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2026 NBA Draft Recap: Wizards Take AJ Dybantsa, Big Night for Michigan, and Spurs-Thunder Rivalry Heats Up

Photo of Scott Kacsmar Scott Kacsmar24/06/2026 - 11:51 am
2026 NBA Draft Recap

The first round of the 2026 NBA Draft went down on Tuesday night with the second round still to come Wednesday. But if there’s anything we know about NBA history, it’s that the first round is where the major difference makers are found, save for Nikola Jokic and now Jalen Brunson as the only second-round Alphas a championship team has built around.

But the 2026 draft class has been hyped up as one of the best in recent years. There were probably a handful of prospects this year who would have been the No. 1 pick in the underwhelming 2024 class two years ago.

While the top of the draft was largely chalk picks made according to the betting odds, there were seven trades on the night, and with the other trades in the past, including Monday night’s blockbuster trade that sent Giannis Antetokounmpo to Miami, you had a lot of teams not make a first-round pick they’re actually going to keep themselves this season.

But it should be an interesting class to follow for years to come with several potential All-Stars at every position. It was also the first time in the modern draft era when the top five picks were all college freshman in back-to-back years joining 2025’s young group.

Let’s break down the main events of the first round of the draft, and we’ll conclude with the first look at the opening odds for the 2026-27 NBA Rookie of the Year award winner.

BYU’s AJ Dybantsa Joins Exclusive List of No. 1 Overall Picks

2026 NBA Draft Recap

There was a debate for whether the No. 1 pick should be BYU forward AJ Dybantsa or Kansas guard Darryn Peterson. In the end, the Washington Wizards went with Dybantsa, and I have to agree with that decision.

The Wizards already have point guard Trae Young, who just signed a $212 million extension, and they have big man Anthony Davis, who will have played with No. 1 overall picks at forward in LeBron James, Cooper Flagg, and now Dybantsa in the last couple of years alone.

If you play Davis at center and slide Dybantsa, the leading scorer in the nation last year (25.5 points per game), into that lineup with Young dominating the ball, you ease a lot of his responsibilities in passing and rebounding, and hopefully he can just focus on his scoring and give the Wizards a high-end player at each level.

The Wizards are still just +20000 to win the NBA Finals next year, so these moves hardly make them a title contender right away, but it’s a step in the right direction for a franchise that has been directionless for many years.

Darryn Peterson Goes No. 2 to Utah

With comparisons ranging from Kobe Bryant to Kyrie Irving to Bradley Beal, Kansas’ Darryn Peterson is the top shooting guard in this draft. While he only worked out privately for the Wizards as he had the confidence he was going No. 1, the Utah Jazz ended up taking him with the No. 2 pick.

You might think Utah could be a weird cultural fit for a confident/cocky player like Peterson, but he just spent the last season in Kansas, so he should adjust fine. The team also has some decent pieces despite the 22-60 record last year. Point guard Keyonte George is only 22 and improved to 23.6 points per game this past season. He can ease Peterson’s role with handling the ball right away, though he’s comfortable doing that too.

One of the main knocks on Peterson was availability as he’d miss chunks of games with injuries and also have some minute restrictions in games he did play. This had some questioning his love for the game and determination to be great, but he has already said not going No. 1 is going to stay on his mind for the rest of his career.

Duke vs. UNC Big Men: Cameron Boozer and Caleb Wilson

It would have been fun to see some battles between Cameron Boozer and Caleb Wilson in college basketball’s greatest rivalry, Duke vs. North Carolina, but these days the top prospects are one-and-done before going to the NBA.

But one year was enough to make both players top four picks as Boozer has those NBA genes with his dad Carlos, who was an All-Star with the Utah Jazz and a reliable 20/10 player at his peak, and Wilson impressed last season before injury cut his season short.

Boozer is going to the Memphis Grizzlies, who already got a talented big man two drafts ago in Purdue’s Zach Edey, but he was limited to 11 games because of injury in his second season. If they can get him back healthy at center, and put Boozer at forward after his great year at Duke, then maybe Ja Morant and this team can get back to competing for the playoffs.

The Grizzlies also circled back later in the night and traded for No. 21 pick forward Karim Lopez, who the Pistons selected before trading the rights to Memphis. Lopez is the first Mexican-born player selected in the first round of the NBA draft.

As for Caleb Wilson, he was the No. 4 pick by the Bulls, the third time Chicago took a UNC player this high. Let’s just say he should ideally fall somewhere between Michael Jordan (1984) and Coby White (2019) in his NBA prospects.

Like the Grizzlies, Chicago made two picks on the night after using No. 15 on Texas’ Dailyn Swain. Some were instantly negative about that pick since many mock drafts had him going in the 20s, so 15 could be a reach. But that kind of stuff is instantly forgotten if the player is a hit, and once you get past the top 14 picks, I’m not sure there are huge gaps between No. 15 and No. 25 anymore.

Should Darius Acuff Jr. Have Been the Second Guard Taken?

Once you got past a very predictable top four picks, things got interesting as the guard depth was deep. There was a run on guards in picks 5-8:

  • No. 5 Keaton Wagler (Illinois) – Drafted by Clippers with the pick acquired from Indiana in Ivica Zubac trade.
  • No. 6 Mikel Brown Jr. (Louisville) – Drafted by Nets.
  • No. 7 Darius Acuff Jr. (Arkansas) – Drafted by Kings.
  • No. 8 Kingston Flemings (Houston) – Drafted by Hawks with pick acquired from Pelicans that led to Derik Queen in 2025.

Maybe these prospects were close, but from a college production standpoint, Darius Acuff Jr. and Kingston Flemings were both more productive than Keaton Wagler and Mikel Brown Jr. despite going after them in this draft.

But the one who really stands out was Acuff after he averaged 23.5 points and 6.4 assists while shooting the 3 at volume and a high rate (.440). He’s drawn comparisons to former NBA MVP Derrick Rose, who also played for coach John Calipari in college, and he’s also been compared to Jalen Brunson for not being big on playing defense. He is an inch taller at 6’3”, so at least WNBA coach Becky Hammon shouldn’t be hating on him.

Of course, the Knicks proved you can win a championship with a smaller guard who isn’t big on defense if you surround him with the right pieces. That’s why I would have taken Acuff Jr. over any of these guards, and the Clippers and Nets could really regret not pulling the trigger there.

In going to Sacramento, Acuff joins a group of four other players the Kings drafted in the top 10 since 2009 who were coached by Calipari in college. Guess that’s Sacramento’s type. Calipari also moved past Coach K for the most lottery players drafted that he coached with 30 now.

The Kings lost De’Aaron Fox to the Spurs a couple of seasons ago, so Acuff Jr. should be a great replacement for what he brought to that team. He’d be my bet to have the best career out of this group, but we’ll see what happens.

Big Night for Michigan Wolverines

Sometimes it’s just your year. Fresh off a national championship, the Michigan Wolverines had a historic first round of the draft by getting three lottery picks drafted. They never had more than one such pick in any other draft in history.

The three picks in question:

  • No. 9 PF/C Morez Johnson Jr. to Dallas
  • No. 11 PF Yaxel Lendeborg to Golden State
  • No. 12 C Aday Mara to Oklahoma City

Lendeborg said he was a big Kyrie Irving fan, so he hated Steph Curry when the Warriors and Cavaliers were playing in the NBA Finals a decade ago every year. Now he gets to play with Curry in Golden State.

But the surprise pick here was Morez Johnson Jr. gong No. 9 to Dallas. Then again, maybe it’s not that huge of a surprise when the new Dallas coach is Dusty May, the Michigan coach who knows him best. Johnson Jr. was the leading rebounder on that dominant Michigan team last year, and he’ll try to help Cooper Flagg in Dallas this season.

The Post-Giannis Trade Look for the Bucks and Heat

It is hard to imagine we’ll see a bigger trade in the NBA this year than the one that happened Monday night when the Miami Heat acquired superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Milwaukee Bucks. They had to give up Tyler Herro, three first-round picks, a second-round pick, and some of their depth and best 3-point shooters. The Heat also got Bobby Portis from the Bucks.

It instantly changes both teams in a significant fashion, though it’s not quite the slam dunk for Miami that some past moves have been for Pat Riley’s group like getting Shaquille O’Neal (2004, LeBron James and Chris Bosh (2010), and even Jimmy Butler (2019).

The Heat are +2000 to win the NBA Finals, which is actually already down from +1800 on Monday night after the trade was announced. Those odds aren’t terrible, but they also don’t make the Heat a big favorite as they’re still behind the Celtics (+600) and Knicks (+750) in the Eastern Conference, to say nothing of the Spurs and Thunder in the West.

But this is where things are, and both teams are going to have to move on. The Bucks had the No. 10 pick and used it on Arizona guard Brayden Burries, who can play with Herro this year. Then the Heat had the No. 13 pick this year, but that was one of the three first-round picks they sent to the Bucks for this trade, so that means Tennessee’s big, lanky forward Nate Ament is going to Milwaukee.

Ament is already getting a lot of “bust” criticism but it’s partly because he just looks so young. It’s going to take time to build up anything here, so that’s the harsh reality for Milwaukee fans today. Life after Giannis is going to be tough, and these two players are unlikely to lead the turnaround. In fact, the Bucks will likely have more firepower to use in the draft next year to get an even better blue-chip prospect to help them return to relevancy.

But that doesn’t mean Burries and Ament can’t eventually contribute to the turnaround. It’s just a long process short of landing an absolute game-changing prospect.

The Spurs vs. Thunder Rivalry Heats Up

While the New York Knicks are the champions, that doesn’t mean much for the following season in today’s NBA where eight different teams have won the last eight championships. We could be seeing a real arms race and rivalry between the Spurs and Thunder, who have the best odds to win the 2027 NBA Finals.

The Thunder are +250 and the Spurs are +260 after last night’s draft, which included several moves by both teams that clearly were made with the other in mind:

  • The Thunder used the No. 12 pick on 7’3” Aday Mara from Michigan, a clear response to giving Chet Holmgren help with his struggles against Victor Wembanyama.
  • After Memphis used the No. 16 pick on Iowa guard Bennett Stirtz, the Thunder acquired that pick via trade after sending No. 17 pick Ebuka Okorie to Detroit.
  • The Spurs used their No. 20 pick on Kentucky big man Jayden Quaintance.
  • The Spurs traded the No. 35 pick to Denver to get the rights to No. 26 pick Tarris Reed Jr., the forward/center from Michigan and UConn.

Hard not to respect the vision for these moves as these teams see each other as their biggest threat in getting to the NBA Finals right now. For the Thunder, they don’t want a repeat of what happened in the 2026 Western Conference Finals. While Mara may have offensive limitations, you hope his length can be an irritant against Wemby, freeing up Holmgren to do more offensively and not have to worry about taking on that matchup against a player who hates him with a burning passion.

The Thunder were also done in by injuries to Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell, killing their depth that looked so good earlier in the playoffs. But while Bennett Stirtz isn’t going to give you strong defense a la Alex Caruso, he’s a very efficient shooter (.487/.372/.820) who can give the team instant offense off the bench.

Then for the Spurs, they don’t really play a lot of big men around Wemby. They surrounded him with players like De’Aaron Fox, Devin Vassell, Julian Champagnie, Dylan Harper, and Stephon Castle last year. Harrison Barnes only plays sparingly. When Wemby went to the bench, he was replaced by Luke Kornet.

Quaintance is a risky pick since injuries limited him to just 28 games at Arizona State and Kentucky. Some feel he had top 10 potential without the injuries, but he is a project that they can bring along slowly as he won’t need to play serious minutes any time soon, if ever for the Spurs.

But they redeemed themselves by moving back up to get Tarris Reed. He was the leading scorer on the UConn team that took on Michigan in the national championship game. He only shot 4-of-12 that night but did have 14 rebounds. Aday Mara had 8 points and 4 rebounds for victorious Michigan. Now we could see them clash again in Spurs vs. Thunder.

The Thunder just better hope Wemby doesn’t teach Reed how to develop a burning hatred for Mara that fuels him like it does for Wemby vs. Chet Holmgren.

What Did the New York Knicks Do in Round 1 and Who Goes in Round 2?

The New York Knicks are still riding the high of their first NBA championship in 53 years. But they’ve been great dealmakers in building their title squad with trades and free agency and not so much doing it through the draft.

On Tuesday night, the Knicks were busy making trades. They sent their No. 25 pick, Sergio De Larrea, to Dallas for the No. 30 pick, then they sent that pick to the Suns. In total, the Knicks traded down three times and added five second-round picks and cash considerations.

Remember, the Knicks are close to the second apron in the salary cap, so every dollar counts at this point. They will have tough decisions to make on free agents Mitchell Robinson, Landry Shamet, and Jose Alvarado as it’s just not financially feasible to keep everyone in this apron system.

That’s why those second-round picks could be of good use to the Knicks for depth. This is actually the first NBA draft since 2021 where all 60 picks will be made as no teams were penalized for tampering with free agents. Good job, NBA teams. But that leaves 30 more picks for Wednesday night’s Round 2.

Here are some of the top prospects still available, led by Isaiah Evans (Duke) and Henri Veesaar (UNC):

The Knicks are in the first position Wednesday night with the No. 31 pick, so we’ll see who they add to their title defense.

The 2026-27 NBA Rookie of the Year Odds

Finally, here are the opening odds for the 2026-27 NBA Rookie of the Year award. There are nine players with better than +10000 odds according to FanDuel:

  • Cameron Boozer, Grizzlies (+240)
  • AJ Dybantsa, Wizards (+400)
  • Darryn Peterson, Jazz (+400)
  • Darius Acuff Jr., Kings (+450)
  • Caleb Wilson, Bulls (+950)
  • Mikel Brown Jr., Nets (+1500)
  • Yaxel Lendeborg, Warriors (+2000)
  • Keaton Wagler, Clippers (+3500)
  • Brayden Burries, Bucks (+5000)

Interesting that the No. 3 pick (Boozer) opens with better odds than the top two picks, who are tied. There’s certainly a vision for Boozer with his NBA genes being the most pro ready after a great freshman year at Duke, who just produced the reigning Rookie of the Year in Cooper Flagg.

But this is an award where record really doesn’t matter. So, I would have no problem banking on Darius Acuff Jr. to win it as the Kings are expected to release veteran DeMar DeRozan, paving the way for Acuff to post big numbers on a team that didn’t have a scorer average 20 points per game. Meanwhile, Peterson will have to share the ball with George and Lauri Markkanen in Utah, Boozer with Ja Morant in Memphis, and Dybantsa with Young and Davis in Washington.

My pick for NBA Rookie of the Year is Acuff Jr.

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Photo of Scott Kacsmar Scott Kacsmar24/06/2026 - 11:51 am