Five teams earned ‘A’ grades on Sam Vecenie’s post-draft report card for The Athletic, including four teams in the top six. The lone team who picked later in the draft to earn the highest mark is the Hawks, primarily for landing an unprotected 2026 pick from the Pelicans to drop 10 spots in the draft.
Another 18 teams earned ‘B-‘ to ‘B+’ grades, meaning they mostly met or exceeded the value with which they selected players in the class. Multiple teams who only picked in the second round, like the Cavaliers and Warriors, found themselves in this tier. Teams who ended up landing players who slid from pre-draft projections also ended up in this group, with the Jazz getting Ace Bailey at No. 5, the Heat landing Kasparas Jakucionis at No. 20 and the Thunder getting Thomas Sorber at No. 15.
That left five teams to earn ‘C’ or lower marks from Vecenie (Houston and Denver did not make any selections). The Pelicans were marked down for the haul they gave up to move from No. 23 to No. 13 and select Derik Queen. The Nets were questioned for making three selections in Egor Demin, Nolan Traore and Ben Saraf that have positional overlap while the Knicks earned a middle grade for selecting a stash player who may not make it to the league.
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The 2026 NBA Draft looks to be loaded on paper, with a strong blend of returners who would have been taken in this class and high-level top young talent. In ESPN’s first mock draft, Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo have Darryn Peterson out of Kansas as the No. 1 overall pick. A.J. Dybantsa (BYU), Cameron Boozer (Duke), Nate Ament (Tennessee) and Mikel Brown Jr. (Louisville) round out their top five. Among returning college players, Jayden Quaintance (No. 6, Kentucky) and Yaxel Lendeborg (No. 14, Michigan) are the highest-ranking. Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report‘s top three looks identical to ESPN’s, but he has Arizona’s Koa Peat at No. 4. Another significant difference between the two boards is Wasserman’s placement of Baylor wing Tounde Yessoufou, who he has at No.6 but ESPN places at No. 23.
France named its 18-man roster for 2025 EuroBasket, per the team (Twitter link). Bilal Coulibaly, Moussa Diabate, Ousmane Dieng, Zaccharie Risacher, Alex Sarr and Guerschon Yabusele make up the current NBA players on the roster. Former NBAers on the team include Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Frank Ntiilikina and Theo Maledon, among others.
Former NBA player Wenyen Gabriel is leaving Panathinaikos to sign with Bayern Munich in Germany, according to Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews. Gabriel played his first EuroLeague season last year, averaging 6.0 points, and will remain in the league by signing with Bayern. The 6’9″ big man played 150 NBA games from 2019-24 across stints with the Lakers, Pelicans, Trail Blazers, Kings and others. He averaged 4.4 points and 3.4 rebounds for his career.