ESPN revealed its first post-lottery NBA mock draft on Sunday afternoon, not too long after the Washington Wizards won the lottery and secured the No. 1 overall pick.
With the draft order now set for the entire first round, the next order of business will be the draft combine in Chicago that starts Monday and goes through the end of this week. There is sure to be some SEC talent at the combine, and there sure was a lot of SEC talent in ESPN’s mock draft on Sunday, with 7 standouts from the conference being forecast to be selected in the opening round of the draft on June 23.
The draft will continue on June 24, and ESPN also revealed its mock draft selections for Round 2 on Sunday. But the focus, of course, will be on the opening round, and that’s where the SEC could potentially make a lot of NBA teams happy on the first night of the draft. If ESPN is correct or even close to being correct, then SEC talent will be on center stage when the 2026 NBA Draft begins in Brooklyn on June 23.
According to the mock draft, Arkansas guard phenom Darius Acuff Jr. will be the 6th overall pick to the Brooklyn Nets, and if that actually happens then Acuff is sure to get a huge reaction, whether positive, negative or somewhere in between, with the Nets being the host team for the draft.
The next first-round pick projected from the SEC came at No. 10 with the Milwaukee Bucks selecting Tennessee forward Nate Ament. Three picks later at No. 13, the Miami Heat were predicted to pick Alabama guard Labaron Philon Jr., and just 2 selections later ESPN had the Chicago Bulls taking Kentucky center Jayden Quaintance at 15th overall.
Swingman Dailyn Swain from Texas was the next SEC player projected to come off the board at No. 26 to the Denver Nuggets. Then with the very next pick at No. 27, ESPN had Alabama forward Amari Allen going to the Boston Celtics.
The last projected SEC player to go in the first round by ESPN came at No. 29, with the Cleveland Cavaliers grabbing Arkansas guard Meleek Thomas. So, if ESPN’s mock draft is right on, Arkansas fans will have something to cheer about near the beginning and near the end of the first round next month.
Here is the rest of ESPN’s mock draft with those predicted first-round selections from the SEC.
With the Wizards now having the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, Washington can start planning to see whose name will be called first. Here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about the top players in the mix to be that first name called, with BYU forward AJ Dybantsa leading the way right now with about an 80% chance to be that coveted No. 1 overall pick:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
