{"id":289083,"date":"2026-05-12T05:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T05:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/289083\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T05:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T05:00:09","slug":"2026-nba-mock-drafts-houstons-latest-second-round-projections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/289083\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NBA mock drafts: Houston\u2019s latest second-round projections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated May 11, 2026, 8:00 p.m. CT<\/p>\n

As things stand, the Rockets aren\u2019t slated to have a first-round pick in the upcoming 2026 NBA draft<\/a>, which takes place on June 23 and 24.<\/p>\n

That selection is owned by Oklahoma City as the final piece of the\u00a0ill-fated July 2019 trade<\/a>\u00a0involving Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook.<\/p>\n

But the Rockets do own<\/a> a pair of 2026 second-round selections at No. 39 (via Chicago) and No. 53, overall. The latter is based on Houston\u2019s 52-30 record in the 2025-26 regular season.<\/p>\n

For general manager Rafael Stone, it\u2019s the first immediate opportunity of the 2026 offseason to upgrade a team that finished with matching regular-season records and disappointing<\/a> first-round playoff exits in each of the past two years.<\/p>\n

And while second-round selections aren\u2019t as likely to become long-term success stories, relative to their first-round counterparts, it\u2019s certainly possible.<\/p>\n

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n

Just look at the aforementioned Thunder, who are on the verge of yet another Western Conference finals appearance amid a strong performance from Ajay Mitchell<\/a> \u2014 drafted at No. 38 overall in the 2024 second round.<\/p>\n

So, who might Stone and the Rockets add to their depth chart<\/a>? Via the latest wave of mock drafts, published after Sunday\u2019s draft lottery, here is a look at various possibilities for each slot.<\/p>\n

Mocked Selections at No. 39ESPN<\/a>: Matt Able, 6-foot-6 guard\/forward, North Carolina State, 18 years old (statistics<\/a>)Yahoo! Sports<\/a>: Malachi Moreno, 7-foot-0 center, Kentucky, 19 years old (statistics<\/a>)The Athletic<\/a>: Braden Smith, 6-foot-0 point guard, Purdue, 22 years old (statistics<\/a>)ClutchPoints<\/a>: Ryan Conwell, 6-foot-4 guard, Louisville, 21 years old (statistics<\/a>)Mocked Selections at No. 53ESPN<\/a>: Andrej Stojakovic, 6-foot-6 guard\/forward,\u00a0Illinois, 21 years old (statistics<\/a>)Yahoo! Sports<\/a>: Baba Miller, 6-foot-11 forward\/center, Cincinnati, 22 years old (statistics<\/a>)The Athletic<\/a>: Tobi Lawal, 6-foot-8 forward, Virginia Tech, 23 years old (sta<\/a>t<\/a>istics<\/a>)ClutchPoints<\/a>: Baba Miller, 6-foot-11 forward\/center, Cincinnati, 22 years old (statistics<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Additional scouting information on many of these players is available via the latest 2026 NBA draft big board (top 60 prospects) from Yahoo! Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Player data from this week\u2019s ongoing 2026 draft combine is available at NBA.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More: With hindsight, the 2024 Rockets-Nets draft deal is aging well for Houston<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated May 11, 2026, 8:00 p.m. CT As things stand, the Rockets aren\u2019t slated to have a first-round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[33,56,58,57,105365,9261,9262,12159,6326,21073,14920,1589,2518,9264,1593,2579,12158,42,46151,46,216,36],"class_list":["post-289083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-accessfree","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-sourcerockets-wire","tag-sstssportsnbarockets","tag-sstsnrockets","tag-tagajay-mitchell","tag-tagbasketball","tag-tagbrooklyn-nets","tag-tagchris-paul","tag-tagespn-inc","tag-taghouston","tag-taghouston-rockets","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnba","tag-tagoklahoma-city-thunder","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagrussell-westbrook","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tx","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}