NBA Draft liveblog: Thunder draft Wemby stopper, trade up for PG

Welcome to the 2026 NBA Draft, and with the new two-day format keeping the Phoenix Suns out of Tuesday’s proceedings for the time being, it’s time to fire off some takes!

I am known to have them. I thought Luka Doncic was clearly the guy for the Suns in 2018 and ditto for Tyrese Haliburton in 2020. I also bought all the hype for Josh Jackson in 2017 and Jarrett Culver in 2019. If you do this long enough, that’s how it’ll go.

Speaking of doing this long enough! Do you remember live blogs? Some websites still do them! Including us!

I’ll be updating this story throughout the night, sharing my opinions on individual prospects and the fits with their new teams, including some Suns-based Western Conference analysis when it applies. Who knows, maybe we get some trades involving players too!

Here is the latest:

7:49 p.m. — Bueller … Bueller

Labaron Philon Jr. (22nd, Philadelphia), Zuby Ejiofor (23rd, Atlanta) and Cameron Carr (24th, Lakers) have us still seeing the expected names while we wait for someone to trade into the first round. This was a bit low for Philon and Carr, while it was a bit high for Ejiofor. All three should be good where they landed.

Philon plays a composed and skilled brand of point guard that really grew on me through last season. He’s one of the best pick-and-roll decision-makers in this class. Philly suddenly has a promising trio of dribble guys in Philon, Tyrese Maxey and V.J. Edgecombe.

Ejiofor is similar to Phoenix’s Oso Ighodaro. He makes a ton of noise on defense and can really pass as an undersized big that struggles on the defensive glass. Ejiofor is a better scorer at this point but he will have to keep refining that side of the ball or develop his 3-point shot (that is further along than Ighodaro’s). The Hawks suddenly have just Onyeka Okongwu and 2025 first-rounder Asa Newell in the big rotation, two different types of offensive players compared to Ejiofor, so this worked out nicely for them.

Carr was one of the big winners of the NBA Combine, measuring at a 7-foot-1 wingspan at 6-foot-6. Anything over a “plus-five wingspan” is pretty freaky, so that’s something. He’s the perfect prospect to sit in the corner while all the Lakers stars dribble the basketball, so L.A. trading up one spot with New York to secure him adds up. Carr can really shoot it and slash in a straight line with some bounce to boot, so he should be a positive offensively right away. The defense is a TBD, but the athletic tools and aforementioned length are there.

7:28 p.m. — Any trade-ups coming in last 10 picks?

Allen Graves (19th, Toronto), Jayden Quaintance (20th, San Antonio) and Karim Lopez (21st, Memphis) kept us rolling.

This is right around the range where it has been reported in a few different places that movement was expected. Whether it was a lack of roster spots, money or interest in giving a guaranteed two-year contract to any of the prospects available, contenders will sometimes not have enough room for that first-round pick.

That, of course, makes me curious if the Suns get in on it. Their 2027 first-round pick, which will be the worst between Cleveland, Minnesota and Utah, is the perfect asset for this type of situation. It almost assuredly lands in the 20s, preventing Phoenix from giving up a 1st with any serious value this late in the round, while the recipient nearly guarantees getting the same value. Just a year later.

Let’s see…..

7:08 p.m. — Guards keep on going (including my favorite sleeper)

With the amount of guards in this class, the question was which ones would fall. We saw Stanford’s Ebuka Okorie go 17th to Detroit, who traded up from 21st overall with Memphis (who traded down again). Okorie’s rim pressure and scoring going to the Pistons is the best fit so far when it comes to a player filling a direct need.

Next up, however, was Christian Anderson at No. 18 to Charlotte. This is my best value pick of the draft. Anderson, who I’ve got ninth overall, was outside the lottery on some boards and I don’t get that at all.

The most valuable skill in the NBA continues to be off-the-dribble shooting from deep. If you can come around a ball screen from 25-30 feet out and make the big come up, even if it’s just a higher-up drop, you change the entire dimension of the floor for the offense. Right now, it’s a short list for who does that as a shooter. I’m fascinated to see if that list gets longer in the next decade with the continued evolution of the game. But for now, it’s rare, so Anderson having a chance to be that type of shooter means he has to be a top-10 prospect.

He took a lot of pull-up 3s for the Red Raiders and didn’t rely on low-difficulty hoists to make 41.5% of his 7.9 3PA/G. He’s probably the best shooter in this draft because of that. There are differing opinions on how good his downhill playmaking was from there, but when I watched, I saw a guy capable of the skip passes and other lead-guard-type of kickouts. His size, 6-foot-3, is going to make that harder and he’s a feisty one-position defender. But he joins a group with Darius Acuff Jr. and Keaton Wagler that all showed the potential to be this type of player. That upside is worth the mid-lottery.

Anderson goes to a Hornets team that absolutely bombs away from 3, employing its shooters with limitless freedom. Another great spot for a draftee.

6:55 p.m. — Lots of chalk before our first trade

It was a really chalky first half of the draft before we finally had a trade. Nate Ament (13th, Milwaukee), Hannes Steinbach (14th, Charlotte) and Dailyn Swain (15th, Chicago) were the next three off the board. Swain, in particular, is a guy I’m a huge fan of and now I’m regrettably buying some Bulls stock.

Our trade came with a simple one-pick move-up for the Thunder, who went from 17th to 16th with Memphis to get Iowa point guard Bennett Stirtz.

This makes sense for OKC running it back on the Nikola Topic selection from two years ago after he went through a whole lot of adversity through injuries and a cancer diagnosis. Stirtz has deep range on his jumper and can make just about any pass from any spot on the floor. He’s going to have issues creating separation and guarding competently, but if anyone can figure that out, it’s the Thunder with all their more threatening options. Ajay Mitchell’s lack of high-end burst was a concern pre-draft as well. It’s another terrific fit for OKC.

This now puts the Thunder at 16 standard contracts, one over the limit. They already traded Aaron Wiggins to create room for Aday Mara, but will have to find more for Stirtz. That could come from dealing Topic as a flier for someone else, or it’s been speculated that Luguentz Dort is on the way out in a cost-cutting move on a $17.7 million expiring once the Thunder pick up his team option.

6:23 p.m. — “How did the rest of the league let them get him?”

Maybe Yaxel Lendeborg got to Golden State a year or two too late, but the 11th pick as the do-it-all head honcho on the best team in the country is a perfect Warrior. He truly does everything on the floor. He defended quick guards and bulky wings. He ran pick-and-roll and spaced the floor. He cut, he crashed and he set screens. As long as he’s great at a few of those things and consistent with the rest like he was in college, he can outperform this draft slot.

Lendeborg is one of the five guys in this class the most ready to play in the postseason right now. I guarantee Steve Kerr is thrilled about this selection, the jumbo wing the Warriors haven’t been able to land since Andrew Wiggins left.

As for his collegiate teammate at Michigan, I’m sure you’re sick of, “How did the rest of the league let them get him?” outrage when half the time it’s unwarranted, but Aday Mara going 12th to the Oklahoma City Thunder feels like that.

Mara is one of the prospects I wanted to rank higher than I did, 10th, but one weakness really kept him weighed down to that range. He averaged just 23.4 minutes per game, played 25-plus minutes just 16 times and 30-plus for only four occurrences.

Guess where that won’t be a problem! A hyper-deep squad in Oklahoma City that can rotate Isaiah Hartenstein, Chet Holmgren, Jaylin Williams and 2025 first-round pick Thomas Sorber as the bigs.

There is a lot to love about Mara’s game. I don’t see many concerns with the lack of a jumper on offense. The tremendous passing as a hub, short roller and diver will make up for that value, as will his toughness through his finishing around the rim. He will fit in beautifully. Defensively, I think he’s got a chance to be more switchable than he got to show at Michigan, because remember there’s no defensive three seconds, so Dusty May just plopped him in the paint, as he should. Mara is a true rim protector at his outlier size and his instincts around the ball plus feel for how to fluidly move his large limbs is sound.

OKC watched Holmgren soil himself against Victor Wembanyama, so it drafted the best potential Wemby stopper in this class. Easy enough! And now the Thunder don’t have to commit long-term to Hartenstein, with plenty of depth coming up in the future behind him. If they love Mara and Sorber enough right now, they could even get massive tax relief by dealing Hartenstein in a few days.

As I was saying, “How did the rest of the league let them get him?”

6:08 p.m. — A Wildcat gets caught in a rebuild

I had Brayden Burries graded right alongside Darius Acuff Jr. and Keaton Wagler, a slight drop to No. 10 with Milwaukee I think can be attributed to him not having the keys in Arizona’s offense. That, however, allowed him to really show how much he can affect the game as a defender, cutter and off-ball scorer where his movement shines. As someone who would love to see the kid who helped give me my first Final Four since elementary school, I hope Milwaukee trades Tyler Herro and does not bring back Kevin Porter Jr. so Burries can feature alongside guys that are fairly easy to play with.

Players of that type are present in Milwaukee, like lead guard Ryan Rollins, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and 2025 Miami first-round pick Kasparas Jakucionis (who I still have all of my stock for). New head coach Taylor Jenkins is tremendous with young players. The Bucks need to give him the opportunity to develop that talent.

6:01 p.m. — The run on guards halts with a surprising first Wolverine

Godspeed to Darius Acuff Jr. after going seventh overall to Sacramento. There are outcomes where he’s a top-three player in this class or even the best. He’s that outstanding as an offensive lead guard. Even as a little undersized, he’s the total package. So good that you can ignore the defense. But he’s going to have to sort through all this on the Kings with a glut of scorers in Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan. Godspeed, Darius. Maybe he can be the one to overcome it. If he is, we’re talking about one of the true stars of the league.

The fit for Kingston Flemings with the Atlanta Hawks at eighth overall is great. His tenacious, high-octane style of play will have him serve as a wonderful little brother for Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Dyson Daniels. If C.J. McCollum can show him the ropes for how to better pick his spots as a scorer, an issue the undersized guard really had once Houston’s conference schedule got going, then this could be an awesome pick. I have Flemings outside of the top-15 just because of that and other limitations I think could prevent him from being a reliable starter, but everything else checks out and he should have a good NBA career.

I’m a big fan of Morez Johnson Jr. and even to me the ninth pick feels a few spots too high for Dallas. It’s no surprise that Masai Ujiri, the architect of some long and athletic Toronto squads, goes with Johnson, an ultra-switchable defender who is a menace on the interior. The combination of Johnson and Dereck Lively II as lob threats for Cooper Flagg is better than most but the offensive upside of the frontcourt is capped until one of them learns to shoot. Johnson is tying to and has a limited offensive game in the meantime, so Ujiri and the ultra-bright Mike Schmitz have to feel confident there is a lot more for Johnson to show offensively.

I’d bet this Dallas pick is the most important one to the race through the middle tier of the Western Conference, a.k.a. within the Suns’ race for top-six or eight or 10. We’ll see if the Mavericks end up selling, but there’s the potential for a good team here.

For now, the Mavericks still have Kyrie Irving, a top-25 player in the league. They’ve also got Lively, who looked well on his way to becoming a borderline top-10 center before some scary foot injuries popped up. If Flagg ascends next year, the ancillary pieces like Max Christie, Daniel Gafford, Naji Marshall and P.J. Washington become much more valuable. So, if we can add Johnson to that supplementary core, this is suddenly a group poised to finish above .500.

5:42 p.m. — Caleb Wilson, Keaton Wagler and Mikel Brown Jr. round out top-six

While this was a polarizing top-four to order, there was hardly a peep about Wilson as the No. 1 prospect after he went fourth to the Bulls. There also wasn’t one about him not being in the same tier as those guys while clearly separated from everyone else fifth onward. Wilson is one of those toolsy forward prospects but also plays his ass off with those tools and has made strides with his skills a whole lot over the last two years. Like the trio taken ahead of him, Wilson is going to be really fun to watch. He joins Matas Buzelis as 1A or 1B for the Bulls’ building blocks, and if Chicago can just find a lead guard, it could be an entertaining league pass watch.

Wagler is a stud and a major coup for the Clippers at fifth overall after they had a 50-50 shot at landing this pick. Doubt Wagler’s lack of explosive athleticism and zero dunks in one freshman season at your own peril. He’s got deep range on his reliable pull-up jumper with tons of craft and shake to create looks as a true three-level scorer. He rapidly went from Illinois’ spot starter due to preseason injuries, where he was affecting the game tons despite not touching the ball too much, to the focal point of the entire team. How he handled the amount of defensive pressure that came with that was impressive.

This all was due to Wagler getting vastly under-recruited in high school, and how fast he improved from not only then but for the Illini offers a tantalizing idea of how good he could be in three years. Tyrese Haliburton had a similar trajectory in the midwest. Wagler’s malleability will work just fine with Darius Garland and Kawhi Leonard, giving the Clippers an instant contributor to continue pushing for a playoff spot next year.

Brown is the prospect I am the lowest on compared to the consensus, going sixth to Brooklyn. I totally get the ceiling. He’s an electric, multi-dimensional lead guard when it’s all going. You don’t need much further of an explanation, though, when I talk about how erratic his effectiveness can be because you’ve seen those types of guards your whole life watching basketball. The inconsistent jump shot, decision-making, shot selection and so on are all prominently there when you watch him.

There’s also the fluidity of his pull-up shooting and reads as a passer (when he passes it) that are the allure for him going this high. The issue beyond the volatile impact is how he develops as a lead ball-handler when, to put it lightly, that will be a mixed bag in his younger years. Can he be effective enough with it while these other elements improve? How much does he contribute off the ball when he doesn’t have it?

The “bust equity” is high, and it’s why I’ve got him on the edge of the top-20. He’s easily got the largest gap between his floor and ceiling of anyone in the draft. Brooklyn needs a star, so I get it. But count the Nets at the bottom of my league pass rankings with Brown playing alongside Michael Porter Jr. and Julius Randle.

5:23 p.m. — Cameron Boozer expectedly lands in Memphis

Boozer is the type of prospect the Grizzlies have loved for years, a savvy front office with a few scouts plucked directly from NBA Twitter. These types of thinkers, like The Ringer’s J. Kyle Mann, have Boozer ranked as the top prospect in the draft.

Boozer is an incredibly savvy, physical and skilled big. He reminds me of Boris Diaw, not quite that he’s fluid like a guard but how he’s a playmaker from the mid-post and perimeter through bruising takes toward the rim. There’s some Kevin Love in there too. Boozer should make a decent amount of his 3s, while how laterally quick he is will determine his defensive ceiling, which is fairly high.

Memphis will be interesting to watch for the first two months of the season. It has no star right now, and however it chooses to exit the Ja Morant era, that gap will be there. With that said, the Grizzlies have enough talent to at least fight for a play-in spot if they want, and historically overachieve as an organization.

They have Cedric Coward and Zach Edey, two young players who have shown enough flashes that you can’t rule out All-Star teams in their future just yet. Jaylen Wells held similar equity before he regressed in Year 2. Ty Jerome quietly got right back off to where he was in Cleveland for a breakout year, and then got hurt again. Santi Aldama, Scotty Pippen Jr. and Cam Spencer are solidified as rotation-caliber guys. Maybe they find something in Walter Clayton Jr. or Taylor Hendricks following their quick exits from Utah.

If Boozer is legit right away and can be one of the main supporting pillars on both ends, then Memphis could be in business to be anywhere from stingy competitive to legitimately good. Then again, I say this about the Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans every year before their usual rotten injury luck.

5:17 p.m. — Darryn Peterson “falls” to Utah at No. 2

My hottest take of the draft is that Peterson is not only the best prospect in this class but deserves to be his own tier. The argument is that the risk of Peterson’s eventful freshman year being a character and/or injury concern is worth how excellent of a NBA player he could be. I think Dybantsa, Cameron Boozer and Caleb Wilson are awesome prospects capable of making All-NBA teams at some point. But I see Peterson’s ceiling a step above, into that true star/superstar level.

The context of Peterson’s alarming year misidentified how 1) his cramping limited much of what he does well and 2) the awful fit he was in at Kansas. Peterson’s rim pressure and playmaking, which are underrated, couldn’t get going on offense because of those two factors. The Jayhawks surrounded him with low-IQ ball-handlers that showed bad decision-making and clearly did not mesh with him. The bigs weren’t much better. His hammy and bad spacing really prevented him from showing a capable drive-and-kick game, with either greatly affecting his even assist-to-turnover ratio.

Again, some of that could just be due to Peterson being a “bad teammate” or not as good as he could be in those areas. Only those inside the Kansas program know the real story there with Peterson taking himself out of games, not playing when he was sick, how agonizing the cramping was and so on.

But when Peterson’s game gets going, it’s actually incredibly friendly toward his teammates, in a way where he’s actually contributing like a glue guy. His defensive heights are awesome and up there with anyone that was projected to be a 20-plus PPG player out of the draft. Peterson overwhelms ball-handlers, navigates screens at a high level and has terrific hands. His top-notch shooting ability will space off the ball, where I’d expect him to get active more as a mover, cutter and crasher.

He’s also tremendously smooth and clearly a literal step ahead of everyone he’s seen at these levels with how he moves. The motion of how Peterson gets into his shot, crossovers and such is of a polished All-Star two-guard in his mid-20s. I’m always in on those ultra-mature ball-handling prospects, whether it’s Markelle Fultz or Doncic.

That plus the defense makes it simple enough to place Peterson No. 1, even with the chance what happened at Kansas was less of bad luck and more an indictment of what he will be in the pros too. To be clear, I’d be terrified to take that chance with the top pick, but I’d still do it.

No one is really saying it but Utah is the reason we have these new anti-tanking lottery odds. The Jazz for multiple years were committing some of the most obvious tanking we’ve seen, most notably selective minutes in the fourth quarter for their key players. They also tore down some fairly competitive teams at the trade deadline that could have pushed for a play-in spot.

Will Hardy is a terrific head coach and Utah’s roster is well-stocked for a top-6 run even if restricted free agent Walker Kessler leaves but you have to wonder if you can instill a winning culture right after purposefully implementing a losing one. If our half-joking half-not-joking concept of the basketball gods were a real thing, this is a great test case for their existence.

Regardless of the karmic implications, landing Peterson is massive. He bounces off Keyonte George well, two combos who do a good amount of playmaking but aren’t point guards. George, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Lauri Markkanen are All-Star-caliber players right now. Peterson will be the fourth very, very soon.

5:11 p.m. — Wizards pick A.J. Dybantsa over Darryn Peterson

Dybantsa’s floor as a mid-20s points per game scorer with his size is why he’s viewed by some as the guy you take first in this class. It’s logical. But what type of contributions Dybantsa gives his team with that tremendous production is going to be what dictates if this decision pays off or not. This is not an ultra-rare skillset. In the last five years, there were 31 players who posted at least 25 PPG, per Stathead. So what else does he give you?

The key for Dybantsa will be if his relentless desire to score and get into the teeth of the defense comes with enough playmaking, where his lack of shake as a ball-handler is more of an enemy than his vision. At BYU he had 130 assists and 108 turnovers, with a tendency to take bad shots. It’s unclear if he will be a good 3-point shooter, and odds are he’s average more than anything else. His engagement on defense ramping up feels pretty necessary, especially given the impact he could provide with his length.

Peterson, Cameron Boozer and Caleb Wilson all offer more “winning player” traits than Dybantsa. This is not to say he lacks them, but just in comparison. Dybantsa also has the best meshing of athletic traits and skill traits between all four. And even if he ends up overly relying on his individual scoring, Dybantsa still has a path toward becoming unstoppable in that area.

Washington’s got a choice after re-signing Trae Young. It could go forward with its plan to push forward with Anthony Davis, who it traded for before it landed this high of a pick, or reroute Davis to let Young run-and-gun with a bunch of young athletes. The Wizards should go that direction, fully empowering the likes of Dybantsa, Tre Johnson, Will Riley, Kyshawn George, Alex Sarr, Bub Carrington and Bilal Coulibaly. It’s also a leap of faith in Young, who has been known to be ball-dominant while his teammates watch him dribble and wait to see if they will get the swing pass or not.