The NBA Draft Lottery is finished and we now know which teams will be picking in what order. This means there is pretty much 20/20 vision as to where Arizona standouts Brayden Burries and Koa Peat will be heading. It would be the third consecutive year that a Wildcat was taken in the NBA Draft and the second straight year that one was taken in the first round.
If Burries and Peat are taken, they would be players six and seven taken in the Tommy Lloyd era. Overall, they would be the eighth and ninth players under Lloyd to make it to the NBA.
Last year it was Carter Bryant going to the San Antonio Spurs in the first round, while the year before it was Pelle Larsson taken by the Miami Heat in the second round. Bennedict Mathurin, Dalen Terry, and Christian Koloko were taken in the 2022 NBA Draft. Undrafted free agents Keshad Johnson and Caleb Love have also played in the NBA.
While Burries and Peat are the standouts from Arizona who have entered this year’s draft, Jaden Bradley is also projected to be taken in the second round.
Here are some projections as to where all three players could be taken on various mock drafts. Analysis from each site is included in italics when provided:
Brayden Burries
ESPN: No. 9 to Dallas Mavericks
Burries endeared himself to teams over the course of the season as a steady two-way contributor with room to grow as a scorer. Scouts see an intriguing upside as he continues to improve as an on-ball playmaker, but he is a solid enough shooter to play the 2, giving him appealing versatility. He is older than other freshman guards in the lottery and not as toolsy or flashy, but he might be closer to directly impacting winning.
New York Times: No. 9 to Mavericks
Burries was the leading scorer on one of the top three teams in the country, despite a slow start that saw him average just 7.8 points in his first five games. From that point, he averaged 17.3 points while shooting 51 percent from the field, 41 percent from 3 and 81 percent from the foul line in his final 34 games. He’s also an aggressive rebounder who grabbed 5.5 boards per game in that time, while averaging 2.4 assists as a solid ball mover who didn’t take many bad shots.
The question is about separating from his man consistently, as he’s more of a power guard who uses the threat of his shot to keep defenders off-balance. Burries turned into a really good defender by the end of the year and averaged 1.5 steals. For Dallas, Burries would be a terrific complement to Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving as they look to make a jump next year.
CBSSports: No. 9 to Mavericks
Burries is a strong and aggressive two-way guard who can get downhill with force, provide a formidable three-point shooter, and simultaneously defend his position. He’s also more physically ready to make the transition to the NBA game than most of the other one-and-done guards in the draft. Alongside Cooper Flagg, the Mavs not only have young talent, but young two-way talent.
Koa Peat
ESPN: No. 24 to New York Knicks
Peat opted to declare for the draft and has an opportunity to play his way up the boards with a strong predraft process. Some teams viewed him as an excellent candidate to return to school and improve his stock, an option that remains available to him. Scouts view his perimeter shooting as a critical swing skill that will impact his trajectory, as he is not particularly effective scoring outside 15 feet at this stage of his career. But his strength and quickness relative to his size, coupled with a solid offensive feel and ability to guard the perimeter, give him a chance to find a niche in the right situation.
New York Times: No. 16 to Memphis Grizzlies
Peat prompts a wide range of opinions from NBA scouts. On the plus side, he has won everywhere he’s been and is one of the most decorated players in his age group. He won state titles and four gold medals with Team USA in youth events, then helped carry Arizona to a Final Four. He averaged 14.1 points while shooting 53 percent from the field and is a tough, physical rebounder. He passes well and makes excellent decisions to keep his team in the flow of the offense, be it in short rolls out of ball screens or on the wing. If you need him to score, he can do that as we saw in the NCAA Tournament, where he averaged 17.2 points and 7.6 rebounds while shooting 48.5 percent from the field and taking a bigger offensive load. Or, he can slide into a role as a tough, physical defender who takes on different matchups and then makes quick reads.
Yet, the flaws jump off the page. He’s not really a shooter, as he’s only taken 20 3-point attempts and made seven of them while hitting just 62.3 percent of his attempts at the foul line — basically in line with his averages at lower levels. Defensively, he’s not overly fast, and there are possessions when you see him get beaten laterally by quicker players, although I did think he was a good defender by the end of the season.
CBSSports: No. 14 to Charlotte Hornets
Peat is another polarizing prospect because he’s strong, physical, can finish, rebound, short-roll to get downhill, and even play-make a bit, but doesn’t shoot. He was pivotal to Arizona’s Big 12 championships and Final Four run, and loaded with winning intangibles. That DNA is very much in line with what we saw Charlotte prioritize last year, when they nailed the 2025 draft with Kon Knueppel, Ryan Kalkbrenner, and Sion James.
Jaden Bradley
ESPN: No. 51 to Washington Wizards
New York Times: No. 48 to Orlando Magic
It’s also worth noting that former Arizona Wildcat Henri Veesaar is projected, in most mock drafts, to go to the Los Angeles Lakers at No. 25. Tune in on June 23 to see where the next “Wildcats in the NBA” will be heading.
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