And-Ones: 2026 Mock, Schedule, Contracts, Weaver
Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, BYU forward AJ Dybantsa, Duke big man Cameron Boozer, and UNC forward Caleb Wilson are the top four picks — in that order — in the latest 2026 mock draft from Jeremy Woo of ESPN.
As Woo writes, while Peterson is the most talented offensive player in the 2026 class, injuries and inconsistency have led to a perception that selecting him first overall might carry more risk than adding Dybantsa or Boozer, who are both still in the mix for the top spot. Woo suggests which team wins the draft lottery might ultimately determine which player goes No. 1, with Peterson and Dybantsa viewed as the two frontrunners.
Illinois guard Keaton Wagler (No. 6) and Texas wing Dailyn Swain (No. 29) are among the prospects who have boosted their stocks this season, while Arizona forward Koa Peat (No. 19) and Baylor wing Tounde Yessoufou (No. 30) are trending in the opposite direction, according to Woo.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Dean Oliver of ESPN takes a look at how teams’ remaining strength of schedule could impact which NBA teams secure the third and fourth seeds in the Western Conference, the No. 2 spot in the East, and the fifth and sixth seeds in the East.
- Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report predicts which NBA contracts will be the riskiest ahead of the 2027/2028 season. Although he’s the “most likely” player to live up to his lucrative long-term contract, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander‘s super-max extension will be the riskiest deal in the league in a couple seasons, per Pincus. The reigning MVP will be owed a projected $273.3MM over four years in ’27/28.
- Former NBA assistant Will Weaver has been named head coach and president of basketball operation of the Brisbane Bullets, he told Olgun Uluc of ESPN. The Bullets compete in the National Basketball League, which features nine Australian teams and one based in New Zealand. Weaver, who previously coached the Sydney Kings in 2019/20, is currently a coaching advisor for the Hornets and will continue in that role through the end of ’25/26, Uluc reports.
And-Ones: Mock Draft, Big Board, Wembanyama, USA Basketball
BYU wing AJ Dybantsa goes No. 1 overall in the latest mock draft from Sam Vecenie of The Athletic. As Vecenie details, the 6’9″ freshman has put up incredible numbers, has elite athletic tools, and has made tremendous strides in terms of his offensive decision-making and passing. Dybantsa is still a work in progress on the other end though, per Vecenie.
Dybantsa, Kansas guard Darryn Peterson (No. 2 in Vecenie’s mock) and Duke power forward Cameron Boozer (No. 3) are all in contention to be selected with the first pick, Vecenie writes, but Dybantsa and Peterson are talked about more often for that spot.
According to Vecenie, North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson is the clear No. 4 player in a class that is “absurdly good” at the top. Then there’s another five players (Houston’s Kingston Flemings, Illinois’ Keaton Wagler, Arkansas’ Darius Acuff Jr., Louisville’s Mikel Brown Jr. and Tennessee’s Nate Ament) that teams would love to land.
The 10 through 30 spots in the first round are much trickier to pin down, Vecenie continues, in part because it’s unclear which players will return to school to potentially make more money because of name, image and likeness — some could get around $4MM, per Vecenie.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Jon Chepkevich of RookieScale.com has created a consensus big board using input sources from 13 different outlets (including The Athletic) and “dozens of other independent boards/mocks.” The same nine players listed above are the top nine on Chepkevich’s board, with Michigan big man Yaxel Lendeborg at No. 10 (he’s No. 19 in Vecenie’s mock) and Kentucky big man Jayden Quaintance at No. 11 (No. 12 in Vecenie’s mock).
- Third-year center Victor Wembanyama has become a minority investor in Nanterre, the French team with whom the Spurs star played from the ages of 10-17, per Eurohoops. Wembanyama made the announcement alongside his former coach in an interview with Yann Ohnona of L’Équipe. “I don’t even remember who approached whom first, but it happened naturally. I was born and raised in France. I want to have an impact on French basketball, and at Nanterre because that’s where I feel at home,” Wembanyama said.
- The U.S. men’s national team was upset by the Dominican Republic in a 2027 World Cup qualifying game last Thursday, writes Joe Vardon of The Athletic. Team USA never led in the game and trailed by as many as 19 points. “Now I am very happy because every player that comes to the (Dominican Republic) national team, they feel love for this country, for this flag,” Dominican coach Nestor Garcia said. “In our country, the people support us. This is for the Dominican people.” As Vardon notes, the U.S. roster isn’t exactly star-studded considering it’s the middle of the NBA season, but several players with recent experience in the league are competing, including James Wiseman and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl. After rebounding by blowing out Mexico on Sunday, Team USA is still 3-1 with eight qualifying games remaining, so the Americans aren’t in any danger of not qualifying for the World Cup at this point.
And-Ones: Wilson, 2026 Draft, Cunningham, Summer League
North Carolina star Caleb Wilson has been diagnosed with a fracture in his left hand, the school announced in a press release. A timeline for the freshman big man’s return has not yet been established.
Wilson, who sustained the injury in the first half of Tuesday’s loss at Miami (FL), has been one of the most productive players in college basketball, averaging 19.8 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.4 blocks in 31.3 minutes per game across 24 appearances.
A 19-year-old forward/center, Wilson is ranked No. 4 on the latest big board from Jeremy Woo of ESPN. According to Woo, while the consensus top three prospects for the 2026 draft continue to be Darryn Peterson, AJ Dybantsa and Cameron Boozer, some talent evaluators believe Wilson has a chance to be selected in the top three, depending on how things shake out over the next handful of months.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- The three biggest risers among Woo’s top 25 prospects are Illinois guard Keaton Wagler (No. 6; was No. 25), Arizona guard Brayden Burries (No. 17; was No. 41) and Texas Tech guard Christian Anderson (No. 19; was No. 38). As for players trending in the opposite direction, Woo points to Arizona forward/center Koa Peat (No. 16; was No. 8) and Kentucky center Jayden Quaintance (No. 18; was No. 9). As Woo explains, while Peat has several positive attributes, there are question marks about his shooting, rim protection and size. Quaintance, meanwhile, has been shut down indefinitely due to knee swelling after tearing his ACL last March.
- Pistons star Cade Cunningham has purchased a minority stake in the Texas Rangers, he tells Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). The former No. 1 overall pick, who will make his second consecutive All-Star appearance this weekend, is a native of Arlington, Texas, where the MLB is based.
- The primary Summer League event will be held in Las Vegas again this year, the NBA announced on Wednesday (via Twitter). The games will be held from July 9-19.
And-Ones: NBA Europe, Rising Stars, Blakeney, Draft
Speaking to Sportico (Twitter video link), NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum said one key component of the NBA Europe project is the league’s desire to address the fact that some of the biggest markets across the Atlantic don’t currently have basketball teams that are permanent members of the EuroLeague.
“There’s no top-tier team in the U.K. at all. The U.K’s the biggest market in Europe. There’s no top-tier basketball team there, in London, in Manchester,” Tatum said. “There’s no permanent top-tier in the top league there in Paris, in Berlin, in Rome. So they’re missing the biggest commercial markets.
“… Our idea is to create this league, call it 12 to 16 teams, with the biggest countries having permanent franchises. Call it the U.K., Spain, Germany, Italy, France. Two teams in each one of those markets that we know with certainty will have franchises there. And then we’ll open it up to the rest of the (European) ecosystem.”
Teams based in cities like Barcelona, Madrid, Athens, and Istanbul have become EuroLeague powerhouses, but London doesn’t have a team in the league and has never exactly been a basketball hotbed. As Joe Vardon of The Athletic writes, the NBA believes there’s untapped potential in the market.
“Just walking the streets here and being in the hotels, I hear from people all the time saying, ‘I’m sleep-deprived following your league,'” NBA commissioner Adam Silver told Vardon before this month’s Grizzlies/Magic game in London. “There are more people approaching us and saying, ‘I’d love to have the London franchise,’ and I think it’s not just because it’s such an attractive market, but because there’s no top-tier basketball team right now. So, there’s lots of groups seeing an opportunity to create a new brand here.”
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- After announcing this year’s Rising Stars participants earlier in the week, the NBA announced the rosters and the semifinal matchups on Tuesday evening (Twitter links). Among the notable team-ups? Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg, 2025’s No. 1 overall pick, will play alongside No. 2 pick Dylan Harper and his Spurs teammate Stephon Castle on Carmelo Anthony‘s team.
- Former NBA guard Antonio Blakeney, who played for the Bulls from 2017-19, was accused earlier this month of being one of the ringleaders in an illegal gambling scheme involving U.S. college players and game-fixing in China. ESPN’s Michael Rothstein has the full story on Blakeney, who faces wire fraud charges and could face a lengthy prison sentence if he’s convicted.
- Federal prosecutors investigating illegal gambling are looking at additional NBA games beyond the seven contests cited in an indictment this past fall, says Mike Vorkunnov of The Athletic. That fall indictment was the one that led to the arrest of Terry Rozier and is connected to the case that resulted in Jontay Porter being banned from the NBA.
- Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report has updated his 2026 NBA mock draft, while Sam Vecenie of The Athletic shares some of his draft-related intel. Within his story, Vecenie considers how NIL will impact the 2026 draft class and identifies Arizona’s Brayden Burries and Illinois’ Keaton Wagler as two prospects whose stocks are very much on the rise.
And-Ones: Thibodeau, Dunk Contest, McClung, Buzelis, More
Tom Thibodeau isn’t coaching anywhere this season after being let go by the Knicks during the offseason, but the 68-year-old isn’t planning to transition into retirement. Appearing on SiriusXM NBA Radio on Monday, Thibodeau told Frank Isola of The Starting Lineup that he’d like to coach again.
“I love the game,” Thibodeau said (Twitter link via Steve Popper of Newsday). “Obviously I’m preparing for the next opportunity. So hopefully I’ll be ready for it.”
This is only the third season since 2010 that Thibodeau hasn’t been the head coach of an NBA team. He coached the Bulls from 2010-15, sat out the 2015/16 season, coached the Timberwolves from 2017-19, and sat out in ’19/20 before being hired by the Knicks in 2020. That pattern suggests he’ll be on the lookout for a new head coaching job this spring.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Three-time slam dunk contest champion Mac McClung won’t be returning to defend his crown in 2026, his father Marcus McClung confirmed to Anthony Olivieri of ESPN. “Not going to be four in a row,” Marcus said in a text message. “Not one reason that I could say that was the main reason. In my opinion it is more like a bunch of reasons that just pointed to him not doing it.” The 27-year-old guard, who is playing for the Windy City Bulls this season, tweeted, “But since we prepared for it…I’ll be releasing the dunks we came up with after the contest.”
- Bulls forward Matas Buzelis was invited back to the dunk contest after taking part last season, but turned down the invitation, according to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. “They did ask me, but unfortunately I’m going to decline this year,” Buzelis said. “I’m trying to listen to my body and this stretch of games coming up is going to be very important for us. Hopefully I get invited another year because I would love to do it. … It’s a lot of work to prepare for the dunk contest and I didn’t even prepare as well as I should have last year. Probably had two practices to practice my dunks. It takes a toll on your body.”
- Keith Smith of Spotrac previews the trade deadline for the 15 teams in the Eastern Conference, laying out each club’s position relative to the cap, tax, and apron levels, its notable trade exceptions and tradable draft picks, a potential deadline strategy, and the most likely player to be moved.
- John Hollinger of The Athletic takes a closer look at Illinois guard Keaton Wagler, writing that a breakout freshman year has turned Wagler from an unheralded recruit into a surefire 2026 lottery pick.