The 2026 NBA Draft class is loaded with talent. 10 freshmen in college basketball could realistically be in contention as a top-five pick in the class, and the race to be the No. 1 pick is as deep as it’s ever been with Kansas’s Darryn Peterson, BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, and Duke’s Cameron Boozer. Some NBA teams may even have UNC’s Caleb Wilson in that conversation.
Wilson is seemingly viewed as the best of the rest after Peterson, Dybantsa, and Boozer, and is a virtual lock to go in the top 5 this summer. There are nuances to his game, especially his shot-making in the post, that make him appealing as a potential No. 1 offensive option in the league, but his freakish athleticism at 6-foot-10 is the reason he’ll be off the board early.
That athleticism was on full display against Miami on Tuesday night, even in a shaky offensive performance that led to a 75-66 loss. Early in the first half, Wilson took flight to pin fellow five-star freshman Shelton Henderson’s shot off the backboard. Really, one play like that is all NBA evaluators need to see to know he’s going to be an impact player at the next level.
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Caleb Wilson’s struggles vs. Miami won’t scare off NBA teams
Wilson left Tuesday night’s game with a hand injury before returning with a wrap. Hubert Davis insisted in his postgame press conference that it did not affect Wilson’s play, but his 12 points on 4-10 shooting would say otherwise.
North Carolina went to Wilson in the post multiple times late in the game as the Tar Heels tried desperately to pull the score even in Coral Gables. A few days after Wilson put on an absurd shot-making display against Duke, he couldn’t get anything to go.
Wilson was far from the only Tar Heel to struggle on Tuesday night, and understandably so considering the energy they expended on Saturday to erase a 13-point second-half deficit against the No. 4 team in the country.
Miami was particularly physical on the interior, and that’s proven to give both Wilson and Henri Veesaar issues this season. Duke didn’t have that level of resistance in the post, and Wilson exploited his height advantage against Maliq Brown, rising up to hit an array of jump shots over the shorter defender, and his quickness edge over Cameron Boozer, facing him up and driving him to the basket.
NBA evaluators may wonder if more physical defenders at the next level will reduce Wilson’s shot-making impact on the offensive end, and they probably will early in his career. However, his mix of size and skill in the front court is rare, and even in the NBA, there aren’t a whole lot of 6-foot-10 players who can run the floor and elevate for a chasedown block like Wilson did against Miami.
Maybe he won’t be the consistent scorer that Peterson and Dybantsa project to be, or the offensive hub that Boozer appears to be, but Wilson’s athletic ceiling is simply too high to pass up on.