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.

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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.

9. Darius Acuff, G, Sacramento Kings

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…

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Publish date : 2026-10-15 12:00:00

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