NBA Draft 2026: Pre-Draft Outlook, draft risers, and a must take in R1.

New York City – The NBA Draft is officially here. We are nearly 24 hours away from watching Adam Silver walk the Barclays Center stage and watch dreams become a reality.

The draft brings excitement, joy, but also uncertainty. We always have questions surrounding where someone should be drafted, whether guys are risers or fallers, and which teams could grow from the NBA draft.

The growing question amongst the current draft landscape?

Who will be the first overall selection?

For me, I’ve been looking at guys towards the end of the first round who I feel could have an immense impact and go on to have long NBA careers. In addition, guys like Felix Okpara and Nick Martinelli, who, according to sources, are jumping boards as very attractive second-round choices.

A very enticing spot in this year's draft is the center position. Whether it’s Zuby or Tarris Reed Jr, I feel as if those guys have tons of value and both should hear their names called in the first round on Tuesday night.

I have covered both of those young men since high school, and both have taken different paths but have found themselves in a very good spot. Zuby was a three-star recruit who ended his career as an All-American at St. John’s.

Tarris was a former Top-50 recruit who stayed the course, going from Michigan to Storrs, where he had a successful tenure under Dan Hurley.

Sources told Stockrisers.com that both have positioned themselves very nicely and have a really good chance at being selected on Tuesday.

Another name I’ve heard is rising: Duke’s Isaiah Evans. Excelled in creating scoring chances this year and only blossomed throughout his time at Duke. I’ve heard he’s been nothing short of terrific during his pre-draft process and could jump boards entering the draft.

An interesting pre-draft domino was ESPN's report that Michigan’s Dusty May had accepted the Dallas Mavericks head coaching job. Why? he has three former Wolverines expected to be selected on Tuesday night, and the possibility of the Mavericks selecting one of them just became even more realistic. 

One of those Dusty May products is Morez Johnson Jr., a prospect who was early on viewed as a guy who could go anywhere from 20-30 in the first round, but has now entered lottery talks after an impressive pre-draft.

So much so, he worked out with the Brooklyn Nets this weekend (No. 6 overall), according to Michael Scotto.

This draft has tons of question marks, but it should be filled with excitement for basketball fans everywhere.