The 2026 NBA Draft first round is in the books, and well, it was pretty chalky. Nothing crazy, nothing indefensible. Pretty much every player went about where expected. If you have other, different, or amplifying thoughts on the first round, please share them.
People like to talk winners and losers immediately after the draft, as if we know anything more about the players than we did 24 hours ago. Well, I guess we do know more. We have thoughts from their parents. Sometimes a lot of thoughts. Sometimes a sense
that a dad somehow thought he was being drafted, too. But in terms of who won, it’s hard to tell. Will AJ Dybantsa be an NBA player? The odds are excellent of that, but will he be a superstar? Who knows?
The Rockets of course didn’t pick in the first round, but at least their ostensible pick, which went to the 76ers who drafted Lebaron Philon. So Philon, and every player drafted after him can be a stick to beat the not-truly-dead-until-yesterday horse of the Russell Westbrook trade.
As for the second round, I think here valuations swing a great deal. Second round and undrafted players sometimes work out really well, mostly they don’t. Are the Rockets just filling out RGV spots? Could they get someone who might offer something on the bench they don’t have (which is a lot of stuff, so opportunity abounds)? To me there appear to be about four to six guys who have some real upside, though of course pretty long odds of hitting that 90th percent projection. Could one fall to the Rockets at 39? It depends on whether other teams picking ahead of them are trying to fill gaps or take an upside risk.
What I’ve seen in most mock 2nd round drafts is basically NCAA seniors who might as well declare for the draft, being picked. Maybe that’s how it will go, and I do have to wonder how different a steady NCAA senior in the 2nd round is from some very old (in NBA draft terms) prospects taken in the first round?
We will find out. The good news about the second round is that it moves along far faster than the first round. Why everyone needs to show up again for the 2nd round, on a second night, continues to elude me, as unlike 2nd day picks in the NFL, most of these guys really won’t be NBA players if history is any guide.
Anyhow, the Rockets are picking players, we think, and that’s more interesting than last year.
