With the college basketball season winding down, here's the projected order for how the NBA Draft could go
Feb 27, 2026 at 3:14 pm ET • 1 min read
The 2026 NBA Draft class is stacked top to bottom in one of the better classes in recent memory -- but especially at the top with Darryn Peterson, AJ Dybantsa and Cameron Boozer. All three are Tier 1 talents who could be No. 1 pick candidates in any year. And all three have viable cases to go No. 1 this year.
My personal preference (in a vacuum, of course) would be Boozer: a four-time high school state champion, three-time Peach Jam winner and two-time gold medalist. He leads Duke in scoring, assists, rebounds and minutes, and the Blue Devils are 26-2 and on trajectory to be a No. 1 seed with him as its leader. He's a winner.
There is no consensus of course, yet, on who will go No. 1 this summer. But most believe it will be Dybantsa, the BYU wing, or Peterson, the Kansas guard. So to fit the specs for a mock draft -- projecting how I think NBA teams, not myself, would pick players -- I have Dybantsa going No. 1 overall in my mock. He leads the nation in scoring (25.1 PPG), has grown as a playmaker, and, for good measure, has the frame and athletic profile that just looks like a future NBA star.
Boozer in this mock goes second and Peterson slips to No. 3. It's entirely possible that order on draft night is flipped.
For this mock, I considered team need for every pick -- though I took into account areas in the draft where tiers of talent drop off. For example, the Jazz pick at No. 6 and would do well to land a player like Boozer or Caleb Wilson. But with both off the board and point guard the clear best available talents, I have them selecting point guard Kingston Flemings. In a rebuild, sometimes the best decision is taking the best prospect even if it overlaps with what may be on the roster.
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