NBA Draft 2027

[NarrowJ]

Keaton had the summer talk, and was on NBA scouts radar heading into the year. Everyone "saw him coming," we just didn't know to what extent.

The true "no one saw it coming" of this draft was Ebuka Okorie of Standfort. Literally no one knew of his name. Sucks he was on such a bad team though. I think he ends up having a Dennis Schroder type career.

Yeah I mean the timeline is important here

When he committed? Nobody saw it coming

When he showed up on campus? People saw glimpses

When he dropped 46 at Mackey? He’s a confirmed dude

I don’t want to diminish how rare of a story this is (likely hasn’t ever happened before) simply because a couple people saw him in summer workouts and thought he showed potential

Also: Okorie was ranked higher than Keaton as a prospect and drafted much lower

 

[the juiceman cometh]

Would love to know if Keaton was on any summer NBA mock drafts prior to his freshman season. IIRC I think he was still only showing up on 2nd round mocks early in the season. But I could 100% be totally wrong. I just don't remember.

And judging by these preseason mocks up above, it's again looking VERY likely that we might have another 1 and done on our hands, with QC.

To kind of jet around the discussion that happened after your post, here are some early mock drafts I was able to find. Sometimes these can be hard to track down because publications rather than publish a new article seem to update over their previous mocks, or they get buried in search results.

Athletic/Vecinie -November 4, 2025, 2-round mock draft: Undrafted - https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/67...t-darryn-peterson-aj-dybantsa-cameron-boozer/
- additional note: Tomi at #35

No Ceilings - November 5, 2025, 2-round mock draft: Undrafted - https://www.noceilingsnba.com/p/2026-nba-mock-draft-v1
- additional note: Tomi at #41

SB Nation/Rickey O'Donnell - November 18, 2025, first round mock draft: No mention - https://www.sbnation.com/nba/108952...pdated-projection-as-big-3-tank-race-heats-up

ESPN - November 18, 2025, 2-round mock draft: Undrafted - https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...aft-projecting-all-30-first-round-picks-teams
- Additional note: Tomi #43, Andrej #49

Athletic/Vecinie -December 4, 2025, 2-round mock draft: #37 - https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/68...raft-cameron-boozer-aj-dybantsa-caleb-wilson/
- additional note: Andrej #49, Tomi #55

No Ceilings - December 10, 2025, 2-round mock draft: #44 - https://www.noceilingsnba.com/p/2026-nba-mock-draft-v2
- additional note: Mirk #39 (!), Big Z #59

SB Nation/Rickey O'Donnell - December 18, 2025, first round mock draft: Not listed in first round but named as a player just missed the cut - https://www.sbnation.com/nba/109498...-boozer-peterson-dybantsa-race-for-number-one

ESPN - January 13, 2026, 2-round mock draft: #18 - https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/47581915/2026-nba-mock-draft-new-names-top-30-first-round-picks
- additional note: Tomi #56


So it's pretty clear that Keaton was not considered to be a draft pick at all until mid to late November, and was not being discussed as a first rounder until well into December at the earliest. And that was as a result of his play in games, moreso than his summer buzz. You look at that run of games he had in December and early January, starting with the Tennessee game, and you can see the direct throughline to ESPN putting him in the late teens in their January mock draft.

 

[Emerson Bigguns]

Not to put more work on your plate, but that’s essentially saying the SEC and the ACC are more talented than the B1G. I’d be curious how The Athletic or another publication mocks it.

Again, ESPN has a vested interest in saying those 2 conferences are more talented, so their evaluations should be taken with a grain of salt... This will likely happen every year.

When given the option to choose the best conference, they will go out of their way to dismiss the B1G, even when the head to head data says otherwise. You see it in both Football and Basketball.

They are trying to draw eyes to their content, just like everyone else in media. So they glaze their properties and dismiss others as less than, or somehow fatally flawed. Casual fans want to watch the best teams when their team isn't playing, so they create a narrative that supports you tuning into their games.

Generating viewership is more important than being right...

 

[EllderIlliniFan]

Again, ESPN has a vested interest in saying those 2 conferences are more talented, so their evaluations should be taken with a grain of salt... This will likely happen every year.

When given the option to choose the best conference, they will go out of their way to dismiss the B1G, even when the head to head data says otherwise. You see it in both Football and Basketball.

They are trying to draw eyes to their content, just like everyone else in media. So they glaze their properties and dismiss others as less than, or somehow fatally flawed. Casual fans want to watch the best teams when their team isn't playing, so they create a narrative that supports you tuning into their games.

Generating viewership is more important than being right...

Journalistic Integrity, Everything driven by viewership and Clicks.

 

[jamarvelous31]

Mirk projected as a lottery pick by CBS Must've been reading Lville's nuggets..

2027 NBA Mock Draft: Tyran Stokes, Jordan Smith Jr. lead an early look at top 30 picks for next year's draft

Tyran Stokes is the projected No. 1 overall pick in the 2027 NBA Draft, but who rounds out the rest of the lottery?

www.cbssports.com

 

[Fly Illini Fly!]

The true "no one saw it coming" of this draft was Ebuka Okorie of Standfort. Literally no one knew of his name. Sucks he was on such a bad team though. I think he ends up having a Dennis Schroder type career.

He was top 100 in the composite. Keaton was 261.

Ebuka Okorie, Brewster Academy Bobcats, Point Guard

Ebuka Okorie is a Point Guard from Ashburnham, MA.

247sports.com

(this is along the lines of what the FO68 guys said, which was a moronic take)

 

[the juiceman cometh]

Keaton had the summer talk, and was on NBA scouts radar heading into the year. Everyone "saw it coming," we just didn't know to what extent.

The true "no one saw it coming" of this draft was Ebuka Okorie of Standfort. Literally no one knew of his name. Sucks he was on such a bad team though. I think he ends up having a Dennis Schroder type career.

Neither guy was on any mock drafts before actual games got played, and neither guy was getting first round buzz until 2026.

Knowing that, and knowing that Okorie was ranked way higher than Keaton coming out of HS, and knowing that Keaton ended up going #5 compared to Okorie at #17, it really takes an expert contrarian to conclude that Okorie was the "true 'no one saw it coming'" story of the two, on an Illinois fan message board no less. Well done.

 

[Illinicpa14]

Mirk projected as a lottery pick by CBS Must've been reading Lville's nuggets..

2027 NBA Mock Draft: Tyran Stokes, Jordan Smith Jr. lead an early look at top 30 picks for next year's draft

Tyran Stokes is the projected No. 1 overall pick in the 2027 NBA Draft, but who rounds out the rest of the lottery?

www.cbssports.com

View attachment 50735

Seems like there’s 2 ways to mock this far out
1. Is with whose on the table and what they exist like right now if the draft was next month.
2. Trying to project and guess who takes a large step forward. In Mirks case here, that’s passing up guys that would have gone before him right now.

 

[the juiceman cometh]

Seems like there’s 2 ways to mock this far out
1. Is with whose on the table and what they exist like right now if the draft was next month.
2. Trying to project and guess who takes a large step forward. In Mirks case here, that’s passing up guys that would have gone before him right now.

I think another major philosophy difference is in how to project freshmen vs returning players. ESPN seems to be way higher on freshmen than this CBS mock or Vecinie (Athletic). I assume ESPN will end up dropping freshmen who don't perform as the season goes on, while Vecinie and CBS will move up those who do.

 

[jamarvelous31]

I think another major philosophy difference is in how to project freshmen vs returning players. ESPN seems to be way higher on freshmen than this CBS mock or Vecinie (Athletic). I assume ESPN will end up dropping freshmen who don't perform as the season goes on, while Vecinie and CBS will move up those who do.

Generally, I definitely agree there is nuance and thoughtfulness in different approaches there. My understanding is the consensus on next year's freshman class is they're pretty weak.

...hard not to think ESPN is ESPNing and trying to gin up clicks and views in their vertically integrated sports machine by puffing up guys that others have pointed out predominantly play on their network and/or generate traffic..

 

[WhereDoWeStandWithStorr?]

Oh I agree, but it's interesting that there are mocks llisted here that include other, even older, players like Stoj, Tomi, and Z and don't include Vaaks.

1. coleman
2. vaaks
3. mirk
4. andrej
5. tomi

would be my ranking.

I think scouts just want to see the EFFICIENCY as it relates to Vaaks.

Providence was a very dysfunctional place to attempt to accomplish that however.