The Big Three Went 1-2-3 In The 2026 NBA Draft. Then Summer League Belonged To The Guy Taken Fourth.

The 2026 NBA Draft, the 80th edition, was held June 23-24 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and it was the first since 2021 to run a complete 60 picks with no forfeited selections. The top of it went exactly the way the consensus board said it would. What happened three weeks later in Las Vegas did not.

The Board Held At The Top

Washington, which won the lottery for its first No. 1 pick since John Wall in 2010, took AJ Dybantsa out of BYU, the first player in that program's history selected first overall. Utah followed with Darryn Peterson of Kansas, and Memphis took Duke's Cameron Boozer at three. That is the exact order ESPN's final pre-draft mock projected, though it is worth noting that ESPN's own Jeremy Woo had Peterson first on his personal board, which makes No. 2 a slide of a sort.

Chicago took North Carolina's Caleb Wilson fourth. The Clippers, picking fifth on a selection acquired from Indiana, took Illinois guard Keaton Wagler - who arrived on campus as the No. 261 prospect in the 2025 composite rankings and left it a Consensus Second Team All-American, Jerry West Award winner, and Big Ten Freshman of the Year at 17.9 points, 5.1 rebounds and 4.2 assists on 39.7 percent from three, having carried Illinois to its first Final Four since 2005.

The genuine falls came on night two. Duke's Isaiah Evans was the only green room attendee not drafted in the first round, going 33rd. North Carolina's Henri Veesaar, a seven-footer who averaged 17.1 points and 8.7 rebounds, lasted until 52. Portland made no selection at all.

Then Caleb Wilson Opened With 35

Summer League ran July 9-19 in Las Vegas. Wilson's debut on July 10 against Memphis was the event's signature performance: 35 points on seven made threes, plus six rebounds, three blocks and two steals. Chicago lost the game 97-96, which almost nobody remembers. Two details make the night remarkable. Those seven threes matched his entire made-three total across 24 college games at North Carolina. And it was his first competitive basketball since February 10, after a broken wrist ended his season. Over four games he averaged 23.5 points and 7.2 rebounds on 41.9 percent from deep.

Dybantsa played twice and was shut down, with no injury reason given. He was excellent in both: 27 points and seven rebounds against Utah on July 10, then 23 points, seven rebounds, three steals and two blocks against Sacramento on July 13, averaging 25.0 and 7.0. Boozer played the full run, averaging 18.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists over six games and carrying Memphis to the final. Peterson averaged 20.7 points and 4.0 assists across three Vegas appearances, with turnovers and fouls flagged as the correctable parts.

Golden State Won The Thing

The Warriors beat the Grizzlies 94-90 in the July 19 final for their second Summer League title. Yaxel Lendeborg, the No. 11 pick out of Michigan, was named Championship Game MVP with 21 points and 10 rebounds, outplaying Boozer's 19 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Deivon Smith added 21 off the Golden State bench.

A note on the awards you may see circulating: the Championship Game MVP is the only official individual honor we could verify. The widely shared "Summer League MVP" naming Boozer is an ESPN editorial superlative, and the All-Summer League first and second teams are Bleacher Report selections. Neither is a league announcement.

What The Grades Actually Agree On

Three outlets graded all 30 classes and disagreed with each other almost everywhere. Golden State drew an A from ESPN and a B-minus from Yahoo. San Antonio, same split. Dallas took a C-plus from CBS and an A-minus from Yahoo. The cross-outlet consensus reduces to three points: Memphis and Oklahoma City won the draft, New Orleans lost it, and Portland cannot be graded because Portland did not pick.

Everything else is one analyst's board against another's. Our full class breakdown lives on the 2026 NBA Draft hub and the NBA draft board.