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In an interesting article for The Athletic, William Guillory, James L. Edwards III and Jared Weiss draft three 10-player teams using only players on their rookie scale contracts. The Spurs (Victor WembanyamaNo. 1; Dylan HarperNo. 3; Stephon CastleNo. 11), Wizards (AJ Dybants; No. 4; Alex SarrNo. 18; Kyshawn GeorgeNo. 29) and Jazz (Darryn PetersonNo. 12; Ace BaileyNo. 14; Keyonte GeorgeNo. 15) each had three players selected.

After Guillory took Wembanyama first, Edwards selected Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg at No. 2, followed by Weiss drafting Harper and Dybantsa third and fourth. Brandon Miller (Hornets) and Caleb Wilson (Bulls) went fifth and sixth overall, respectively.

Rounding out the top 10 were Amen Thompson (Rockets), Ausar Thompson (Pistons), Cameron Boozer (Grizzlies) and Could Knueppel (Hornets), in that order. Notable players on rookie scale deals who weren’t selected include Scoot Henderson (Trail Blazers), Jaime Jaquez Jr. (Bucks) and Zach Edey (Grizzlies), among others.

Here’s more from around the basketball world:

• Danny Chau of The Ringer lists six breakout candidates he’s keeping an eye on for the upcoming season, starting with the Thompson twins. Chau’s list also includes Henderson and two other players who were selected in the aforementioned rookie scale draft: Kel’el Ware of the Bucks (No. 17), and Matas Buzelis of the Bulls (No. 27).
• The Knicks, Thunder and Spurs are the three “championship favorites” for 2026/27, according to Zach Kram of ESPN.comwho breaks down each of the league’s 30 teams into tiers. After four “flawed West contenders” and three “regular-season win machines” from the East, Kram has the Pacers, Heat, Sixers and Raptors in his “high-upside Finals contenders” tier. At the other end of the spectrum, Kram considers the Bulls, Kings, Nets, Clippers and Bucks to be “noncompetitive,” but Chicago and Sacramento control their own picks, while Brooklyn, L.A. and Milwaukee do not, so they’re divided into two separate tiers.
• Veteran forward Danilo Gallinari retired as a player this past December. Speaking to Cyro Asseo of HoopsHypethe 38-year-old Italian discussed his long NBA career. “There is a lot of, unfortunately, because of my injuries, there is a lot of what-if in my career,” Gallinari said as part of a larger quote when asked if he wondered how his career might have differed had he never been traded from New York to Denver. “I don’t know, I’m probably the biggest what-if guy in the history of the game, maybe. But it’s part of an NBA career. It happened to me, unfortunately, more than any other athlete probably, as far as injuries, but I don’t think about it too much.“