In a lot of NBA Drafts, Cameron Boozer would’ve comfortably been the No. 1 overall pick.
In the 2026 NBA Draft, the Duke Blue Devils’ freshman phenom seems likely to go No. 3.
Whoever is picking third will certainly be happy about that. In ESPN’s Jeremy Woo’s latest mock draft, he has the Brooklyn Nets landing Boozer with the third pick.
That’s after AJ Dybantsa and Darryn Peterson go first and second. Boozer just happens to be in a stacked draft class.
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Why is Cameron Boozer projected 3rd pick, not 1st?
Boozer is viewed as having less athletic upside than Dybantsa and Peterson.
“He has the makings of a foundational, tone-setting player, and while his limited vertical lift might cap some of his upside, at some point, it’s hard to argue with the results he has gotten,” Woo writes. “Boozer is a longer shot at No. 1, but teams largely feel comfortable with the production they’re going to get from him.”
The reality is that a team like the Nets would love to get Boozer.
“Brooklyn has a lot riding on this lottery, as it continues to look for a young franchise player to anchor the team and doesn’t have control of its 2027 first, which is owed to Houston,” Woo writes. “Boozer is the safest choice on the board in that respect, as the Nets try to accelerate the competitive timeline of a young roster.”
Brooklyn’s lottery hopes will be to stick in the top-three. Any of Dybantsa, Peterson and Boozer has a chance to be a great player for years to come.
This draft is good in the rest of the lottery picks, too, but the top-three feels an echelon above everyone else, and Boozer is about as good a player as you can find ranked as the third-best player in a draft.
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