2026 NBA draft thread

[Mavs2021]

Decision 2.0. Dybantsa declared. Apparently being an almost guaranteed top two pick still pays better than college basketball.

With him it was not about the money he just wanted insurances that he´d not end up in Washington or Memphis. Once Silver told him he´s going to Dallas he declared.

Seriously though, for a guy like Ament, the projected 10th pick, this year will make 25/4. The #3 pick next year will make 49/4. So if he takes $5M to play in college next year, he´ll have increased his income over the next four years by roughly $15M. Maybe gets better endorsement deals as a higher pick, too. 

There is obviously the injury risk playing that extra year in college. Then you can apply the same logic to the four year NBA rookie contract. If you suffer that same career-ending injury on your NBA rookie contract instead of college you lost $30M by not staying in college that extra year. And of course the final opportunity costs are getting to potential golden pot a year early.

So now we can argue  whether this actually encourages tanking even more, cause only the very elite of the elite picks like Dybantsa have no financial incentive to withdraw from a strong draft class. It certainly adds another layer of unpredictability you need to navigate.