The Strickland

Happy Draft Day! Below is The Strickland’s final 2026 NBA Draft Big Board, up to the 30th pick. It is the average of three separate draft boards by Prez, Jack, and Stacy. Ties in rank were broken by whoever was a higher consensus ranked player according to Rookie Scale, where they weigh a bunch of boards to judge the landscape of mock drafts. Finally, the rightmost column shows the highest ranking each player achieved on the three individual boards.

Wow, I'm offended. You thought just because the Knicks won the championship, and just because I didn’t do any other draft writing or pods, or just because I had to dedicate time to parenting, or because whoever the Knicks pick probably won’t find playing time, that I wouldn’t carve out hours upon hours to generate some psychotic, semi-accurate, completely un-nuanced comparisons for this year’s draft class?

The Knicks hosted Morez Johnson Jr. for a workout on May 22, their first reported pre-draft meeting this year (Ian Begley). It makes sense that the Knicks are enamored with the 6-foot-9, 250-pound bruiser. He checks all of the boxes that the Knicks value in their big men.

Every NBA team could use another forward with a dribble-pass-shoot-defend skillset. For teams that miss out on Cameron Boozer and Yaxel Lendeborg, Joshua Jefferson provides the closest imitation at this stage in the draft. He may very well be the best passer at 6-foot-8 or taller in the class, as he averaged more assists per game and a higher assist-to-turnover ratio than Boozer on similar usage.

Jayden Quaintance might have been a top 10 pick in last year's draft, had he been old enough to be eligible. Because he reclassified to enter college a year early, he just finished his sophomore year, but is the second-youngest player in the entire draft. He's older than projected top-3 pick and NCAA Player Of The Year one-and-done freshman Cameron Boozer by just seven days.

Could pairing Jalen Brunson with another small guard be the key to winning a title? The Knicks’ offense as a whole in Game 3 of the Finals was its best output in any of their three games so far, posting a 120.7 offensive rating (ORTG). However, that’s mostly boosted up by a dominant offensive performance in the second quarter vs. the Spurs. In the second quarter of Game 3, the Knicks scored 42 points across 23 offensive possessions, totaling a 182.6 ORTG and outscoring the Spurs by 18 points.

Through the first two games of the Finals, the Knicks have actually lost Brunson’s minutes by four points overall... and he’s obviously just been emptying the clip on offense (25 points per game [PPG] on 33.9% shooting). The great thing? When the Knicks have looked to rest Brunson in this series, they’ve been treated to great play from Jose Alvarado with KAT.

As our very own Shwin points out, the Spurs always throw their best punches when they fall behind in a series. They’ve entered three different games in the 2026 playoffs when trailing in a series and they’ve won each of those games by at least 20 points. At this very moment, and for the first time in my lifetime, the Knicks are considered the favorite to win a championship.

Shwin: Satisfaction and validation for supporting the major decisions this front office has made, in particular moving on from Thibs after last season because of how they lost in the East finals. They just wouldn't have played with the level of offensive flow against Cleveland that accentuated their personnel without having made the move to appoint Mike Brown.

Brunson has had a lot of embattled co-stars during his time with the Knicks. He had a hobbled Randle and an underperforming Barrett during his first run in the playoffs. He was then joined by his fellow Villanova teammates Hart and DiVincenzo for one of the more underappreciated two-round runs you’ll see in 2024. Rose was then finally given the option to go get one of his white whales in Towns before the 2024-25 season... and that’s when this team started to take another leap.