NBA’s 9 best rookies in preseason, ranked

The NBA is welcoming an absolutely loaded rookie class ahead of the 2026-27 season that places good young players all over the league. The top of the 2026 class got most of the attention with Washington’s A.J. Dybantsa, Utah’s Darryn Peterson, Memphis’ Cameron Boozer, and Chicago’s Caleb Wilson looking like one of the strongest top-4 in recent memory, but that’s only the start of the incoming talent pool.

This rookie class already balled out in Las Vegas Summer League, and now they’re impressing in preseason. There are too many good rookies to name, so this list won’t include honorable mentions like the Spurs guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Pistons guard Ebuka Okorie, Mavericks guard Sergio de Larrea, or Milwaukee’s Brayden Burries. I also can’t wait to see Brooklyn’s Mikal Brown and Toronto’s Allen Graves, who haven’t played in the preseason yet.

Check out our list of non-rookie NBA preseason standouts for more coverage. Here is our list of the best rookies in the NBA preseason so far. These are the players who impressed us the most relative to expectations, not ordered by who we would take going forward. You can read my final draft board for my full opinions on this class coming into the NBA.

Acuff has scored in bunches while also struggling with turnovers and taking enough questionable shots that even an opponent like Draymond Green had to tell him to move the ball. The most encouraging thing about Acuff to me is that he’s still shooting the cover off the ball from three. I was a bit worried he shot over his head at Arkansas last season, but he has hit 41% of his threes in preseason so far and clearly looks confidence shooting the ball from the NBA line. He’s going to have some nights where he looks like a masterful three-level scorer, but a deeper dive is going to be required to evaluate his shot diet and lack of defensive impact. I’m rooting for Acuff because he’s a cool player and Kings fans desperately need something to latch onto. He’s going to be good as a rookie, but maybe not quite as impactful as his loudest fans want you to believe. His game still needs a lot more development beyond the buckets before he’s actually influencing winning, but I think he can get there eventually as the supporting cast around him improves.

Flemings won’t match Acuff’s scoring numbers or Mikal Brown’s best highlights, but he still feels like the most well-rounded of the rookie point guards to me. He’s going to defend bigger than his size, he’s going to make smart decisions with the ball, and his mid-range scoring will offer some value while his three-point shot catches up. Flemings has always had such a strong feel for the game, and he’s doing it again with a 3:1 assist-to-turnover ratio through four preseason games. He has such great hands defensively, and his excellent quick-twitch athleticism is going to create advantages even against bigger defenders. It’s easy to have some skepticism for a smaller guard who isn’t a knockdown three-point shooter, but Flemings simply brings so much to the table without taking much off of it. The Hawks have a lot of guards who need minutes, but Flemings is going to be dependable as C.J. McCollum’s understudy when he gets minutes.

It feels like Stirtz landed in the best possible spot on a Thunder team that can coverup his deficiencies on the defensive end while needing his creation magic and shooting. He’s been off to a tremendous start in preseason combining on- and off-ball versatility as only he can. Stirtz is a great shooter, a skilled pick-and-roll operator, and he has a good feel for the game. Those are qualities worth betting on even if he’s kind of weak and might be toast defensively. This is the perfect type of player to get the Thunder offense out of the mud when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is on the bench. Sam Presti has done it again.

It’s fair to say Dybantsa’s preseason run has been a bit of a mixed bag despite the fact that no one doubts his talent. It’s encouraging that he’s getting to the free throw line, taking some pride in his defense, and making some heads-up passes to start his pro journey. I’m less enthused by a shaky three-point stroke, and a shot diet that feels like it should be geared more toward the rim. Dybantsa has admitted himself that his defense got “lazy” in college, and it’s been great to see him put his outstanding physical tools to work on that end during preseason. I’d rather see the ball in Dybantsa’s hands than Trae Young’s, but Young has always been such an on-ball heavy player that it puts more pressure on the rookie to fix his three-point stroke. I don’t think anyone questions that Dybantsa is going to be really good both as a rookie and down the line, but he still has some stuff to clean up.

The Bulls are trying to stretch Wilson out from a majority play-finisher to a majority play-creator, and there have been some understandable growing pains early in that process. Added structure feels beneficial for Wilson in the short term, with his best moments coming as a roll man or running off pin-downs to show-off his newfound three-point stroke. It’s been more of a struggle when he’s tried to iso against NBA defenders, with nearly twice as many turnovers as assists to start the preseason. The good news is that Wilson really does look like he’s going to shoot it from deep this year, which is wonderful news given that he was a total non-shooter in college. Ultimately, the handle is going to be just as important for Wilson’s development as his shot, and right now he still can’t access certain parts of the floor off the dribble. The Bulls aren’t trying to win anything this year, and that means Wilson will get plenty of room to test the limits of his offensive skill set — something that could be good for his long-term development. Even as a work-in-progress, the highs are going to be very high, and the best moments are going to be incredible in his rookie season.

Peterson followed up a terrible preseason debut with an awesome second game, and as always the truth on his performance is somewhere in the middle. The No. 2 overall pick is going to be extremely tough to defend because he can splash shots all over the floor — but sometimes he’s going to beat himself by not being able to generate easier shots. I wish Peterson got to the rim more instead of relying on tough pull-ups, and it’s possible that will come in time. The Jazz are going to need a point of attack defender next to Keyonte George this season, and that’s really where Peterson could have his biggest impact. His combination of shooting touch and defensive playmaking is still really intriguing, but I’m not sure I’m still seeing the all-world guard prospect we thought we had back at Prolific Prep. Then again, I did have Peterson at No. 2 on my draft board, so maybe I should just chill out.

Boozer is the youngest player in the NBA this season, but you would never know it from watching him play. The 19-year-old forward has remarkable polish offensively with a supercomputer brain, hulking strength, a sweet shooting stroke, and compact driving ability powering his unlimited offensive versatility. Boozer is rarely flashy, though he did have one poster dunk on this preseason run. Instead, the Grizzlies’ new superstar just always makes the right play. He has enough scoring gravity to compromise opposing defenses when they try to play him straight up, and he’s always moving the ball to the open man when the double comes. Boozer was obviously the best prospect in the draft, and it’s still wild he fell to No. 3. Memphis is going to immediately exceed expectations if they stay healthy around their new star.

Mara has been dominant in preseason, and it’s absolutely not fair that the Thunder are adding a 7’3 guy who is this skilled at both ends of the floor. The former Michigan big man seems to have made strides in his conditioning since his college days, looking more mobile than ever in this short preseason run. Mara is an easy bet to protect the rim with his ridiculous 9’9 standing reach, and he’s shown Derik Queen how difficult it’s going to be for smaller bigs to finish over him in the clip above. It was fair to wonder how Mara would be able to score in the league, but he’s looked unreal so far with 79% true shooting fueled by stuffs at the rim and spinning post moves in the paint. It’s for the best that Mara will probably be in a smaller role this season, but he could be really effective in the right matchups — and that’s all that matters for a loaded Thunder team.

There was a report that the Warriors would have drafted Brayden Burries if he fell to their pick in the 2026 draft. They should consider themselves lucky he went one spot earlier, because Lendeborg is going to be an ideal fit for this Golden State team in both the short term and the long term. Yes, Lendeborg is already 24 years old, but he might be the perfect role player. Start with the size: he’s gigantic for a forward at 6’9, 240 pounds with a 7’3 wingspan. He’s a very good athlete for that size who knows how to leverage his tools on both ends of the floor. Yaxel can rip three-pointers off the catch, he can clean the glass, he can rumble in transition, and he’s unselfish when he sees a passing lane. His combination of size, power, and skill is only surpassed by Boozer, who is nearly five years younger than him. Lendeborg is going to fit this Golden State team like a glove, and that will continue to be the case long after the Stephen Curry-Draymond Green era is over.