Jayden Quaintance listed in the Sports Illustrated Way-Too-Early 2026 NBA Big Board

The 2025 NBA Draft has come to a conclusion, so conversations have already begun about the 2026 draft. Two former Kentucky Wildcats were taken in the 2025 draft as the Suns took Koby Brea and the Celtics took Amari Williams.

When it comes to Wildcats, who will be taken in next year's draft, many believe the list will be a lot longer.

One Wildcat who seems to be a surefire lottery pick is the Arizona State transfer Jayden Quaintance. Sports Illustrated put out a big board for the 2026 NBA Draft, and writer Kevin Sweeney listed Quaintance as the sixth-best prospect in the upcoming draft.

Here is what Sweeney had to say about the Wildcats elite forward, "Quaintance enrolled at Arizona State at 17, making him the rare player not eligible to go one-and-done. He showed some seriously impressive flashes despite his age, using his hawking wingspan to post a near 10% block rate. He tore his ACL late in the college season, then hit the transfer portal and enrolled at Kentucky. If he comes back healthy, he’ll have a real chance to crack the top five of this draft."

The ACL recovery is something to monitor as Quaintance continues to work back from this injury, but the belief is that he should be ready to go near the start of the 2025-26 season.

Quaintance is arguably the best defender in college basketball, and if he continues to improve as a scorer, he could be taken in the top five of the 2026 NBA Draft.