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NBA 2026 Draft Thread – Nice to Not Have to Think as Much About the Draft

It’s nice to be NBA champions, and not have to think too much about the draft.

But hey, the draft still matters, of course, so we shall see what Leon Rose and Brock Aller come up with! It could tell us what their plan is with Mitchell Robinson if they draft a “Ready to play” center.

221 replies on “NBA 2026 Draft Thread – Nice to Not Have to Think as Much About the Draft”

Your Question of the Night:

How many picks will the Knicks actually make tonight?

SNY Knicks
@sny_knicks
The Knicks are operating at the moment as if they will NOT go into the second apron, @IanBegley says

Ian provides more details on The Putback with @IanBegley

I listened the Putback to hear the whole thing and Begley made it pretty clear this is Dolan’s mandate. He even suggested it’s still possible the front office could try to talk him out of it. This is no case of Dolan speaking for Leon. This is Dolan speaking to Leon. So no matter what happens, Leon gets a pass here, and anyone who appeals to authority is appealing to James Dolan’s, not the front office’s.

Reposting:

As a reminder, these are my personal rankings with absolutely zero conscious care for where guys will actually be drafted. I even try to avoid looking at too many mocks, lest I get influenced into herding.

1. Boozer
2. Dybantsa
3. Wilson
4. Flemings
5. Peterson
6. Burries
7. Acuff
8. Graves
9. Philon
10. Steinbach
11. Wagler
12. Swain
13. Okorie
14. Johnson Jr.
15. Brown Jr.
16. Lendeborg
17. Mara
18. Carr
19. Lopez
20. Thomas
21. Jefferson
22. Quaintance
23. Stirtz
24. De Larrea
25. Cenac
26. Saunders
27. Ejiofor
28. Evans
29. Peat
30. Reed
31. Anderson
32. Nelson
33. Oweh
34. Gillespie
35. Copeland
36. Kayil
37. Bittle
38. Bilodeau
39. Lipsey
40. Ament
41. Castro
42. M. Brown
43. Thornton
44. Karaban
45. Reneau
46. Donaldson
47. Onyenso
48. Conwell
49. Tyson
50. Smith
51. Veesaar
52. Sharp
53. Miller
54. Nkrumah
55. Brazile
56. Wilkerson
57. Martinelli
58. Okpara
59. Lawal
60. Mitchell

-As far as the Knicks specifically go, narrowing it down to guys who have a prayer of being there when we pick of course, I’d be happy with Philon, Graves, Lopez, Thomas, Jefferson, Quaintance, and De Larrea in the first round, and Zuby, Saunders, Reed, Peat, Nelson, Copeland, and Nkrumah in the second or with a UDFA/two-way slot. That’s not to say I’d be unhappy with other guys, these names just stand out in terms of a combination of quality, and positional need.

-As you can tell, I am lower on Peterson than the consensus. I also think he has the ability to make me look very stupid. It’s just impossible for me to justify taking him over guys who flatly beat the brakes off him production wise against similar competition, and that’s without accounting for all the…weirdness.

-I think Nate Ament is basically Kevin Knox.

-Adding this to my original post, IMO there is an enormous drop off in this draft right around the end of the first round, give or take a few spots. It was hard to feel strongly about anyone past 35 or so. Those rankings might as well be interchangeable. Here’s to hoping we find the next Mo D.

I’ll just say Baba Miller is my sleeper in this draft. I see Jonathan Isaac with more scoring upside. Like many other players he needs to iron out his shot, but a lot to work with.

Boozer should go 1, but won’t .

I am generally pro-Wagler, it’s more of a vote of confidence in the guys above him. Ultimately broke a few ties via his less-than-elite functional athleticism (he had zero dunks this year and I’m not positive his frame will ever fill out).

It’s a very strong top of the draft!

I think we will make one pick we add to the active roster and another we keep around in some capacity (two-way, G-League, etc.).

In his pod re: cap stuff, Jeremy Cohen makes a strong case for not going into the 2nd apron. It’s hardly the no-brainer that some here are making it out to be. So pardon me if I don’t buy into the silly blame game.

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Folks know that tonight is only the first round, right? Alan asked specifically about the first round. marechal, do you really think the Knicks will make 2 first round picks?

0

It’s amazing that nobody from the Mets organization has been fired after this debacle has prolonged so far into the season. They’re 13th out of 15 teams in the National League, and Mendoza and all of the coaches still all have their jobs.

I think Cohen knows it’s the roster and that’s why Mendoza still has a job.

Stearns on the other hand..

Can someone explain to me why the NBA has let the Kawhi drama with the Clippers last past this draft night?

The evidence is so damning, yet Adam Silver greets it only with silence. Merely “Wachtel Lipton will issue a blue ribbon report” blah blah

Shouldn’t they have voided Kawhi’s contract, fined Steve Ballmer (which doesn’t matter because he has more money than does the League), and then docked them some number of draft picks? And wouldn’t that all have to happen before tonight?

Oops! It’s Dybantsa!

Not #1 pick high on him. Think he’ll be very good but not the best in this class.

It’s hardly the no-brainer that some here are making it out to be.

No one’s making it out to be a no brainer you illiterate troll.

We’re saying it’s not “suicidal”, and that the benefits of staying under it are overblown.

There are many good reasons to avoid it, and we’ve outlined several of them.

“Dammit, Z-man, I forgot they split the draft into two nights.”

No worries, I think they make 2 picks tomorrow but none tonight. (Not counting pick and trade scenarios.)

“No one’s making it out to be a no brainer you illiterate troll.”

I’ve been pretty careful not to call individuals names. But whatever, you are one of the stupidest posters in the history of this blog. Pretty much everything you have bitched and moaned about has blown up in your face. I’m sure everyone who know who you really are thinks you are a know-it-all blowhard who actually doesn’t know shit. But you keep right on being dead fucking wrong about everything! It’s actually pretty entertaining thinking back on your long litany of idiotic diatribes!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming…

Reporters spoiling picks 2 minutes in advance is truly a microcosm everything wrong with sports media. I don’t know why the TV broadcast indulges it.

I’d have rather had Peterson than Dybantsa. Seems like higher floor, higher ceiling to me.

Pretty much none of it has, dude. But you go on thinking that if it helps you sleep better at night.

I’m watching the draft, getting upset and thinking…”Damn, the Knicks never get to draft top talent…”. Still in disbelief, I guess.

Hey, guess who said this just a couple of days ago?

“This is the most slam dunk decision of all time.”

Let’s all enjoy the fact that the Pacers fell out of the lottery one more time.

This has gotta sting watching this if you’re a fan of those turds.

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“This has gotta sting watching this if you’re a fan of those turds.”

Like our good friend Donnie Walsh?

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“This is the most slam dunk decision of all time.”

What’s this refer to?

“What’s this refer to?”

I dunno but someone here clearly thinks it doesn’t mean anything close to “It’s a no-brainer.”

I can’t fathom taking Wagler over Acuff.

From my admittedly cursory glance at the top prospects in this draft beyond the top 3, Wagler seemed like the guy who I’d be least interested in.

It’s kind of strange that I had such little interest in doing deep dives for this draft when we actually have 3 picks. I guess it’s because there was so little time between when we stopped playing and the draft compared to the last 26 years!

wagler can’t jump, has funky low release, is built like a pipe cleaner and was recruited by exactly one high end program. but i really like him.

1

Spin it all you want, chump. Everyone knows where you stand. Take the L (and all the other L’s you have hanging over your petty little head for the last 6 years) and move on.

So the new Michigan coach in Dallas takes a Michigan player.. nothing weird

I saw Moretz mocked in the 12-14 area so I guess, but seems like that is not all that far out of his range. Does Mara go here?

Hmmm…Yaxel over Mara? Interesting. He’s really old but does seem to be as NBA ready as anyone.

It referred to strat’s declaration that we should pivot to a youth movement now bc our team is in decline:

For the record I said nothing even close to “we are in decline”.

I’ve repeatedly said imo we only have a 2-3 year window because we have several key players that are 30 or getting close.

So I think we should simultaneously be trying to keep the core together for another serious run AND drafting players tonight and tomorrow so as those guys age out over the next 2-3 years our young players can grow into starting roles.

The key is whether Dolan wants to go into the 2nd apron.

I think he clearly should, but if not then Mitch is the player I’d let go and I’ve elaborated on why multiple times.

If we go into the 2nd apron and have a disappointing season next year, we can always move out after next year to avoid the more serious issues and then retool. But no matter what, I want more youth for the long term and NEXT version. IMO the time to start that is now with an eye towards 3-4 years out. That’s separate from making multiple more serious runs.

I thought Brown Jr. was a reach for the Nets. He’s not a bad prospect at all, but I didn’t see any particular skill that stood out so much a team in their position should draft him at #6. Felt like they were accounting for their…uninspiring crop of existing guards.

Supposedly Acuff’s crew scared some teams. Whether Scott Perry is the source of the rumor is TBD.

I wonder if drafting Mara says anything about Hartenstein’s long term future there.

Nice win by the Yankees, now to pay attention to the draft to see who the Knicks trade their 1st rd pick too…

“I wonder if drafting Mara says anything about Hartenstein’s long term future there.”

Maybe Chet too?

Jeez, Morey traded McCain to OKC and he didn’t even get the Sixers’ own pick back.

Wait the Thunder just got that pick for two seconds? And they still have the 17th?

EDIT: shams corrected his tweet… it’s two seconds and 17 for 16. Thank god.

Makes a lot more sense.

Looks like Memphis got their Ja replacement.

Edit: never mind, now they’re moving down to 21.

“Okorie is an annoyingly good get for the Pistons.”

Isn’t he going to the Griz?

Well I can already tell we’re shaping up to trade away a guy I like.

Oh well. Champions!

So Memphis got 5 seconds to move down 5 spots. I wouldn’t hate that kind of return.

So Memphis got 5 seconds to move down 5 spots.

Yeah

It’s 2 from OKC to go from 16 to 17

3 more from Detroit to go 17 to 21

OKC gets Stirtz

DET gets Okorie

Well I can already tell we’re shaping up to trade away a guy I like.

This is why I stopped liking people before the draft. You can’t be disappointed if you stop reading every mock draft at 20 🙂

Detroit was mocked to Philon in a lot of drafts, maybe he’ll fall to 24.

Quaintance is very young and has major injury concerns. He seems very raw so I don’t think he will help much for a while, if he can even stay healthy. But he’s a good gamble for them.

Quaintance is pretty good Wemby insurance, to the extent that it’s possible to insure for Wemby

watching Shump just ask about everyones suiting is fun.
(feel like getting my shump jersey out)

Shoot, now I’m getting excited bc Noble’s #9 player is still on the board.

Their other guards aren’t good enough ballhandlers according to Vecenie

My guess is we take a big and call it a day or trade the pick for three or something, which is okay, as we are champions.

Zuby out, Knicks on the clock.

Edit: trade back one spot with LA? We’re about to do one of those paper clip trades aren’t we?

@ShamsCharania
Sources: New York is trading No. 24 to the Los Angeles Lakers for No. 25.

Never change, Brock Aller. Never. Change.

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What international rights did Brock Aller secure this time? Boris Diaw’s?

It would seem like the Lakers did this to prevent another team from swooping in for a player they really want.

Next year there better be a line on the Knicks drafting down exactly 1 pick

So LA takes the guy slotted much higher that we could really use… whatever, WE’RE CHAMPS

Maybe we’re getting a promise from the lakers to not make an offer on Mitch…

Lol, of course.

Shams saying we’re trying to trade 25 now

Where do I find circus music to play in the background?

The NBA’s salary cap rules are just ridiculously constraining. Takes a lot of the fun out of the league honestly.

1

Vecenie suggested they want to trade down but ran out of time so they just told LA to go ahead and take theirs. I’m sticking with “wanted to save $500K” for sanity reasons.

Hey now. Dolan’s gonna need that cash if we go over the Second Apron.

IF we’re keeping the pick, DeLarrea is a good stash pick for us. I mean, we were always gonna do something a bit weird so I definitely can’t complain.

We are definitely trading or stashing De Larrea lol

He’s the guy I’ve seen mentioned most.

6’6″ with legit PG passing skill, maybe not the ballhandling

Just remember, before Mr Silver, NO-ONE IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD HAD EVER USED THE TERM “APRON” WHEN IT COMES TO TAX

thank you for listening to my ted talk

Hey New York
I’m sorry it took so long to pick

(Does this thing count as the mild char somebody suggested in the last few days?)

I like Sergio even if we were bringing him over. His range was really more like 28-30, but he’s 6’6” and a great shooter/passer at only 20 years old. Great project.

how many players do we have stashed …geez

Of the guys who could conceivably still come over based on age:

Rokas Jokubaitas
Hugo Besson
James Nnaji
And now, Sergio

Then I’m counting 11 guys who are 30+, who are just pieces of paper

John Hollinger
Senior Writer, NBA

I love this pick for New York. I had Sergio de Larrea in my top 15 and think teams slept on him while he was hugely productive in Spain the past two years; the Knicks even got some cash out of the Lakers to move down a spot before taking him and potentially lowering his cap hit. The other interesting wrinkle is whether the Knicks would opt to bring him over right away or wait a year to help manage their ability to somehow stay below the second apron while still defending their title. Grade: A

Well they found Diawara and Huk late in the draft, so maybe they have lots of faith in their overseas scouts.

Can de Larrea refuse to be stashed? Didn’t something like that happen with Dadiet?

This is right in the range where De Larrea was mocked, and I like his overall profile. Solid work. No complaints here.

From Sam Vecenie and John Hollinger in the Athletic:

Sergio De Larrea | 6-6 | 20 years old

OVERALL
32

GUARD
12
Sergio De Larrea
Valencia
A secondary playmaker with length who needs to get stronger and tighten his handle.
Read full profile ›
Photo of Sergio De Larrea Valencia
De Larrea is a skilled player with a high basketball IQ, and those are the kind of players I tend to value highly. I understand why a team would want to take a flier late in the first round on him.

He can shoot, and I love the way he sees the game as a passer or playmaker. But because I don’t love the suddenness or tightness of his handle, I’m not sure he can be anything more than a secondary playmaker in the NBA. That’s OK, but I haven’t seen much that makes me think he’ll separate effectively. To play in the NBA in that role, he’ll have to max out his shooting ability and get considerably stronger to be effective on defense. Ultimately, I believe De Larrea will play in the NBA, but he has some work to do to stick.

Hollinger’s analysis: I love this pick for New York. I had De Larrea in my top 15 and think teams slept on him while he was hugely productive in Spain the past two years; the Knicks even got some cash out of the Lakers to move down a spot before taking him and potentially lowering his cap hit. The other interesting wrinkle is whether the Knicks would opt to bring him over right away or wait a year to help manage their ability to somehow stay below the second apron while still defending their title. Grade: A

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7382887/2026/06/23/nba-draft-grades-analysis-2026-vecenie-hollinger/

I think the probability of keeping Mitch is a bit higher now. If they didn’t expect to keep Mitch, it would have made more sense to draft a C. Now I think it may be more likely this kid becomes 3d string behind Deuce and we lose Shamet or they stash this kid.

Tarris Reed is the kind of player I would have felt “meh” about if we had drafted him. He’s okay.

Veesar is the next big on the board. Can kinda shoot. Meh as a defender.

Knicks get 47 and three 2nd rders?

Maybe two 2nds to go to 30 before that???

Sergio to Dallas

So is the total haul 5 second rounders? Two to move to 30, then another three?

Remember folks, champions!

So is the total haul 5 second rounders? Two to move to 30, then another three?

That’s my understanding but Shams tweeted it in a really weird way

Find someone who loves you as much as Leon Rose loves lighting draft picks on fire.

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Okay well that’s kind of a bummer, but hey, Flags Fly Forever and I’m not even being snarky

1

I’ll say zero picks because it seems like the easiest bet.

Knew it. Didn’t watch any of this

We are so trading out of the first round.

This aged like fine wine.

I bet we trade 31 tomorrow, too.

We traded Sergio to Dallas for 2 picks and #30

We then traded #30 (Koa Peat) to the Suns for #47 and three 2nds.

Along with Evans and Thomas, these are the 2nd round players we worked out:

#37 Trevon Brazile (PF, Arkansas, 23-167)
#40 Emanuel Sharp (SG, Houston, 21-355)
#41 Izaiyah Nelson (PF, South Florida, 22-266)
#42 Ugonna Onyenso (C, Virginia, 22-272)
#46 Dillon Mitchell (SF, St. John’s, 22-264)
#61 Rafael Castro (C, George Washington, 23-24)

Leon basically converted the 24th pick into 5 2nd rounders. And cash from the Lakers.

So much for my prediction that we would be seeing a different approach from him tonight!

I think that we’re going to draft one of these guys and keep him and actually play him. I really, truly do:

Best Available
G
Isaiah Evans
6’6″
180 lbs
DUKE
POS RK 13
OVR RK 25

Best Fit
C
Henri Veesaar
7’0″
225 lbs
UNC
POS RK 2
OVR RK 28

And if I’m right about this, I’d actually be pretty happy. I like both of them. Hell, maybe we’d even come away with both of them. They’re both good gets in the second around, and I think the idea of all the trading down seems to have been that second-round picks can be signed for cheaper than first-round picks. Brock knows what he’s doing.

I’m meh about this. It screams they are trying not to add salary, but 5 seconds can be greater value than the 24th pick assuming a few are decent seconds aside from the 47 they got. Now Shams is saying they are getting a lot of offers for 31 and will move that also. At that point I think they may be going a bit too far depending on what they get because I still think they should be trying to add some more young talent or another C unless they know they can keep Mitch. One thing is that like to use pick to grease the wheels of other moves. So they’ll have more ammo.

Do any of you salary cap nerds know how 2nd round picks work against the cap/apron? Like could we keep some of these dudes, and do the 2RPs scale down in terms of salary?

The apron rules are just absurdly punitive, but at least we have a FO that is acutely aware of how all this shit works. We didn’t really have a wasted penny of salary on the roster unless you’re talking about guys way at the back end making almost nothing.

Thanks for the update. It’s depressing, but I guess they are trying to keep the team together and stay under yge second apron. It would have been nice to get someone decent this year since second round picks are going to be lousy for a couple of years because of new college rules and. NIL.

I mean, if we truly are trying to get the band back together, there won’t be any minutes available for a rookie. Maybe we could get someone to push Huk for his 3rd-string center minutes, but that’s about it.

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First year 2nd Rd pick salary can go as low as $1,358,084.

Lowest other players can cost is $2,450,000

Each 2nd Rd pick that makes the roster saves us over $1M compared to a vet.

When you bust your kid getting high before a test and you’re like you idiot, think about your future!, and then he gets an A on the test and then you’re like well it’s still dumb don’t do it again, and then he asks why drugs are bad and you have to tell him about nancy reagan.

1

If we dump Alvarado, Dadiet, and Shamet and carry the three 2nd rd picks, we could try to retain Mitch for $12.6M/yr his first year.*

On a full 5yr deal, that’s $73M. It’s a slight yearly paycut but a more guaranteed money than his previous deal.

Our roster would be:

PG: Brunson/Kolek
SG: Mikal/Deuce
SF: Hart/Clarkson
PF: OG/Diawara
C: KAT/Mitch

Then 3 picks and one of Huk or Sochan

*League hasn’t published exact numbers yet, this is based on projections from Spotrac and Hoops Rumors

I could also see dumping Huk just because 3rd string C is fungible. That’s how we replaced Sims with Huk initially, although we did get a half season of NBA proof first.

Could we do a 5-year ascending deal for Mitch where the first year starts around $10 mil and the last is like $16-17?

They have to keep Mitch now after deciding to drop out of the 1st round or maybe they think Veesaar is the answer *he isn’t*

Dumping Jose would be terrible . Kolek can’t handle pressure defense

1

The idea almost clearly seems to have been to move everything down to the second round where all contracts will be less expensive. So it seems that instead of having one pick in the first round and two picks in the second round, we now have a total of five picks…….all of them in the second round. So now we can pick two guys that might actually make our roster for an influx of youth, and still let three guys float away. Being that the biggest likelihood is that we’re going to lose one guard (Deuce or Shamet) and one center (Mitch), those are the two positions that we oughta pick. I hope Leon/Brock don’t overthink it, but they’ve earned my trust. And again, I hope that Mike Brown has a seat at the table—he knows what he wants to build for next year, and he’s earned his right to have a say in who comes in and who goes out (up to a point, of course—he doesn’t have the pursestrings).

Could we do a 5-year ascending deal for Mitch where the first year starts around $10 mil and the last is like $16-17?

If you start him at $12.6M, year 5 is $17M.

Another team could still come in and offer him $20-25M/yr and he’d be gone unless we go over the apron.

Dumping Jose would be terrible . Kolek can’t handle pressure defense

Yeah, I don’t want to do it either but the drop from Alvie to Kolek is less than Mitch to Huk, imo.

Really, I think the player to dump is Mikal because on a day-to-day basis he’s not being used to his full value. Most days you could plug Deuce or Shamet in and not lose anything. We have more SGs than anything else.

1

“Really, I think the player to dump is Mikal because on a day-to-day basis he’s not being used to his full value. Most days you could plug Deuce or Shamet in and not lose anything. We have more SGs than anything else.”

I don’t love this, but I could be talked into it if Brunson would be cool with it.

26 it sounds like they are going to trade pick 31 and if they do they aren’t walking out of this draft with anybody decent.

There’s a giant dropoff from Mikal to Deuce or Shamet and I say this as somebody who has been fiercely critical of Mikal. Shamet and Deuce were both hot garbage in the NBA Finals that we won like one week ago. We would have lost that series if we didn’t have Mikal and gave those minutes to Deuce and Shamet.

4

You also have to factor in the size difference. It matters over the course of the playoffs.

Does anyone know if all the second round picks we received were for this year or are some for future years? We already had two second round picks so we could have as many as seven tomorrow night. That seems like too many to actually draft and pay.

I dunno. No Web site that I’ve looked at—and I’ve looked at quite a few—seem to have the updated second round order after incorporating all of the first round trades. I think we have five, not seven, second round picks—but you’re right, it could actually be less than that if some of them are for future years.

Tankathon seems updated and it shows 2 second round picks tommorow … picks they already owned

Well the answer to the thread question is: Zero. No 1st round picks for the Knicks. This is all because of the 2nd apron. According to NBA.com the Knicks trades result in this:

Lakers receive:

No. 24 overall (Cameron Carr) via New York
Mavericks receive:
No. 25 overall (Sergio De Larrea) via L.A. Lakers
Suns receive:
No. 30 overall (Koa Peat) via Dallas

Knicks receive:
No. 47 overall (via Phoenix)
2029 Second Round pick (via Phoenix)
2033 Second Round pick (via Phoenix)
2 future Second Round picks (via Dallas)
Cash considerations (via L.A. Lakers)

Then tomorrow they have picks 31, 47, and 55. Assuming no more trades of course.

Right. We have #31 and #55, which we already had, but it seems that we now also have #47. I hope that we take Evans at #31, or if we believe that Mitch is out the door either by his choice or by ours, then I hope that we take Veesar. I don’t imagine we can get anything out of #47 or #55, but then again Kool Moe (No?) D was taken at #51 last year, and most of us are thrilled that we just re-signed him.

31 will be traded away. As for the other picks, who knows

Vet minimums should stand by their phones

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