2026 NBA mock draft top 10: Which player emerges at No. 1?

While much can and will change over the next 16 months, the top of the 2026 NBA draft is starting to come together where we find a banner group of players flush with all-star-caliber talent.

After a much-maligned 2024 class, followed by what appears to be a strong 2025 draft, NBA scouts are already excited about what they are seeing early on from the cream of the 2026 crop with four players who are worthy of consideration at No. 1: Nate Ament, Cameron Boozer, A.J. Dybantsa and Darryn Peterson.

The depth of the 2026 class remains to be determined. We're likely looking at one of the weakest classes of European prospects in quite some time. And outside of the four players mentioned above, the rest of the incoming freshmen class does not appear to be especially strong, leaving question marks regarding the strength of the class as a whole.

That's not particularly surprising considering how early in the process we are, as there will undoubtedly be many new faces emerging from obscurity over the next year. There are sure to be plenty of 2025 NBA draft candidates who will withdraw their names, or not even enter the draft, which will also add eventual heft to this group.

With that in mind, we have focused on only 10 players for our 2026 NBA draft look-ahead. We will do a more extended analysis in June after we get a clearer picture of which 2025 draft prospects will return to college or back to their international teams.

After we take a deeper look at why Peterson is the early No. 1 candidate for 2026, we'll unveil the rest of the prospects. The draft order, as updated through Tuesday morning, is based on ESPN projections and which teams currently own or control those picks.

See more from :
2025 mock draft | 15 freshmen, 15 questions

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Who is No. 1? | Top 10 list
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Who is No. 1 and why?