Where Kentucky basketball players are expected to be picked in the NBA draft
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Jayden Quaintance is unanimously viewed as a first-round talent despite knee concerns.
- Otega Oweh is listed in several mock drafts as a second-round pick.
- Former Kentucky center Ugonna Onyenso is listed on multiple draft boards.
The two-day NBA draft is almost here, and a couple of Kentucky basketball players are expecting to hear their names called this week.
Jayden Quaintance’s NBA stock dropped during his season spent as a Wildcat due to complications with his surgically repaired knee and several freshmen rising up the draft rankings while he sat on the sidelines.
Still, Quaintance is expected to be selected in the first round Tuesday night, even though he’s no longer widely projected to go in lottery range.
On night two, it should be Otega Oweh’s turn.
The Cats’ leading scorer over each of the past two seasons (and now the program’s record-holder for most career points by a two-year player), Oweh is listed as a second-round pick on several prominent draft boards.
A few other players with ties to Mark Pope and the UK program are also expected to be draft picks this week. The first round will be shown on ABC and ESPN starting at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday, with either BYU freshman AJ Dybantsa or Kansas freshman Darryn Peterson expected to go No. 1 overall to the Washington Wizards. Round two is set for 8 p.m. ET Wednesday on ESPN.
Here are the latest projections for Quaintance, Oweh and other players of local interest.
Jayden Quaintance’s situation
Quaintance played only four games for Kentucky last season, coming to Lexington just a few months removed from surgery to repair a torn ACL suffered during his freshman season at Arizona State.
When Quaintance arrived, he was viewed as a potential top-five pick in the 2026 draft, and he could have been a lottery pick last year if the NBA’s age rules hadn’t prevented him from entering at the time.
Quaintance cited swelling in his knee as the reason he was unable to stay on the court after making his UK debut in December, and those complications have also prevented him from taking part in full basketball activities during the predraft process.
As a result, his 2026 draft projection has fallen significantly, and his injury status has remained a hot topic in recent months.
ESPN’s latest mock draft, updated last week, had Quaintance dropping all the way to No. 25 overall, a pick held by the Los Angeles Lakers.
“Quaintance’s profile appears to be in limbo at the moment due largely to the health of his knee, with team sources consistently expressing concern around his medicals,” ESPN draft analyst Jeremy Woo wrote. “... He is unanimously viewed as a first-round talent and is drawing consideration as high as the teens, but where he ends up might be predicated on how team doctors individually view his case.”
Meanwhile, CBS Sports draft analyst Adam Finkelstein has Quaintance going considerably earlier, with the Chicago Bulls taking him at No. 15 overall. The Yahoo Sports draft board projects Quaintance at No. 23 to the Atlanta Hawks, and a new mock draft from USA Today posted over the weekend also has him going to Atlanta with the 23rd pick.
If Quaintance can retain his explosive game, he could be a steal in that range. Draft analyst J. Kyle Mann of The Ringer updated his “big board” late last week, placing Quaintance as the No. 10 overall prospect on that list.
But those injury questions clearly linger. As of Monday morning, 24 players had been invited to attend the NBA draft in person in Brooklyn, and Quaintance was not one of them.
Otega Oweh’s NBA stock
Oweh has been the most consistent player of the Pope era to this point, and his potential as a rotation player at the next level has garnered plenty of draft buzz in recent months.
The newest CBS Sports mock draft has Oweh going to the Bulls with the No. 38 overall pick Wednesday night. “Oweh’s power, physicality, and projected two-way grit should fit the new philosophies in Chicago. When you factor in his improved spot-up shooting, he could have a chance to stick in the NBA,” Finkelstein wrote.
Oweh is also included in the latest mock drafts from USA Today (No. 48 to the Dallas Mavericks) and Yahoo Sports (No. 55 to the NBA champion New York Knicks), while The Ringer big board has him at No. 42 overall.
The ESPN mock draft does not include Oweh, but he’s No. 60 overall in ESPN’s top 100 draft rankings. There will be 60 picks in this week’s draft, so ESPN also clearly views Oweh as a potential selection in the second round.
Other NBA draft picks of note
Quaintance and Oweh won’t be the only players in the UK basketball world with NBA interest this week. Here’s a look at some others who are likely to be drafted:
- Former Kentucky center Ugonna Onyenso, who played for the Cats over John Calipari’s final two years as coach, has worked his way onto draft boards following a bounce-back senior year at Virginia that saw him lead all of high-major college basketball in blocked shots. USA Today has Onyenso at No. 36 overall, and he’s also listed by CBS Sports (No. 40), Yahoo Sports (No. 41) and ESPN (No. 46), with The Ringer big board placing him at No. 48 overall.
- Bryce Hopkins, a freshman at UK during the 2021-22 season who later spent three years at Providence and wrapped up his college career playing for Rick Pitino at St. John’s last season, is No. 44 on the Yahoo Sports board, No. 51 in the ESPN mock draft and No. 59 on the CBS Sports rundown. He was not listed in the new USA Today mock draft posted over the weekend and did not make The Ringer’s top 50.
- BYU’s Richie Saunders, who was a rising star for that program when Pope took the UK job and nearly followed the head coach to Lexington, is expected to be drafted this week despite suffering a torn ACL during his senior year. All the most prominent mock drafts project Saunders as an early pick in the second round: Yahoo (No. 31), USA Today (No. 33), CBS Sports (No. 36) and ESPN (No. 37). He’s No. 34 on The Ringer’s big board.
- Mikel Brown Jr. is expected to be Louisville’s first top-10 pick since Samaki Walker went with the No. 9 overall selection 30 years ago. Brown goes No. 6 (to the Brooklyn Nets) in both the Yahoo Sports and USA Today mock drafts, with ESPN and CBS Sports sending him to the Sacramento Kings at No. 7. The Cardinals have had just six top-10 picks in the past 50 years. U of L’s Ryan Conwell is also expected to be drafted. CBS and USA Today both have him going to the Oklahoma City Thunder at No. 37, with Yahoo sending him to the Bulls at No. 38 and ESPN projecting him to the Houston Rockets at No. 39.
- And John Calipari is going to have yet another freshman go in the top 10. SEC Player of the Year Darius Acuff Jr., the star point guard at Arkansas this past season, is slotted at No. 5 to the Los Angeles Clippers on the Yahoo board, with ESPN and CBS projecting him to the Nets at No. 6 and USA Today sending him to the Kings with the No. 7 overall pick. Calipari has coached 20 top-10 picks over the course of his career, and he had 16 of those during his tenure at Kentucky.
