nba draft

Even during an early start to their offseason, the Clippers got one major win in May.

The Clippers were the quiet winners of the NBA draft lottery, where, with coin-flip odds, they swiped the Indiana Pacers’ first-round pick in a loaded draft class. The No. 5 pick can add an immediate rotation player for the Clippers while also being a potential fulcrum for what experts consider one of the deepest draft classes ever.

The top four prospects are locked. The only question is in what order Brigham Young forward AJ Dybantsa, Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, Duke forward Cameron Boozer and North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson will hear their names called Tuesday night at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Washington, which picks first, Utah, Memphis and Chicago have the first shots at those potential franchise-defining players.

The first round then could turn with the Clippers’ pick.

“It puts the Clippers in an interesting spot at five,” ESPN draft analyst Jeremy Woo said on a conference call with reporters. “They’ve got options, including trades.”

After the top tier of primarily wing prospects, four guards are likely to go in the next wave of picks. Louisville’s Mikel Brown Jr. broke former No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg’s Atlantic Coast Conference freshman record with 45 points in a game, but did not play in the NCAA tournament because of a back injury after averaging 18.2 points and 4.7 assists for the Cardinals.

Kingston Flemings (16.1 points, 5.2 assists, 1.8 turnovers) became the first freshman at Houston to earn All-America honors, named a consensus second-teamer last year while leading the Cougars to the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16. But Houston’s bid for consecutive Final Fours ended against Illinois and guard Keaton Wagler.

The 6-foot-6, 180-pound guard averaged 17.9 points, 5.1 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.8 turnovers as a freshman. Coming out of high school, Wagler was the lowest-ranked prospect out of the four guards jockeying for draft position between picks five and eight, but he could be the first of the group off the board.

“He has the size, and he has this brain where you see how quickly he’s improved,” Woo said. “And that, to me, is the biggest thing. But I just think people will continue to learn more about him. He’s not someone NBA teams knew about really coming into the year. … It just happened faster than we all expected.”

Arkansas’ Darius Acuff Jr. has the attention of scouts after averaging 23.5 points while shooting 44% from three-point range, but the 6-foot-3, 190-pound guard could create a defensively challenged pairing next to Clippers point guard Darius Garland.

Garland was acquired in a midseason move that signaled a significant pivot in the team’s plans. The Clippers sent 36-year-old James Harden, who was having his highest-scoring season in six years, to Cleveland in exchange for the 26-year-old Garland and a 2028 second-round selection.

Two days later, the Clippers got even younger by sending starting center Ivica Zubac and third-year guard Kobe Brown to Indiana for 23-year-old guard Bennedict Mathurin, backup center Isaiah Jackson, two first-round picks and one second-round pick. One of the first-round picks turned into this year’s selection after the Pacers, who finished with the second-worst record, slipped out of the top four in the draft lottery.

Zubac, 29, was the Clippers’ longest-tenured player and top rebounder. He and Harden were two of their top three scorers.

Houston guard Kingston Flemings goes for a layup during an NCAA tournament game in March.

(Ashley Landis / Associated Press)

“When we traded James and when we traded Zu, those were incredibly hard and difficult situations,” Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank told reporters after the season.

“But it requires that you must be honest about yourself and honest about where you’re at as a team. Usually teams, when you study team building, if they’re in this contender status, they usually take this huge drop to rebuilding. We’re not going to do that.”

The Clippers have had 15 consecutive winning seasons, the longest active streak. But they have not won a playoff series since their Western Conference finals run in 2021. Last season ended with a play-in game collapse, the Clippers squandering a 13-point, fourth-quarter lead to the Golden State Warriors at home.

The midseason trades helped the Clippers start replenishing their draft capital after the blockbuster move that brought Paul George and Kawhi Leonard to L.A. in 2019 hamstrung their assets. Because of the Cavaliers trade, the Clippers also have the 52nd overall pick in Wednesday’s second round, along with the 36th pick. The moves also helped reset the roster from the oldest in league history to one with six rotation players who are an average of 25.7 years old.

Leonard, who turns 35 the week after the draft, is entering the final year of his contract. The superstar forward averaged a career-best 27.9 points while playing 65 games, just the second time with the Clippers that he appeared in 60 or more in a season.

But the franchise still is waiting for the results of a league investigation into alleged salary cap circumvention involving Leonard and former team sponsor Aspiration. The punishment levied could include multimillion-dollar fines, a loss of future draft picks or voiding Leonard’s contract with the team.

The Lakers will seek to use their 25th pick in Tuesday’s first round of the NBA draft on a player who fills a need on a roster that could have up to nine free agents this summer. Yet the Lakers also are aware that picking that late in the round could leave them selecting the best player available.

They probably will be in search of a center who can be a lob threat or an athletic wing who can play defense and knock down three-pointers, two positions the Lakers crave as they try to build a team around star Luka Doncic that fits best with his style of play.

Names that NBA executives and mock drafts attached to the Lakers are Kentucky center Jayden Quaintance, Texas forward Dailyn Swain and Duke wing Isaiah Evans.

The Lakers spent time in Spain looking at 20-year-old guard Sergio de Larrea, but many NBA scouts see him going later in the first round or even in the second. According to people not authorized to speak publicly, the Lakers were impressed by their workout with Purdue point guard Braden Smith. But he’s on the smaller side (6 feet) and played four years in college, leading scouts to believe his upside is not that high and that he’ll be drafted in the second round.

The Lakers don’t have a pick in Wednesday’s second round.

After the Lakers were swept by a deep and athletic Oklahoma City team in the second round of the playoffs, president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka outlined what it takes when trying to compete in the uber-tough Western Conference against the likes of the Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs, who became the second-youngest team to reach the NBA Finals.

Pelinka looked at how Thunder guard Ajay Mitchell was drafted in the second round and how he flourished in just his second season, especially in the playoffs, in which he averaged 15.1 points and 4.3 assists in 11 games.

“Depth is really important, athleticism and youth. We have a lot of components of that on our roster, but we need to add to it,” Pelinka said last month during his exit interview with the media. “I think those are some of the key North Stars that we need to look at.

“One of the players that they had who played really well, Ajay Mitchell, they got in the second round. So there’s ways to add to your roster if you commit to doing the hard work and commit to the process of adding the right pieces. … We’ll be doing that through the draft and free agency and through trades. We’ve gotta find a way to have a roster that will compete with any team in the NBA. That’s what we do here.”

The Lakers do have three tradable first-round picks — 2026, 2031 and 2033 — but the latter two can’t be moved until after the draft.

Lakers star LeBron James is an unrestricted free agent and is looking for a deal from the Lakers, while Austin Reaves is expected to opt out of his $14.8-million deal so he can sign a contract with them for up to five years and about $241 million.

Still, the Lakers have to proceed with the draft to find a player.

Texas forward Dailyn Swain, left, vies for a loose ball against Purdue guard Braden Smith during an NCAA tournament game in March.

(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)

Swain (6-7) and Evans (6-6) are the kind of athletic wings the Lakers could use, but both might be chosen before the Lakers make their pick.

The 6-9 Quaintance could slide to the Lakers because of health concerns. He played in only four games last season at Kentucky because the team was being cautious following knee surgery after he tore an anterior cruciate ligament when he played at Arizona State.

Scouts still view him as mobile, athletic and young enough — he turns 19 next month — to develop. But, Quaintance will need to rehab his knee and probably won’t be ready for the upcoming season. When healthy, scouts said, he can be the lob threat and defender that Doncic yearns to have.

The tallest player in college basketball history plans to take his long strides from Gainesville, Fla., to Orange County.

Olivier Rioux, who is 7-foot-9 yet seldom played at Florida, has committed to UC Irvine, he announced on Instagram. His move likely was prompted by the near certainty that he wouldn’t crack the Gators’ starting lineup next season, either.

Florida is expected to be ranked No. 1 entering the 2026-27 season after finishing 27-8 and ranked No. 9 in the final AP poll behind three star players. Thomas Haugh and Alex Condon announced they would return and Rueben Chinyelu is expected to withdraw from the NBA draft and also return.

Rioux, who will be a redshirt sophomore, grew up in Quebec and played at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., before attending Florida as a preferred walk-on. He appeared in 11 games, scoring seven points, becoming the tallest player to score in a Division I game.

He will be fun to watch play regardless of whether he is dominant. Rioux dunks without jumping, a feat highlighted by his first college field goal against Saint Francis in December 2025 and a memorable March Madness moment in 2026 with an offensive rebound and put-back dunk.

He didn’t play more than a few minutes at a time because Florida coach Todd Golden said he lacked the stamina to do so.

Mamadou Ndiaye, who is 7-foot-6, played at Irvine from 2014-2016, likely confident he would be the tallest ever to suit up for the Anteaters. Ndiaye twice was named Big West defensive player of the year and helped Irvine to a Big West Conference title and NCAA tournament berth. He played five years in the NBA, including for the Clippers in 2004-05.

Rioux is one of only three college basketball players in history taller than the decorated former Irvine center, according to ESPN. The Anteaters can only hope Rioux makes a similar impact.

Last season Irvine won the Big West regular-season title but lost to Hawaii in the conference tournament. The Anteaters went 32-7 in 2024-25. Guard Jurian Dixon starred on both teams but transferred to Virginia this offseason.

According to the Florida media guide, Rioux is the Guinness World Record holder for tallest teenager. He stood 6-1 at age eight, 6-11 by sixth grade and became a certified 7-footer the next summer. Rioux played on Canada’s national team at various age levels.

The center redshirted in 2024-25 when Gators won the national title in 2025 and appeared in 11 games last season. In late March, he announced that he would enter the portal in search of more playing time. On Thursday, he made a decision.

“Next stop: Irvine, California,” he wrote on social media.

Alijah Arenas will withdraw his name from the NBA draft and return to USC for his sophomore season, according to a person familiar with the decision not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The former five-star prospect, whose father is NBA star Gilbert Arenas, was expected to spend just a single season at USC before declaring for the draft. But nothing went as planned during Arenas’ freshman season.

Arenas was involved in a single-car accident in April 2025 and hospitalized for six days after a Tesla Cybertruck he was driving hit a tree and burst into flames. The week that he returned to practice after the accident, Arenas learned he needed knee surgery. He didn’t debut for the Trojans until late January. And when he finally made it into the lineup, Arenas was thrown into a starring role in the middle of a brutal Big Ten slate and struggled to adjust.

Still, there were glimpses of the player that Compton Magic AAU founder Etop Udo-Ema told The Times had the potential to one day “be the face of the NBA.” Over one stretch in early February, Arenas had 29 points in a win over Indiana, scored 24 and hit a winning shot at Penn State and put up 25 points at Ohio State.

“Just the things he can do, the IQ he has, what he can see, the way that he moves, the length, the size,” Udo-Ema said, “he’s the most talented guy I’ve ever seen.”

But Arenas told The Times in late February that he was unhappy with the results of his freshman campaign to that point.

“I know what I’m capable of. And I’m not there yet,” Arenas said. “Simple as that.”

Arenas had submitted his name as an early entrant in the NBA draft, the deadline for which was Monday. But ultimately, he opted to return to USC as a sophomore, in hopes of starting anew.

Arenas returns to a roster that should be even more talented in the 2026-27 season. Guard Rodney Rice and forward Jacob Cofie also announced earlier this month that they would return, while three top-25 prospects are set to join the roster this summer.

USC also already added a trio of players in the portal, including a 7-footer in Connecticut’s Eric Reibe and an experienced starter in Georgetown’s KJ Lewis.