Summer League Belonged to the 2026 Class: Meleek Thomas, Yaxel Lendeborg and the Picks Outplaying Their Draft Slot

By the DraftClassInsider staff · Published October 12, 2026 · Through October 12, 2026 (preseason)

At a glance

All-Summer League First Team: Cameron Boozer (No. 3), Caleb Wilson (No. 4), Brayden Burries (No. 10), Yaxel Lendeborg (No. 11) and Meleek Thomas (No. 34). All five are 2026 rookies. None of the Second Team players was a 2026 draftee.
MVP: Lendeborg (Warriors), who averaged 14.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists, won the championship and was MVP of the title game.
Scoring leader: Thomas (Cavaliers), at 27.3 points a game. He signed a four-year, $9,264,648 deal with three years guaranteed.
Record: Wilson scored 35 points in his Las Vegas debut, the most ever in a debut there.
Reported preseason starters: Dybantsa, Peterson, Lendeborg and No. 8 pick Kingston Flemings.

A Summer League Sweep

When the NBA named its All-Summer League teams on July 21, every First Team player came from the June draft. Second Team players Cedric Coward, Egor Demin, Khaman Maluach, Liam McNeeley and Zyon Pullin are not 2026 draftees. Boozer, the No. 3 pick, was the expected name, and we cover him in our Peterson vs. Boozer preview. The other four are the subject here.

Meleek Thomas: The Second-Round Scorer

Thomas, a guard from Arkansas, was drafted 34th by Sacramento and traded on draft night to Cleveland, which gave up the No. 29 pick (Alex Karaban) to get him and a 2032 second-round pick. He then led Summer League in scoring. In four games he averaged 27.3 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists while shooting 50% from the field and 43.8% from three.

His contract makes that even more notable. As the 34th pick he could only sign a second-round deal, not a rookie-scale contract. Hoops Rumors lists his deal at four years and $9,264,648, with the first three years guaranteed. That total is less than the $14,748,000 that No. 1 pick AJ Dybantsa will make this season alone. If Thomas can score that way in the regular season, Cleveland has one of the cheapest scorers in the league.

Yaxel Lendeborg: MVP, and a Starter

Michigan had three players drafted between picks 9 and 12, and Lendeborg, the No. 11 pick, has stood out the most. He averaged 14.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists in six Las Vegas games for a Warriors team that won the Summer League title. He was named MVP in a vote of all 30 NBA teams. In the championship game, a 94-90 win over Boozer's Grizzlies, he had 21 points and 10 rebounds and was MVP of that game too.

He has already started for Golden State in the preseason. In the opener he shot 1-for-6 but had 9 rebounds, 3 assists and a block. NBC Sports points out why he has the chance: Jimmy Butler III and Moses Moody are both out with knee injuries. A rookie who rebounds, passes and defends on a team with injured wings could play real minutes from opening night.

Caleb Wilson: The Record Debut

The No. 4 pick missed months before the summer with a broken thumb. In his first Las Vegas game he scored 35 points and made 7 of 11 three-pointers, the most points ever in a Las Vegas Summer League debut. "I came to Summer League as someone who 'couldn't shoot,' and they played me like that," he told NBA.com. Over four games he averaged 23.5 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.5 blocks, shooting 50% from the field and 41.9% from three on 7.8 attempts a game.

He has kept scoring in the preseason: 15 points against Phoenix, 21 against Memphis with five three-pointers, and 17 at Denver, for 17.7 points a game. Polymarket has him second in the Rookie of the Year market at 21%, and DraftKings had him third at +350 on October 8.

Brayden Burries: Good Summer, Crowded Backcourt

The No. 10 pick averaged 23.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2.0 steals for Milwaukee in Summer League, shooting 50% from the field. His challenge is playing time. The Bucks' backcourt changed in the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade, which brought back Tyler Herro, and Burries came off the bench in the preseason opener. He has had 7 points and 5 assists in 16 minutes, then 16 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals in a win at Oklahoma City, and he sat out October 11 as a coach's decision. ESPN called his minutes uncertain in its post-summer rankings.

Other Preseason Notes

Kingston Flemings (No. 8, Hawks): two spot starts while CJ McCollum rested, and 10.3 points a game over four preseason games. On October 12 he had 7 points and 7 assists in a 113-110 win over Oklahoma City.
Darius Acuff Jr. (No. 7, Kings): 19 points on 8-of-17 shooting, with 5 turnovers, in his debut against the Lakers. "His poise is at a really high level, and he's not ducking the smoke," coach Doug Christie said.
Labaron Philon Jr. (No. 22, 76ers): a reserve ballhandler on a team that added LeBron James and Jaylen Brown this summer. He had 14 points and 7 assists against Boston on October 10, when LeBron James, Jaylen Brown and Joel Embiid sat out. "I really like his ability to run the team," Nick Nurse said.
Ryan Conwell (No. 37, Heat): a second-round pick on a three-year deal. He had 22 points, 9 assists and 5 rebounds off the bench in a one-point preseason loss to Minnesota.

Our Take

Summer League stats often don't carry over. The competition is uneven, and good young players can put up big numbers against players who won't make NBA rosters. A complete sweep of the First Team by one rookie class still says something about its depth. The players to watch are the ones who have kept it up in the preseason: Wilson is scoring the same way, Lendeborg is starting, and Thomas only needs a roster spot and minutes to prove his summer was not a fluke. If this group plays like it did in July, the most valuable contracts in the draft may belong to pick 11 and pick 34, not the top three. For every 2026 rookie deal, see our contract tracker.

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