2026 NBA DRAFT CLASS

[NO-KG-AI]

AJ Dybantsa went from, generational athlete, better than Flagg, to 3rd-4th in his class without playing any college ball. I love the draft community lol

I have only seen highlights of all these kids (except Boozer) but everything I listen to on podcasts is AJ didn't improve senior year and basically everyone else did...especially someone like Petersen.

Do you disagree with that?

I don’t have a strong opinion on any of it, I watched just enough to get a baseline idea of how good they are athletically and what their skillset and playstyle looks like. I just can’t recall such a wild swing so fast. It happened basically since the NBA season ended.

[babyjax13]

AJ Dybantsa went from, generational athlete, better than Flagg, to 3rd-4th in his class without playing any college ball. I love the draft community lol

I have only seen highlights of all these kids (except Boozer) but everything I listen to on podcasts is AJ didn't improve senior year and basically everyone else did...especially someone like Petersen.

Do you disagree with that?

I don’t have a strong opinion on any of it, I watched just enough to get a baseline idea of how good they are athletically and what their skillset and playstyle looks like. I just can’t recall such a wild swing so fast. It happened basically since the NBA season ended.

I think a lot of people (myself included) saw him last summer and he just looked like a complete outlier relative to his peers, and this summer he does not look like quite as much of an outlier. Flagg also developed more than I anticipated in college, so I thought he was an amazing prospect but perhaps not the centerpiece of a contending team, now I think that could be wrong. AJ could easily develop just as much, he has some tough shot making ability and is an incredible athlete, but he also forces things to an extreme degree and really needs to learn to pick his spots better. Plus, Peterson is just incredible. IDK, I think this is an amazing draft up top and no one is going to be upset walking away from the draft with AJ.

[clyde21]

Having strong opinions on HS players is always a bad idea, dudes develop exponentially in this age bracket, and some players develop like crazy from 15-16 while others develop more during their 17-18 years, and then go thru another round of exponential development at 19-20

i remember when two years ago Naas Cunningham was supposed to be THE guy, first overall guy, next wing archetype, a year later he's nowhere because his development just came earlier than everyone else's and everyone eventually caught up by his senior season.

not to say Dybantsa is Naas, clearly not, but just making a general observation.

there are some safe players like Flagg and Booz that can at least tell they will be at least good, but there is no way to tell what their ceiling can be until you see it in college.

[babyjax13]

Having strong opinions on HS players is always a bad idea, dudes develop exponentially in this age bracket, and some players develop like crazy from 15-16 while others develop more during their 17-18 years, and then go thru another round of exponential development at 19-20

i remember when two years ago Naas Cunningham was supposed to be THE guy, first overall guy, next wing archetype, a year later he's nowhere because his development just came earlier than everyone else's and everyone eventually caught up by his senior season.

not to say Dybantsa is Naas, clearly not, but just making a general observation.

there are some safe players like Flagg and Booz that can at least tell they will be at least good, but there is no way to tell what their ceiling can be until you see it in college.

I'd say the last two years are the most I've watched high school basketball, so I am definitely over indexing that pre-college play. I usually watch the hoops summit, maybe a game or two from the very top prospects, and maybe a U18 game ... but I've watched this group from U16 till now and a lot more individual games.

[clyde21]

Having strong opinions on HS players is always a bad idea, dudes develop exponentially in this age bracket, and some players develop like crazy from 15-16 while others develop more during their 17-18 years, and then go thru another round of exponential development at 19-20

i remember when two years ago Naas Cunningham was supposed to be THE guy, first overall guy, next wing archetype, a year later he's nowhere because his development just came earlier than everyone else's and everyone eventually caught up by his senior season.

not to say Dybantsa is Naas, clearly not, but just making a general observation.

there are some safe players like Flagg and Booz that can at least tell they will be at least good, but there is no way to tell what their ceiling can be until you see it in college.

I'd say the last two years are the most I've watched high school basketball, so I am definitely over indexing that pre-college play. I usually watch the hoops summit, maybe a game or two from the very top prospects, and maybe a U18 game ... but I've watched this group from U16 till now and a lot more individual games.

shouldn't be a problem as long as you don't anchor your priors too strongly once college games start

[crows2]

At least this class has Boozer, AJ, and Peterson.

It’s not a deep class and each of those 3 have legit big time question marks with them. But at least they’ve shown something. Boozer and AJ have looked like high level high school players for years.

I can’t recall the last time there was just completely zero hype for an upcoming senior and junior high school classes. I don’t think it’s crazy to say Tyran Stokes wouldn’t be a top 10 recruit in some classes and he’s the unanimous #1 senior going into next year.

I don’t know if this has to do with some of these guys losing out on a year + of youth ball because of COVID. But ya, as long as I’ve followed high school recruiting. The upcoming classes are some of the least hyped and least talked about players I’ve seen.

Stokes would comfortably be top 10 in last year’s class but no one else from this year would be. It’s definitely a weak class (particularly following one which has Peterson, Dybantsa and Boozer in it).

[louc1970]

Apparently Mikel Brown has grown and is now 6'5".

[babyjax13]

Apparently Mikel Brown has grown and is now 6'5".

Feels like the kind of thing we hear about slightly undersized point guards every year. Would be great if true, though.

[babyjax13]

Bruce Pearl retiring?

[babyjax13]

NCAA granted eligibility to former ignite player Thierry Darlan. He will be playing at Santa Clara. What a failure that experiment was - I blame them hiring Jason Hart as a coach, perhaps the lowest IQ basketball player to ever play for the Jazz.

[clyde21]

NCAA granted eligibility to former ignite player Thierry Darlan. He will be playing at Santa Clara. What a failure that experiment was - I blame them hiring Jason Hart as a coach, perhaps the lowest IQ basketball player to ever play for the Jazz.

i am the resident Thierry Darlan guy

[MemphisX]

NCAA granted eligibility to former ignite player Thierry Darlan. He will be playing at Santa Clara. What a failure that experiment was - I blame them hiring Jason Hart as a coach, perhaps the lowest IQ basketball player to ever play for the Jazz.

Had nothing to do with that imo. It was that it started during covid. Nobody could predict that happening.

[babyjax13]

NCAA granted eligibility to former ignite player Thierry Darlan. He will be playing at Santa Clara. What a failure that experiment was - I blame them hiring Jason Hart as a coach, perhaps the lowest IQ basketball player to ever play for the Jazz.

Had nothing to do with that imo. It was that it started during covid. Nobody could predict that happening.

I have so few chances to express my dislike for a guy who played for my team 17 years ago, let me have this ; )

[babyjax13]

Where do we have Jayden Quaintance? I was impressed that he was an impactful player in college as a 17 year old, but he is really lacking skill offensively, and I think he isn't as impactful as he could be defensively the way ASU used him (he was frequently out of plays despite some eye-popping blocks, etc.). Right now I have him in the 20s.

I have heard he has grown, and he could show a lot on a new team.

[Catchall]

Where do we have Jayden Quaintance? I was impressed that he was an impactful player in college as a 17 year old, but he is really lacking skill offensively, and I think he isn't as impactful as he could be defensively the way ASU used him (he was frequently out of plays despite some eye-popping blocks, etc.). Right now I have him in the 20s.

I have heard he has grown, and he could show a lot on a new team.

I see him as being the Robert Williams archetype, although Quaintance is more bouncy and athletic. I think he needs to show more offensive skills and touch to be a lottery pick, imo, even if he's bigger than 6'9". Probably he's mid-1st round.

[Catchall]

If Tounde Yessoufou shows enough shooting and some passing off the dribble, he should go top half of the lottery. The positional archetype of a big, powerful guard who can get where he wants on the floor and score at three levels is too valuable in the NBA. My early read on him as a prospect is that I like him a bit more than Edgecombe or Steph Castle.

[azcatz11]

Tough loss to shallow given that we lost by just 2 points while we were 12/26 at FT. Still Avdalas shined again with 10 assists and being the leading Greek scorer. He is every bit of a PG being 6'9, not just a point forward.

I bet that in 6 8 months from now will be considered as a lottery pick.

Sent from my SM-G996B using RealGM mobile app

Rafeal Barlowe seems to think so, and he has, IMO, a pretty good track record.

Read on Twitter

?s=46

[azcatz11]

Where do we have Jayden Quaintance? I was impressed that he was an impactful player in college as a 17 year old, but he is really lacking skill offensively, and I think he isn't as impactful as he could be defensively the way ASU used him (he was frequently out of plays despite some eye-popping blocks, etc.). Right now I have him in the 20s.

I have heard he has grown, and he could show a lot on a new team.

I wouldn’t put much stock into last year. He was in the worst imaginable situation at ASU. Awful head coach and beyond horrible teammates. A bunch of ball hogs who have no concept of team basketball.

[babyjax13]

Tough loss to shallow given that we lost by just 2 points while we were 12/26 at FT. Still Avdalas shined again with 10 assists and being the leading Greek scorer. He is every bit of a PG being 6'9, not just a point forward.

I bet that in 6 8 months from now will be considered as a lottery pick.

Sent from my SM-G996B using RealGM mobile app

Rafeal Barlowe seems to think so, and he has, IMO, a pretty good track record.

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Ah, that's awesome!

[babyjax13]

I'll throw another question out, there are a million interesting but smallish guards this year who could be drafted. How do we feel about ---

Boogie Fland
Maleek Thomas
Darius Acuff
Tahaad Pettiford
Christian Anderson
Mihailo Petrović
LaBaron Philon
Ian Jackson
Donovan Dent
Kylan Boswell
Xaivian Lee
Trey McKenney
Omer Maier
Darren Harris
Jasper Johnson

If you had to pick 5 that will stay in the draft, who are they? I've excluded Braden Smith since I think he has to stay in the draft.