It’s early, but Mark Pope is already projected to hit a new NBA draft milestone next summer.
Just last week, Pope earned the distinction of overseeing an NBA draft selection for the first time in his college head coaching career: Both Koby Brea and Amari Williams were chosen in the second round of the 2025 NBA draft.
Now with some NBA draft selections under his belt, the early projections for the 2026 NBA draft call for Pope to have his first lottery pick in the draft.
ESPN’s early look at next summer’s NBA draft includes two UK players among the 60 picks. And both projected draft selections are newcomers to the Wildcats.
Center Jayden Quaintance — who spent his freshman season at Arizona State — is mocked by ESPN to be the No. 6 overall selection in the 2026 NBA draft. This would make Quaintance the first lottery pick and first-round draft selection for Pope as a college head coach.
Wing Kam Williams — who arrives at UK after spending his freshman season at Tulane — is projected by ESPN to be the 46th overall pick in next summer’s draft.
The case for Quaintance’s early draft projection is obvious. He was a top-10 prospect in the 2024 recruiting class (who was originally committed to Kentucky) and excelled last season while playing as a 17-year-old at Arizona State. Quaintance averaged 9.4 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2.6 blocks, 1.5 assists and 1.1 steals per game across 24 contests (all starts) for the Sun Devils, before a torn ACL ended his season early.
Obviously, Quaintance’s recovery timeline following that torn ACL will be critical to not just his 2026 draft stock, but also the ceiling of Pope’s second Kentucky team in the 2025-26 season.
Williams projects as the kind of wing prospect that NBA teams have strongly coveted in recent years. The 6-foot-8 Williams was a regular starter at Tulane last season, where he averaged 9.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.4 steals, 1.3 assists and 1.1 blocks per game. Perhaps most notably, Williams shot 41.2% from 3-point range on a high volume of attempts from deep with the Green Wave.
Plenty can and will change regarding 2026 NBA draft projections between now and next summer, but the inclusion of Quaintance and Williams in ESPN’s first crack at the 2026 draft class speaks to the talent level that next season’s Kentucky team will boast.
Pope’s second UK squad consists of 10 newcomers and five returnees from last season’s team, which reached the Sweet 16 stage of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019.
Notably, ESPN’s first look at the 2026 NBA draft didn’t include any mention of Jasper Johnson, the five-star guard who is Kentucky’s top-ranked recruit in the incoming freshman class.
Of course, the Worldwide Leader isn’t the only outlet that has released a way-too-early look at what the 2026 NBA draft may entail.
The Athletic’s first 2026 mock draft has Quaintance at No. 13 overall and guard Jaland Lowe at No. 49. Lowe played his first two college seasons at Pittsburgh before transferring to Kentucky this offseason. He’s projected to be UK’s starting point guard.
USA Today has Quaintance at No. 8 overall and the aforementioned Williams at No. 17.
CBS Sports has Quaintance at No. 5 overall, but this projection only covers the lottery picks (the first 14 selections of the draft).
One thing that’s clear from these projections? Kentucky seems to be in good shape to extend its current streak of having multiple NBA draft picks in 16 consecutive seasons (including this year).
What is Kentucky basketball’s history in the NBA draft?
According to UK, 143 different Wildcats have been drafted in program history, including Brea and Williams this year.
Kentucky has had at least one player selected in each NBA draft since 2008. That’s a stretch of 18 consecutive drafts with at least one UK player selected. The Wildcats are the only program in the nation to have at least one player taken in each NBA draft since 2008.
While UK didn’t have a first-round pick in the 2025 NBA draft, Kentucky has had 60 all-time first-round selections, dating back to No. 2 overall pick Alex Groza in 1949.
The most recent Wildcats to be taken in the first round of the NBA draft were Reed Sheppard (third overall) and Rob Dillingham (eighth) in 2024.