Latest / Bleacher Report / Biggest NBA Draft Winners & Surprises | 2026 NBA Draft

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Biggest NBA Draft Winners & Surprises | 2026 NBA Draft · Bleacher Report

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, let's go around the horn. Guys.
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  Speaker 2: The draft has officially concluded with the Malik Lewis pick.
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  Speaker 2: Let's talk some winners overall from Night two of the
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: NBA Draft, or I guess you can do the draft
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  Speaker 2: at large, Kart, who's your biggest winner?
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  Speaker 3: I'm going to go ahead and go back to the
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  Speaker 3: Kings here. I think they made a great addition in
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  Speaker 3: the second round, getting Emmanuel Sharp, a high level shooter
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  Speaker 3: who I think brings that winning level culture to a
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  Speaker 3: program in the Kings I think needs a little.
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  Speaker 1: Bit of that.
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  Speaker 3: So they get their star in the first round, and
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  Speaker 3: then they kind of round that out with Alex Caravan
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  Speaker 3: and Darius Acuff. I don't want to jinx myself here,
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  Speaker 3: but I love the King's draft. I think it should
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  Speaker 3: be deserving of the a ar A plus grade for me.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Yep, I think that's a fair one. Wass. We'll go
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  Speaker 1: to you next. Who's your winner?
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  Speaker 4: That would have been my pick, to be honest, Twinty, listen,
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  Speaker 4: I really like I like what the Grizzlies did. I
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: like that they I guess it's unrelated to the draft,
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  Speaker 4: but I like adding Isaiah Stewart. They're going for this
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: culture change. But as I said at the top of
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: the show, I love Ritchie Saugers. They took him, they
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  Speaker 4: took him second in the second round. Again, I think
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  Speaker 4: I had the Grizzlies yesterday as the team who I
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  Speaker 4: thought was a big winner, So props it in they
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  Speaker 4: picked my guy again.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: All Right, I'm going to be a little bit of
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: a homer here for my winner, and it's entirely off
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  Speaker 2: of the Yugana and Yenso move. But I actually like
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  Speaker 2: what the Detroit Pistons did for us here. I think
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  Speaker 2: they honed in on two guys that they really saw
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  Speaker 2: the vision for, the first being Obuko Koier. They moved
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  Speaker 2: up to get him. There was a lot of speculation
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  Speaker 2: that they had done some unprecedented level of background checks
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  Speaker 2: on Abuka ultimately made it happen, and then you saw
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  Speaker 2: the Isaiah Stewart move tonight where they were able to
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  Speaker 2: backfill it really nicely with essentially an elite rint protector.
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  Speaker 2: I think they've had a plan they stuck to it.
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  Speaker 2: Is it the flashiest or the sexiest names, No, of
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  Speaker 2: course not. But they've created some space in the process
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  Speaker 2: that could hopefully fill in with some star power alongside
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  Speaker 2: the role players that they've added in this draft.
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  Speaker 1: Is fish in the fish pool? Still? Is he going
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  Speaker 1: to give us a winner? Well, I feel like we
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: need to check in on our guy Fish. Please, if
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: you can hear me, Fish, please tell us that you're here.
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  Speaker 5: I'm hearing you, guys, adam me, Yeah, I've been. There
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  Speaker 5: are some all'll say there's there are some major trade
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  Speaker 5: wins right now that we've been working on. And I
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  Speaker 5: cannot take this call because we're still on air. I
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  Speaker 5: would say that my big winner on the on the
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  Speaker 5: trade front, both combining last night tonight, the fact that
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  Speaker 5: Atlanta did not move up in the first round and
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  Speaker 5: waited for Flemings at eight, and then on the flip side,
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  Speaker 5: the fact that they did move up to make sure
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  Speaker 5: they got Vsar tonight, who we know wass had as
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  Speaker 5: a damn near first round pick all the way down
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  Speaker 5: at fifty three? Was it the final pick they got
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  Speaker 5: up to fifty two fifty two with the Clippers. I
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  Speaker 5: like this and then Zubie in the middle there too,
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  Speaker 5: where Atlanta was supposed to trade twenty three but they
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  Speaker 5: wanted to wait got a guy they really liked. So
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  Speaker 5: I like Atlanta's draft.
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  Speaker 2: All right, let's do surprises next car.
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  Speaker 1: You can go first. What's your big surprise.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna go ahead with Malik Brown getting drafted early
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  Speaker 3: on in the draft. I understand what he brings defensively,
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  Speaker 3: but I don't really see positionally, size wise, how he
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  Speaker 3: can hang in the NBA, even though he is a
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  Speaker 3: you know, stocks get you know, if they count tips
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  Speaker 3: in the box.
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  Speaker 1: Four type of guy.
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  Speaker 3: He's the one that can really make an impact there.
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  Speaker 3: But I think with other centers on the board and
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  Speaker 3: players like Isaiah and Nelson and Henry Vassar and on, yes,
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  Speaker 3: we had kind of felt like a little bit of
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  Speaker 3: a reach for.
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  Speaker 1: A guy that was a five and five back up
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  Speaker 1: big in college. Yeah, I can see that for sure
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  Speaker 1: was big a surprise.
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  Speaker 4: I think a couple of the undrafted guys, Ralphe Alcastro
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  Speaker 4: to me was I would have said close to a
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  Speaker 4: lock to getting picked Usan I thought would have got
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  Speaker 4: picked last year. How he stayed in the draft. He
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  Speaker 4: comes back and you know, Flemings comes there. I thought
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  Speaker 4: scouts would have been understanding that Flemings pushed him off
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  Speaker 4: the ball and put him in a uncomfortable spot. Maybe
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  Speaker 4: that contributed to his down Yere but Uson to me,
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  Speaker 4: I thought was definitely going to get picked. So those
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  Speaker 4: two guys stand out the surprises.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Good shouts. I think we beat it into the ground
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  Speaker 1: a little bit.
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  Speaker 2: But Henry Vassar's drop was the biggest surprise for me
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: on Night two. As far as an overall class, I
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  Speaker 2: would look at what the Nets did in this draft
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  Speaker 2: and consider that a little bit of a surprise for me.
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  Speaker 2: I just for the second consecutive year, I come away
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  Speaker 2: not really understanding what the Nets are trying to build.
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  Speaker 1: Foundationally, I think they picked at.
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  Speaker 2: The top of the draft in that group of guards
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  Speaker 2: and walked away with the guard that I personally liked
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  Speaker 2: the least. The Joshu Jefferson pick was probably my favorite
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  Speaker 2: of the three in terms of where they got him
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  Speaker 2: and when. But to follow Jefferson up with Tyler Pilldoal,
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  Speaker 2: a guy that to me is going to play near
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  Speaker 2: the same spot in between this mess that they're building,
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  Speaker 2: I would have a hard time feeling good if I'm
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  Speaker 2: a Nets fan right now.
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  Speaker 1: Carl, I don't know if you agree.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, the thought process of picking players they like that
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  Speaker 3: don't fit.
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  Speaker 1: How many years can you do that?
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  Speaker 3: Till the roster just becomes a little bit, just discombobulated.
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  Speaker 3: And when you have it, I really don't know how
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  Speaker 3: you find success when he says just don't fit.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, tweelers and guys that need the basketball is not
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  Speaker 2: a puzzle.
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  Speaker 1: I'm buying into it.