{"id":841125,"date":"2026-08-01T21:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T21:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/841125\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T21:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T21:20:12","slug":"evaluating-small-guards-of-the-2027-nba-draft-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/841125\/","title":{"rendered":"Evaluating \u2018Small Guards\u2019 of the 2027 NBA Draft Class"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6i\">The 2026 NBA Draft featured a handful of &#8220;undersized&#8221; guards.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6l\">Players like Ebuka Okorie, Christian Anderson, Bruce Thornton, Braden Smith and Ja\u2019Kobi Gillespie all earned spots in the 2026 class after measuring less than 6-foot-2 at the NBA Combine.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6o\">Okorie, Anderson, Thornton, Smith and Gillespie&#8217;s selections came shortly after a pair of small guards helped the New York Knicks win an NBA championship, illustrating that there is still a place at the highest level for players who don&#8217;t offer exceptional height.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6r\">In the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/draft\/newsfeed\/ranking-the-top-five-returning-2027-nba-draft-prospects\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2027 class<\/a>, there could be another wave of \u2018small\u2019 guards who earn positions in the draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6u\">Here\u2019s a look at four smaller guard prospects who have a chance to be selected in the 2027 NBA Draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Elliot Cadeau, Michigan<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"70\">After helping the Wolverines win a national championship and earning Final Four Most Outstanding Player honors in 2026, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/draft\/newsfeed\/most-intriguing-ncaa-teams-to-watch-for-nba-draft-prospects-in-2026-27-01ky80gfa1g8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cadeau returns to Michigan for his senior season<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"73\">As a junior, Cadeau averaged 10.5 points, 5.9 assists and 2.7 rebounds while shooting 41.1% from the field and 37.6% from 3-point range.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"76\">Listed at 6-foot-1, a strong senior season should be enough to secure the former five-star prospect a place in the 2027 draft.<\/p>\n<p>Jeremy Fears Jr., Michigan State<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7c\">The brother of Jeremiah Fears, the No. 6 pick in the 2025 draft, Jeremy Fears had a breakout season in 2025-26.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7f\">The Spartans\u2019 guard averaged 15.2 points, 9.4 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game while shooting 43.1% from the field and 32.1% from beyond the arc.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7i\">Fears measured 6-feet tall without shoes at the 2026 NBA Combine while recording a 6-foot-4 wingspan.<\/p>\n<p>Miles Sadler, West Virginia\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7o\">Sadler joins the Mountaineers after an impressive high school career that earned the talented point guard a five-star rating.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7r\">Listed at 5-foot-10 and 165 pounds, Sadler was rated the No. 19 overall player and No. 2 point guard in the 2026 recruiting class by the 247Sports\u2019 composite rankings.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-16\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7u\">While his height will likely hurt Sadler\u2019s draft stock, the incoming freshman is talented enough be a one-and-done prospect.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-18\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"80\">Tanner tested the NBA Draft waters in 2026 and had the potential to be picked in the first round, but instead opted for a return to Vanderbilt.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-19\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"83\">As a sophomore in 2025-26, Tanner averaged 19.5 points, 5.1 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 2.4 steals per game while shooting 48.5% from the field and 36.8% from deep.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-20\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"86\">Another big season from Tanner could secure his position in the first round of the 2027 draft.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 NBA Draft featured a handful of &#8220;undersized&#8221; guards.\u00a0 Players like Ebuka Okorie, Christian Anderson, Bruce Thornton,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-841125","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\/841125","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=841125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}