Click here to read Grades for Every Round 1 Pick.<\/a><\/p>\nPotential Early 2nd-Rounders<\/p>\n
1. Meleek Thomas (Arkansas, PG\/SG, 19 years old)<\/p>\n
2. Isaiah Evans (Duke, SF\/SG, 20 years old)<\/p>\n
3. Henri Veesaar (North Carolina, C, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
4. Ugonna Onyenso (Virginia, C, 21 years old)<\/p>\n
5. Izaiyah Nelson (South Florida, PF, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
6. Richie Saunders (BYU, SG, 24 years old)<\/p>\n
7. Baba Miller (Cincinnati, PF, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
8. Jack Kayil (Germany, PG, 20 years old)<\/p>\n
9. Trevon Brazile (Arkansas, PF, 23 years old)<\/p>\n
10. Bruce Thornton (Ohio State, SG, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
11. Kowacie Reeves, Georgia Tech, SF, 23 years old)<\/p>\n
12. Braden Smith (Purdue, PG, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
13. Emanuel Sharp (Houston, SG, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
14. Duke Miles (Vanderbilt, PG, 23 years old)<\/p>\n
15. Jaden Bradley (Arizona, PG, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
Meleek Thomas may be higher on my board than most. Playing with Darius Acuff Jr. made it difficult for him to showcase or improve his ball-screen offense and ball-handling. In the meantime, he proved to be a very adaptable player with shooting versatility, playing on and off the ball. And he demonstrated promising defensive traits with his speed and activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jack Kayil is still playing in June after leading ALBA Berlin to the semis of the German BBL playoffs. Though not a flashy athlete, his 6’5″ size, shotmaking and playmaking production might be worth looking into in the late 20s of a draft that’s thinned out.<\/p>\n
A torn ACL may have helped turn Richie Saunders into a second-round value pick. He’s one of the more efficient off-ball scorers in the class with his standstill and movement catch-and-shoot game.<\/p>\n
Potential Late 2nd-Rounders<\/p>\n
16. Nick Martinelli (Northwestern, F, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
17. Ryan Conwell (Louisville, SG, 21 years old)<\/p>\n
18. Aaron Nkrumah (Tennessee State, SF, 24 years old)<\/p>\n
19. Malik Reneau (Miami, PF, 23 years old)<\/p>\n
20. Dillon Mitchell (St. John’s, PF, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
21. Ja’Kobi Gillespie (Tennessee, PG, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
22. Otega Oweh (Kentucky, SG\/SF, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
23. Wyatt Fricks (Marshall, PF\/C, 23 years old)<\/p>\n
24. Milos Uzan (Houston, PG\/SG, 23 years old)<\/p>\n
25. Felix Okpara (Tennessee, C, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
26. Lajae Jones (Florida State, SF, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
27. Lamar Wilkerson\u00a0(Indiana, SG\/SF, 24 years old)<\/p>\n
28. Trey Kaufman-Renn (Purdue, PF, 23 years old)<\/p>\n
29. Donovan Atwell (Texas Tech, SG, 23 years old)<\/p>\n
30. Maliq Brown (Duke, C, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
Ryan Conwell, Lamar Wilkerson and Donovan Atwell are potential shooting specialists to start considering midway through Round 2. Duke Miles and Jaden Bradley are smaller guards but possess the type of defensive toughness and energy that could translate to a Jose Alverado-type role.<\/p>\n
Trey Kaufman-Renn is one of those unconventional producers who lacks a modernized game. He might be more of a situational player, but it’s worth bringing him in to find out if he can continue to provide value as a post scorer, play-finisher and rebounder with great hands and instincts. <\/p>\n
Wyatt Fricks is a deeper sleeper earning workouts with an attractive mix of shotmaking, finishing and defensive flashes for a 6’10” big.<\/p>\n
Potential Undrafted Free Agents<\/p>\n
31. William Kyle II (Syracuse, C, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
32. Tobi Lawal (Virginia Tech, F, 23 years old)<\/p>\n
33. Rafael Castro (George Washington, C, 23 years old)<\/p>\n
34. Kylan Boswell (Illinois, PG, 21 years old)<\/p>\n
35. Tyler Bilodeau (UCLA, SF, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
36. Quadir Copeland (North Carolina State, PG, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
37. Keyshawn Hall (Auburn, SF, 23 years old)<\/p>\n
38. Tyler Nickel (Vanderbilt, SF, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
39. Jaden Henley (Grand Canyon, SF, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
40. Nate Bittle (Oregon, C, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
41. Jaylin Sellers (Providence, SG, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
42. Darrion Williams (North Carolina State, 23 years old)<\/p>\n
43. Tre White (Kansas, SG\/SF, 23 years old)<\/p>\n
44. Jaron Pierre Jr. (SMU, SG, 23 years old)<\/p>\n
45. Cade Tyson (Minnesota, SF, 22 years old)<\/p>\n
Tobi Lawal registered historic verticals at the NBA combine, and for a player with his wing size, that outlier leaping ability alone may be enough to offer value as a finisher and defensive playmaker.<\/p>\n
Darrion Williams was on draft boards during his time at Texas Tech, and an underwhelming year at NC State may allow a team to pick him up without using a pick. He’s a big, strong wing who can shoot and pass with creator-connector potential.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Round 1 of the 2026 NBA Draft is in the books. With 30 picks down and 30 to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-757998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}