2026 NBA Draft Thread.....

[SUPERBALLMAN]

I see Boozer did another good job statpadding against a cupcake. Gotta take advantage of these opportunities while he can.

Maybe. I think the smarts translates. Bigs with high assist ratios tend to translate to good defenders at the next level. Better than the bouncy types that jump to block every shot. Defensive rebounding also translates, even when offensive boards don’t. The fact that he’s added an outside shot opens up his game and fixes some concerns I had about if he was just an early growth standout.

That said I have Caleb above him due to a combo of outlier athleticism, length, suction cups for hands and a baseline of high intelligence. His per 36 numbers pop off the page.

I am wondering if Caleb Wilson will be better at a thing or two than Cooper Flagg?

How were their head-to-head matchups in ACC play last season?

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[BobbyD78]

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Holy crap! He showed the entire package in the second half. The Michael Jordan-esque mid-post game. The driving game. And the pull-up 3's off the bounce. All against an elite defensive team.

The part that impressed me most was at the :45 second mark. He got in an isolation at the post, recognized that no double team was coming so he stayed calm. He got to his spot. He knew he was going to take a turnaround jumper over his left shoulder. His defender knew he was going to take a turnaround jumper over his left shoulder. But AJ knew that there was honestly nothing the defender could do to stop it. He was just a better athlete and would get to a higher release point than the defender could contest. And the guy guarding him, Jaylin Stewart, is a big athletic dude (6'-7" 225 Jr.) and a 4-star recruit out of high school. You gotta love a player with an unstoppable go-to move.

AJ scored just 4 points in the first half and went 1/6 from the floor and 2/4 from the line with 2 turnovers while trying to figure out the defense. In the second half, he scored 21 points, going 7/8 from the floor and 5/6 from the line with only 1 turnover.

https://www.deseret.com/sports/2025/11/15/byu-basketball-aj-dybansta-uconn-huskies-college-basketball/

Analysis: AJ Dybantsa made the game with UConn possible, then he nearly atoned for BYU’s early sins

BOSTON — Win or lose, Saturday night’s wild game between No. 3 UConn and No. 7 BYU at TD Garden in Boston was always going to be the AJ Dybantsa Game.

Without him, the game wouldn’t have been scheduled. The teams wouldn’t have met unless it was in the NCAA Tournament next spring. And the Cougars never would have run the parquet floor beneath the Boston Celtics’ 17 NBA championship banners 40 minutes from his home in Brockton, Massachusetts.

And win or lose, the game Dybantsa made possible was going to help BYU’s seeding in the NCAA Tournament next spring by boosting its strength of schedule.

It is, after all, the first time a top-10 BYU team played another top-10 opponent since the height of Jimmermania in 2011.

TD Garden had one open date for a college game, an organizer said. BYU and UConn eagerly agreed. So did Fox Sports, which cleared out a college football night for a matchup this juicy, with each team fielding three players listed on ESPN’s Top 100.

The rest confirms what nate already surmised, but it goes into great detail with quotes from Dan Hurley and AJD. He discusses his mindset. Very cerebral. Uber athletic. Both parents were in the front row. High character kid.

Draft this kid above Peterson. He is a Len Bias before the bad choice.

The first player that came to mind when I saw Dybantsa was Len Bias.

[The Consiglieri]

Just got done watching Tenn vs Rutgers (Rutgers sucks). Ament is going to get a lot of comparisons to Ace since he is a tall wing that struggles to get to the rim. Compared to Ace Ament is:

Noticably taller, at least an inch I would guess
Slower
Better ball handler
More willing passer
More of a standstill shooter

Nice to see him actually make some 3s but I still don't think he will be in the top 5 conversation.

Tough test tomorrow against Houston at 6.

Sense I got during the home stretch of the high school season last year was that he had locked in the 4 slot, for pre-college rankings, and had a chance to climb into the top 3. I don't really see anything that changes that at all unless he indulges clown car stupidity like Ace did down the home stretch (combined with an awful season that wasn't their fault, which isn't a risk because Tennessee at least for now seems a lock to go to the tourney), or as you have mentioned, just can't seem to hit his 3 or make his jumpers all season long. I don't think it's really worth considering that possibility until february when we will have around 20ish games of data instead of just the 4 you were using last week. We need far more sample size for scouts to get concerned (though I'd imagine if they think he has a brokenish MKG technqiue or something analogous, yeah, that would concern them).

Thus far, I don't really see any reason to think he'll slip much. I tend to agree w/you that Boozer is a floor guy, and it's hard to figure out which teams will just get really enamored with the safety piece, and which would be alarmed by the lack of a ceiling, and the production against primarily cream puffs, and a corresponding significant decline (potentially anyway) against the quality teams. We'll see, but of all the exciting prospects coming in for us particulary:

Peterson
Dybantsa
Ament
Brown
Boozer
Caleb now

Boozer is the one that is absolutely the least attractive to me, and I also tend to think this kind of FO, which will want to nail a high ceiling, cornerstone guy if we land a top 2-4 pick, will not want to pull the trigger on Boozer's floor. It's just not enough, period, especially when you consider that the '27 class is seen as potentially as bad as '24, so that class isn't expected to bring us any hope of a franchise cornerstone.

If we're gonna get one, it's gonna be this class, or a guy from previous classes that develops into one (Sarr, George, Bilal, maybe Sarr can, I'm skeptical of the others having that potential).

So yeah, assuming we land a top 4-5 pick, I think Boozer will be at the bottom of our wish list (how much of that is hope on my part, versus reason, is open to question, but Boozer just doesn't sound to me like their type of prospect, Peterson, Brown, and Ament, and Dybantsa with better defense yes, Boozer, nah, even Caleb may end up in front of him). Curious what other high risers there might be.

Hopefully yesterday's loss was a sign of things to come for the Suns, finally putting a governor on their 8-2 run which threatened to pull them out of lottery zone risk for quite a while. I still projected a 4-10 to 5-9 run to New years, and if that holds, they'll be around .500 as they start January. Hopefully the slide will crush their momentum. We desperately need the extra lottery balls to lock in a top 3-4 pick in this draft.

Obviously the top is where it's at, but I'd still be comfortable down to 3 or 4, after that I'd get worried that we'd be stuck taking guys with some risk. I do agree w/the consensus that 4-6 projections this year are definitively more exciting than last year's class.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Anyone else catch that great Houston Syracuse game last night??

Houston has 2 excellent prospects PF Cenac who is in that 6-8 range for me, and PG Flemings who I also like a lot.

Syracuse has Carmelo Anthony’s son.

Game went to OT…

Watch on YouTube

Btw Houston plays again tonight vs Tennessee with Ament 6pm on TNT.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Also anyone watch the Kansas-Notre Dame game yesterday?

Bidunga looked pretty good!

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Loved it when the announcer said a “Bidunga-dunk”!

[tontoz]

Cameron Carr is my WTF prospect so far this season. Don't know what to make of him. Rode the bench for 2 years in Tennessee, transferred to Baylor and is now putting on a show.

Athletic freak that can shoot. Highlights are like

Watch on YouTube

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

The Wizards will draft one of Boozer, Wilson, or Dybantsa.

[FarBeyondDriven]

winning games while CJ and Middleton are playing 68 minutes and CJ scores 46 is as disastrous as it gets. Each win could be the difference between a #1 type franchise player and a #2 or #3 role player which imho they've already got candidates for in Sarr, George and Johnson. Should the Wizards end up picking 6th instead of 1st or 2nd we can look back at this meaningless win and know it's the reason.

[doclinkin]

winning games while CJ and Middleton are playing 68 minutes and CJ scores 46 is as disastrous as it gets. Each win could be the difference between a #1 type franchise player and a #2 or #3 role player which imho they've already got candidates for in Sarr, George and Johnson. Should the Wizards end up picking 6th instead of 1st or 2nd we can look back at this meaningless win and know it's the reason.

Nope. As i said in the game thread we need to showcase these two to pump their value to other teams. One win where they play heavy minutes suggests to other teams that the Wiz’ losses are by design and not the fault of vets that can’t do it anymore.

This was a near perfect illustration how they can help a contending team. The tank is helped extra by shipping them out since these two do have the ability to go off and accidentally win us a game or two.

[tontoz]

Ament wet the bed against Houston but somehow Tennessee won anyway. I expect him to struggle consistently against good teams.

Cameron Carr showed out again with 27 points, 5-8 from 3, in a loss to St Johns. This guy is putting up video game numbers. He's averaging 24 ppg with a TS of 72% as a guard.

[tontoz]

Kingston Flemings looked good against Tenn, 25 pts with a 78% TS. On the season his TS is 72%.

[tontoz]

Cameron Carr vs St John's yesterday.

Watch on YouTube

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Cameron Carr vs St John's yesterday.

Watch on YouTube

I need to check him out. Haven’t paid much attention to Baylor after initial disappointment with Yussoufou, and kind of dismissed 6-5 to 6-8 wings to focus on PG and bigs where our cupboard is bare. Plus his weight is AJ Johnson-like. And I’ve really focused on the freshmen.

All that said, I gotta hone in on some of these prospects because this is the type of player they’ll end up taking, at least later in the draft.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Kingston Flemings looked good against Tenn, 25 pts with a 78% TS. On the season his TS is 72%.

Yeah, he looked goood!

Watch on YouTube

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

winning games while CJ and Middleton are playing 68 minutes and CJ scores 46 is as disastrous as it gets. Each win could be the difference between a #1 type franchise player and a #2 or #3 role player which imho they've already got candidates for in Sarr, George and Johnson. Should the Wizards end up picking 6th instead of 1st or 2nd we can look back at this meaningless win and know it's the reason.

winning games while CJ and Middleton are playing 68 minutes and CJ scores 46 is as disastrous as it gets. Each win could be the difference between a #1 type franchise player and a #2 or #3 role player which imho they've already got candidates for in Sarr, George and Johnson. Should the Wizards end up picking 6th instead of 1st or 2nd we can look back at this meaningless win and know it's the reason.

Nope. As i said in the game thread we need to showcase these two to pump their value to other teams. One win where they play heavy minutes suggests to other teams that the Wiz’ losses are by design and not the fault of vets that can’t do it anymore.

This was a near perfect illustration how they can help a contending team. The tank is helped extra by shipping them out since these two do have the ability to go off and accidentally win us a game or two.

winning games while CJ and Middleton are playing 68 minutes and CJ scores 46 is as disastrous as it gets. Each win could be the difference between a #1 type franchise player and a #2 or #3 role player which imho they've already got candidates for in Sarr, George and Johnson. Should the Wizards end up picking 6th instead of 1st or 2nd we can look back at this meaningless win and know it's the reason.

winning games while CJ and Middleton are playing 68 minutes and CJ scores 46 is as disastrous as it gets. Each win could be the difference between a #1 type franchise player and a #2 or #3 role player which imho they've already got candidates for in Sarr, George and Johnson. Should the Wizards end up picking 6th instead of 1st or 2nd we can look back at this meaningless win and know it's the reason.

Nope. As i said in the game thread we need to showcase these two to pump their value to other teams. One win where they play heavy minutes suggests to other teams that the Wiz’ losses are by design and not the fault of vets that can’t do it anymore.

This was a near perfect illustration how they can help a contending team. The tank is helped extra by shipping them out since these two do have the ability to go off and accidentally win us a game or two.

This one game was great for morale and did nothing to undermine the tank. It stabilized the control of the locker room with the veterans, including Kispert and Champagnie, leading the way. Middleton with 12 assists raised eyebrows. CJ is viewed as a hostage of a bad team, and as a guy who is a consistent, efficient 20 ppg scorer. McCollum would be a good sixth man.

Many teams could use Middleton or McCollum. This game shone each brightly.

[tontoz]

Sergio Le Larrea, spanish pg with good size. Looks like a shooter who can also get to the rim and finish. Like Kyshawn he has some issues with fouls and turnovers.

Highlights from last year:

Watch on YouTube

[Dat2U]

Anyone else catch that great Houston Syracuse game last night??

Houston has 2 excellent prospects PF Cenac who is in that 6-8 range for me, and PG Flemings who I also like a lot.

Syracuse has Carmelo Anthony’s son.

Game went to OT…

Watch on YouTube

Btw Houston plays again tonight vs Tennessee with Ament 6pm on TNT.

I like Flemings alot. Maybe even a little more than Mikel Brown Jr. Flemings is a definite lotto pick IMO.

[TheBlackCzar]

Anyone else catch that great Houston Syracuse game last night??

Houston has 2 excellent prospects PF Cenac who is in that 6-8 range for me, and PG Flemings who I also like a lot.

Syracuse has Carmelo Anthony’s son.

Game went to OT…

Watch on YouTube

Btw Houston plays again tonight vs Tennessee with Ament 6pm on TNT.

I like Flemings alot. Maybe even a little more than Mikel Brown Jr. Flemings is a definite lotto pick IMO.

I like his speed for sure... He has a lot of qualities I liked about Fears last year...
He seems to shoot a lil better and is doing well this year.......
I haven't looked into him enough yet but he seems to have some nice skills to work with.....

[tontoz]

I am not sure if Dawkins values the pg spot as much as many of us do.