The Ringer has released its 2026 NBA Draft Guide, and J. Kyle Mann’s post-lottery mock draft now projects every pick of the first round after the order was set. The guide lands with the draft board fixed and the league moving toward late June, when Adam Silver will make the selections official.
That is why readers are searching now. The guide is more than a single mock: it also folds in big boards, draft grades, a new comp system and other features, turning one release into a snapshot of how the class is being sorted before the picks arrive.
Mann’s full first-round projection gives teams and fans a way to test the fit of the top names against real rosters. He writes that Washington would get a win if it took A.J. Dybantsa and made him the driving force of an already long, athletic and versatile group built around Bub Carrington, Kyshawn George, Tre Johnson, Will Riley, Alex Sarr and Dybantsa. He also notes that Washington’s two best players right now are Trae Young and Anthony Davis, a reminder of how many moving pieces still shape that roster picture.
Utah gets a similar treatment, and Mann makes the case that the Jazz would be a better basketball fit with Darryn Peterson because of his shot creation, movement shooting and speed. The roster he is fitting around includes Keyonte George, Ace Bailey, Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr., which makes the projection feel less like a board ranking and more like an attempt to solve a specific basketball problem.
The sharpest line in the guide comes with Peterson himself. Mann still calls him the most talented player in the class and says it is not particularly close, but he also says the fear created by an utterly bizarre freshman season at Kansas is hard to ignore. That split captures the whole first-round exercise: the upside is obvious, but the floor is still part of the conversation.
Memphis brings another layer of uncertainty. The Grizzlies are back in rebuilding mode, Jaren Jackson Jr. is gone, Desmond Bane left last summer, and Ja Morant’s shoes are selling well, a strange mix of transition and staying power. In that setting, Mann says Boozer would bring stability with his skill and immovability, slotting in with Cedric Coward and fitting well next to Zach Edey if he is healthy while easing the burden on last year’s No. 11 pick.
Mann and Danny Chau are set to keep updating the big board and adding more mocks until the draft becomes official in late June. For now, the guide does what teams and readers want most: it gives shape to a draft class that is still fluid, but no longer abstract.
