Tuesday marked the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft, seeing the most successful crop of college basketball talent off to the professional level. Much like with every year, there were shocks and surprises along the way, but thirty picks have been made already and many of them were former collegiate stars.
We saw A. J. Dybantsa become the top pick and off to the Washington Wizards, while other stars like Cameron Boozer and Daryn Peterson also became lottery picks. There was intrigue up and down the first round of picks and there were a few teams and players who clearly lucked out more than others.
We’ll take a few moments here to dive into some winners from the first round after those first thirty picks. This is not a comprehensive list of teams or people that won the early stages of the Draft but a solid list of standouts.
Michigan
The Wolverines were already clearly winners to a large degree this year after becoming national champions just under three months ago. Then things really changed on Monday with Dusty May’s decision to leave Ann Arbor to become head coach of the Dallas Mavericks. What transpired in the first round of the draft certainly gets them back on track again.
Three Michigan players were taken in the first twelve picks of the draft, clearly standing out in the lottery portion of the night. Morez Johnson Jr. went ninth, joining May with the Mavericks, while Yaxel Lendeborg and Aday Mara went back-to-back at 11 and 12 to two notable Western Conference franchises.
Big East frontcourt players
There were plenty of mock drafts and projections leading up to the draft. It’s easy to get the first few picks right but things could really get interesting later on. There’s a great chance that a number of those projections didn’t have these frontcourt weapons from the Big East, but all three of them found their way into the first round.
After his brilliant work at St. John’s, Zuby Ejiofor became the 23rd pick for the Atlanta Hawks while a pair of UConn big men landed in the final picks. Tarris Reed Jr. is heading to San Antonio while Alex Karaban will play in Sacramento, giving Dan Hurley and the Huskies two more first round picks on the docket.
Bennett Stirtz
Four years ago Stirtz was heading to Northwest Missouri State as something of an unheralded recruit from the state. Over the next four years he was a massive weapon under Ben McCollum, winning a ton of games there and being part of historic seasons at Drake as a junior and Iowa as a senior. The numbers were incredible at the D2 level, as MVC Player of the Year, and as a star in the MVC.
Now he’s the 16th pick and is headed to the Oklahoma City Thunder by way of a trade with Memphis. This kind of rise wasn’t exactly expected and never happens if he stays at Northwest Missouri State. He also wasn’t exactly projected as a mid-first round pick by many even a few months ago. His meteoric rise into this position certainly makes him a winner.
Oklahoma City Thunder
We focus on college basketball here but it’s hard to ignore what the Oklahoma City Thunder have accomplished recently. The Thunder cut down the nets as NBA champions just last season and have a front office who are masterful at making moves to build both now and for the future. In fact, this team ended up with two first round picks after plenty of wheeling and dealing.
We know about Stirtz and getting a talented athlete like him is already fantastic, but the Thunder also landed one of the steals of the draft. Oklahoma City grabbed 7-footer Aday Mara from Michigan with the 12th pick and will likely turn him into one of their next stars in the frontcourt. With some disappointment after how this season ended, the Thunder really grabbed a haul early in this draft.
Milwaukee Bucks
Another team that really needed a boost, fans and supporters of the Milwaukee Bucks are still reeling after Monday’s news that franchise icon Giannis Antetokounmpo was traded to the Miami Heat. The Bucks got quite the haul in players and draft picks but clearly the direction and momentum of the franchise is in a much different place than just 48 hours ago.
This team really came up big with their first opportunity in the draft, getting a pair of studs in the first round. There’s a lot of excitement around Brayden Burries, the Arizona guard who went 10th to Milwaukee. The Bucks also landed Tennessee’s Nate Ament with one of the picks acquired in the Giannis trade. Could this be the beginning of a new era of success for the Bucks with this young talent?
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