that I hated from the day it came out where Givony said 4 guys can challenge Flagg for #1, completely ruined the discourse around the 2025 draft class for the entire season, and now it's already looking like it's going to ruin 2026 draft discourse.

No one is going to take it seriously how good Peterson, Boozer and Dybantsa are because of how recent Givony's stupid ESPN article was, being published during the draft cycle that just ended and still relatively fresh of mind.

All those guys look good, but usually 4-5 guys are hyped prior to the season and you're lucky if one guy emerges as a legit #1 in the tier of a AD, Zion or potentially Flagg. Excelling at the college level as a freshman is actually quite hard, even for the most talented HSers.

I agree in general with what you're saying about draft classes getting overhyped in the preseason.

I'm just saying for this upcoming draft in particular, it's not the case, but it's going to be borderline impossible for people to buy into that being true because of how unbelievably stupid (and still recent) that Givony/ESPN article was trying to hype up some non-existent "Big 5 in 2025". I hated it from the day it was published and never bought into that hype because there was nothing concrete to support it.

Boozer, Dybantsa and Peterson are extremely legit though. If the 2025 and 2026 draft classes were combined, the top 4 would be Boozer/Dybantsa/Flagg/Peterson, and I'm not sure what order they would go in.

[Troubadour]

With flattened lottery odds, hoping the Raptors finish around 9th or 10th in the lottery standings and jump up to grab a real star talent.

[DreamTeam09]

That stupid article that I hated from the day it came out where Givony said 4 guys can challenge Flagg for #1, completely ruined the discourse around the 2025 draft class for the entire season, and now it's already looking like it's going to ruin 2026 draft discourse.

No one is going to take it seriously how good Peterson, Boozer and Dybantsa are because of how recent Givony's stupid ESPN article was, being published during the draft cycle that just ended and still relatively fresh of mind.

All those guys look good, but usually 4-5 guys are hyped prior to the season and you're lucky if one guy emerges as a legit #1 in the tier of a AD, Zion or potentially Flagg. Excelling at the college level as a freshman is actually quite hard, even for the most talented HSers.

i'm wondering if there will be a day when the ncaa (and related) pay the college kids enough money that they will stay in the program because the money they are making is more than the NBA rookie scale contract. Cooper Flagg supposedly made or picked up $28M in contracts and thats only the start of his 1 year in college. tip of the iceberg?

It's already happening, now top5 picks are always gonna leave early, but those guys in the 15-30 range will stay, collect some bread & try up their draft selection the next year. Over the next 5-10yrs I expect the late lottery/mid draft/early 20s will produce better players over that time span

[Psubs]

The Raptors will be fighting for the #4 seed and drafting in the teens to early 20's.

Just look at that range. Sergio deLarrea, Bennett Stirtz, Cayden Boozer, Dame Sarr, Tahaad Pettiford.

Also a big that to me outplayed Maluach would be Patrick Ngongba II. Also let's not forget Moustapha Thiam.

Those are the players I'm looking at that could probably end up as good or better than players drafted 6-15, but gotten outside the lottery.

[Mark_83]

If we trade Scottie to the Lakers for barely anything do we get Peterson?

[720]

If Ingram or someone goes down early this season I bet Bobby tanks.

[navyblue]

That stupid article that I hated from the day it came out where Givony said 4 guys can challenge Flagg for #1, completely ruined the discourse around the 2025 draft class for the entire season, and now it's already looking like it's going to ruin 2026 draft discourse.

No one is going to take it seriously how good Peterson, Boozer and Dybantsa are because of how recent Givony's stupid ESPN article was, being published during the draft cycle that just ended and still relatively fresh of mind.

All those guys look good, but usually 4-5 guys are hyped prior to the season and you're lucky if one guy emerges as a legit #1 in the tier of a AD, Zion or potentially Flagg. Excelling at the college level as a freshman is actually quite hard, even for the most talented HSers.

i'm wondering if there will be a day when the ncaa (and related) pay the college kids enough money that they will stay in the program because the money they are making is more than the NBA rookie scale contract. Cooper Flagg supposedly made or picked up $28M in contracts and thats only the start of his 1 year in college. tip of the iceberg?

cooper flag didnt make 28 mil in one year, he singed contracts worth 28mil some multi year to include his nba career; majority of it is new balance shoe. for the 1 year NIL most estimates put him around $5mil.

plus they probably want to start the rookie clock to get onto the 2nd contract earlier.

that being said the fringe first rounder players will have decisions to make.

[NoBias]

The Raptors could conceivably be in the lottery again. We’ve had two straight years of Play-In teams winning the #1 pick. Adding Dybantsa, Boozer or Peterson to this team would be amazing.

There’s no such things as odds, the NBA chooses who gets what pick.

[S.W.A.N]

The east is open but that doesn't mean we are a playoff lock. We can win 40 games and still be a lottery team. Will be fun to cheer for wins while keeping one eye on a deep draft year.

[DreamTeam09]

I will say this draft will be deeper & better than last year for sure. A lot of these prospects were being talked about for several yrs in advanced, last yrs draft had a couple of guys with pedigree
Mix in some of the guys that withdrew and some player or two that will reclassify later on the year, 26 draft will be better than 25

[JShuttlesworth]

Mikel Brown Jr looks like he can hoop

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