The New York Knicks are NBA champions, and it’s still hard to believe it. The Knicks won their first NBA championship in 53 years by knocking off the San Antonio Spurs in five games on Saturday night. New York’s historic 29-point second half comeback in Game 4 will be remembered forever as one of the wildest finishes in league history, and it ends a five decade title drought for one of the marquee franchises in the sport.

The NBA offseason starts now. The 2026 NBA Draft is coming June 23 and 24, and it will be followed by the start of free agency a week later. All eyes are on a potential Giannis Antetokounmpo trade, and the arrival of loaded draft class will only bring more pressure to complete deals quickly around the league.

There’s still a lot of mystery at the top of the draft. The Washington Wizards have been widely projected to take BYU wing A.J. Dybantsa at No. 1 overall since winning the lottery. There’s no guarantee that will happen, because Duke’s Cameron Boozer and Kansas guard Darryn Peterson are No. 1 overall talents in their own right.

Last week, we projected the first-round of the draft based on league buzz. A lot has already changed in the time since. Let’s dive into another NBA mock draft, with more analysis after the table.

Let’s dive into some of the biggest themes of this draft.

While the media (guilty) has anointed Dybantsa as the top pick, I honestly haven’t seen too many boards with him at No. 1 outside of Jeremy Woo at ESPN and Sam Vecenie at The Athletic. For most people, either Cameron Boozer or Darryn Peterson is the best player available, and to this point Washington has given no indications which way they’re leaning. This isn’t a hard decision in my eyes: I would take Boozer at No. 1 for the Wizards or any other team. I’ve been consistent about this since this class was going through their senior year of high school, and I certainly wasn’t dissuaded by his one-and-done season at Duke, where Boozer was clearly the best player in college basketball as a true freshman.

There was a brief moment where I considered Peterson at No. 1, and that was when he dropped 58 points on Dybantsa in Feb. 2025 when they matched up near the end of their high school careers. The full game is on YouTube, and it’s still a spectacular watch:

The best version of Peterson feels like one of the strongest guard prospects to hit the NBA in recent memory. We did not see that player this year as he dealt with bizarre soft tissue strains and cramping at Kansas. He says the problem is under control now — he was taking too much creatine without proper hydration — and I tend to think that getting professional advice from an NBA team will be better for his health than listening to his family or private trainers.

This draft is starting to remind of the 2022 class, when everyone was so sure the Orlando Magic were picking Jabari Smith Jr. at No. 1 until they decided to take Paolo Banchero when they turned in the card. Dybantsa just leaves too much doubt outside of his scoring for a top pick. I predict the Wizards go with Peterson or Boozer, and today I’m settling on Peterson.

• The Clippers at No. 5: The top-4 feels like the top-4 in this draft. Ask 20 people who they think is the fifth best prospect in the class and you might get 10 different answers. That means the Clippers have the biggest decision in this class after earning the pick from the Indiana Pacers in the Ivica Zubac trade. I could see the Clippers going with Keaton Wagler or Kingston Flemings or even Yaxel Lendeborg or Aday Mara. In this mock, I’m giving them my pick for the fifth-best player in the class, Louisville guard Mikel Brown Jr. Brown’s shot selection can get wild at times, and it’s scary that he was already hampered by a back injury at age-20, but his intersection of pull-up shooting, three-point volume, passing creativity, and rim pressure sets him apart from the other guards in the class in my mind.
• The Nets at No. 6: Brooklyn feels like such a wildcard in the draft. I hated the Nets five-man class last year, and time will tell how it pans out. I don’t really like the names associated with the Nets this year, either. It appears this is shaping up to be Nate Ament vs. Darius Acuff, and while I’m not as high on Acuff as others are, he’s still the better option out of the two in my eyes. Acuff’s offensive production was unreal at Arkansas, but I fear he’s going to need to maintain his greatness on that end of the floor because his defense is full of red flags. Maybe he can do it, but I’m skeptical of his shot selection and if he’s really going to be a 44 percent three-point shooter long-term in the league. I know what you’re thinking: didn’t the Nets draft a bunch of ball handlers last year? Yes, but this is the Nets, the roster is terrible and their draft strategy doesn’t make any sense. I feel bad for the cool Brooklyn fans out there.
• The Bucks at No. 10: I had Milwaukee taking Labaron Philon at No. 10 last week. This week, Ament falls to the Bucks after Brooklyn passes on him. I certainly wouldn’t take Ament in the top-10 of this draft, but I can see the appeal for a tall forward who potentially spaces the floor and adds some supplemental rim protection. If the Bucks finally trade Giannis, they are fully resetting their timeline to zero, and Ament would have a long leash to develop.

Let us know in the comments.