New 2026 NBA Mock Draft features a trio of Wildcats

by: Zack Geoghegan4 hours agoZGeogheganKSR

Kentucky F Jayden Quaintance — Aaron Perkins | Kentucky Sports Radio

With the 2025-26 NBA season officially underway, now is as good a time as any to dive into some fresh mock drafts.

Jonathan Wasserman, who is Bleacher Report’s NBA Draft Insider, dropped his latest 2026 mock draft update on Wednesday morning. He went two rounds deep with this mock (a full 60 picks), which features a trio of current Kentucky Wildcats, including one going among the top five. The names, which have been mentioned in other mocks over the last several months, might not shock you.

No. 5 | PF Jayden Quaintance –> Toronto Raptors
No. 22 | SF Kam Williams –> Golden State Warriors
No. 54 | SF Otega Oweh –> New York Knicks

Wasserman also added player comparisons to current pros next to every prospect in his mock draft. He compared Quaintance to another former Wildcat, Miami Heat All-Star forward Bam Adebayo, while comparing Williams to Pelicans wing Trey Murphy III and Oweh to Cody Martin, who most recently played for the Phoenix Suns last season.

In his write-ups of each player, Wasserman praised Quaintance’s defensive skillset. He made sure to clarify that Adebayo is a better offensive player, adding that it’s Quaintance’s rim protection and movement that has him in the same breath as an NBA Defensive Player of the Year candidate. The ACL injury complicates Quaintance’s draft status just a bit, but there was enough of a sample size from his freshman season at Arizona State (combined with his young age) to justify a top-five projection at this point.

Get the Daily On3 Newsletter in your inbox every morning

By clicking "Subscribe to Newsletter", I agree to On3's Privacy Notice, Terms, and use of my personal information described therein.

With Williams, it’s all about his height and the 41.2 percent clip from deep he shot during his freshman season with Tulane. Wasserman sees him as a “plug-and-play fit” in the NBA due to his size and ability to work off the ball. And then on Oweh, the outside shooting is what’s holding him back from making a leap up the draft boards. He has the physical tools, but “scouts will want to see more than 0.8 threes per game to really buy his fit at the next level,” Wasserman wrote.

Regardless of where they end up going, if Kentucky has three NBA Draft picks on this season’s roster, we should expect a fun stretch of basketball in Lexington.

Join KSR Plus! With a KSR Plus membership, you get access to bonus content and KSBoard, KSR’s message board, to chat with fellow Cats fans and get exclusive scoop.