The Draftstack

Few players in college basketball possess the pure scoring upside and perimeter shooting gravity of Duke wing Isaiah Evans. A former five star recruit and one of the premier shooters in his recruiting class, Evans enters the 2026 NBA Draft conversation as one of the most dangerous off ball scorers in the country.

In what has been widely acclaimed as one of the most storied NBA draft classes in recent memory, there appears to be some consensus as to who will be selected in the top 4 in 2026. Despite an abundance of evidence as to why this should not happen, many seasoned prognosticators are still calling for UNC’s Caleb Wilson to fall to the Bulls at 4. This article presents why this can’t happen for the Memphis Grizzlies front office.

Throughout the season, when eyes were directed at North Carolina, it was because of highly touted freshman Caleb Wilson. However, after Wilson’s season came to an early end due to injury, that attention pivoted in the direction of junior big man Henri Veesaar. Not only that, but the Estonian center immediately became the Tar Heels’ primary option once Wilson went down, allowing him to showcase the advanced skillset that many evaluators were already aware of.

Arkansas guard Darius Acuff Jr. enters college basketball as one of the most naturally gifted offensive players in the 2026 NBA Draft class. A former five star recruit and McDonald’s All-American, Acuff built his reputation through elite scoring instincts, advanced shot creation, and the ability to generate offense against virtually any defensive coverage.

Louisville guard Mikel Brown Jr. enters college basketball as one of the most polished lead guard prospects in the country. A McDonald’s All-American and consensus five-star recruit, Brown has built a reputation as one of the premier playmakers in his class, combining advanced basketball IQ, shot-making versatility, and elite decision-making into a package that projects seamlessly to the modern NBA.

What if I told you that a former top-five recruit in the nation who is a near 7-foot-tall forward, averaged 16.7 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game in his freshman year, can “shoot” the three ball and provide positional versatility on defense doesn’t even have a top-20 grade on my board?

Every draft cycle produces at least one prospect who starts the year absent from draft conversations and finishes it as one of the hottest commodities in the class. Recent examples like Bub Carrington, Noah Clowney and Jeremiah Fears all followed that path, rising from relative obscurity to lottery conversations in a matter of months. This year, Keaton Wagler threw himself into that pool of players in one of the more unusual ways we have seen in recent memory.

The 2026 NBA Draft cycle is coming to a close. After thousands of hours of grinding tape, analysing the numbers, and deliberating, this is Draftstack’s official 2026 NBA Draft Big Board.

For the first time since I started following and covering the NBA Draft, I finally feel like a veteran of the process. Over the past four years, I have considered myself new to the craft, still learning and gathering new info with each and every cycle. However, now that I have witnessed Baba Miller go through a complete four-year cycle that can be described as nothing short of a roller coaster ride, I can finally consider myself an experienced member of the NBA Draft community.

It could be argued that no player in the country took a bigger leap this season than Michigan’s Morez Johnson Jr, who spent his freshman season playing an off-the-bench sparkplug role for an average Illinois team. He hit the transfer portal soon after his freshman year came to an end, and following a strong showing in last summer’s FIBA U19 World Cup, he debuted with a Wolverines squad that would eventually dominate on their way to a national championship.