NBA Draft 2026: Don't make the Brunson second-gen mistake again. Draft Cameron Boozer No. 1

As the championship glow continues to surround Jalen Brunson, it’s worth reminding ourselves about a certain prospect’s résumé.

Son of a longtime NBA player. Grew up immersed in the NBA lifestyle. Won big at every level, including high school and at one of America’s top college programs. Earned the Wooden award, Naismith award, AP Player of the Year award, Sporting News Player of the Year award. Left early to declare for the NBA draft.

Despite all these credentials, this player was not considered the favorite to go No. 1 in the draft. Concerns about his underwhelming athleticism and stocky size held him back.

Oh, you thought I was talking about Brunson?

I’m talking about Cameron Boozer, the Duke prospect who should be drafted No. 1.

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It’s true that the Knicks‘ Finals MVP checks off all of the above boxes, and famously fell all the way to the second round of the 2018 draft before being taken 33rd by the Dallas Mavericks. Boozer isn’t in danger of sliding out of the top 5, much less the first round, but it appears teams are making the same mistake of overlooking Boozer’s impact.

BYU standout AJ Dybantsa and Kansas star Darryn Peterson are considered far more likely to be drafted No. 1, while Boozer is a longshot to hear his name called first on Tuesday — even though Boozer is younger, has won more, has posted stronger numbers and has NBA pedigree.

It’s that last thing — being the son of an NBA player — that should be seen as a superpower of genetics and knowledge, but instead may be a subconscious dent in his NBA stock.

An 18-year-old Boozer, who compiled a season in which he averaged more points than Peterson (a pure scorer), more 3-pointers and assists than Dybantsa (a skilled wing), and nearly more rebounds than those two players combined, should go No. 1.

Add in Boozer’s NBA pedigree, and the top prospect debate shouldn’t be a debate at all.

How did everyone overlook Brunson? It’s not just the story of the NBA Finals; it’s the story of his basketball career.

Despite dominating the Chicago high school circuit and having the name recognition of being the son of Rick Brunson, who played nine seasons in the NBA, Jalen was not listed among the top 15 in any major recruiting poll in his class. Still, he continued to dominate at the collegiate level, winning two championships at Villanova and sweeping the National Player of the Year awards by his junior year.

But Brunson was snubbed again on draft night. After being recognized as the unanimous top player in college, he watched Villanova teammate Mikal Bridges go No. 10. Then another teammate, Donte DiVincenzo, go No. 17. Then another, Omari Spellman, who averaged 10 points per game for Villanova, go No. 30. It wasn’t until the 33rd pick in the draft that Brunson heard his name called.

The pattern continued in the NBA, where he backed up Luka Dončić in Dallas for the majority of his first four years. It wasn’t until he joined the Knicks in 2022 that Brunson’s career finally took off. Three All-NBA appearances later, Brunson averaged an NBA-high 28.4 points per game this postseason, while performing like Michael Jordan in the clutch en route to a title. Brunson doesn’t have many doubters now.

The fact that Brunson dominated at every level but still couldn’t get the respect he deserved from the eyes of basketball cognoscenti proves his NBA pedigree didn’t outweigh his smaller stature. He was hampered with questions about his athleticism and defensive viability. On the Roommates Show podcast, former Mavericks owner Mark Cuban shared the scouting report on Brunson before they picked him at No. 33.

“A little chubby, not quite as fast, not super athletic, but he’s a winner,” Cuban said.

The same questions about athleticism surround Cam, limiting his perceived upside compared to his peers. Having an NBA player as a father would seem like a feather in the cap for draft prospects, but it may backfire in subtle ways. The word “potential” drives so much of draft evaluation, and prospects like Dybantsa and Peterson don’t have NBA fathers who could artificially cap their ceiling at the next level. (No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggins, whose father Mitchell played six years in the league, was an exception thanks to his jumping ability. )

Rick Brunson was a journeyman. Boozer made “only” two All-Star teams. For Dybantsa and Peterson, it’s a blank slate. We tend to think of them as having more upside perhaps because we don’t subconsciously have equivalent images of Rick’s or Carlos’ careers in our heads when we peg Dybantsa’s and Peterson’s projections.

For Cam Boozer, he’s facing a different battle — a cognitive bias that he, like Jalen before him, must overcome.

Two years ago, when Bronny James was hoping to be selected in the NBA draft, I wrote a deep dive on the phenomenon of the NBA bloodline and pointed out that Bronny, being the son of LeBron James, had a good shot of sticking around in the NBA. I stood by that even when he was selected 55th overall, a spot in the draft when most players in that range don’t amount to much of anything in the big show, if at all.

The Bronny selection generated accusations of basketball nepotism, but the historical data suggests that the opposite may be the case: the sons of NBA fathers are unfairly judged on draft day.

My optimism in Bronny’s case was buoyed by the track record of legacy NBA players like Brunson, and I still think he’ll carve out a solid NBA career with his improved shooting. In 2024, sons of NBA players had outperformed their draft slot by a whopping 30%, which was higher than any major college program, including NBA talent factories like Kentucky (+26%), UCLA (+24%) and Michigan State (+17%).

Since that story ran, the second-gen effect has continued to show its lasting power, though the overall improvement is now 26% above expectations. Brunson didn’t just become an All-Star again — he leveled up and became a champion and Finals MVP, joining Stephen Curry and Kobe Bryant as the third son of an NBA player to win that award since 2010.

Curry, 38, is still averaging 26.6 points per game. The 40-year-old Al Horford (son of Tito) and 36-year-old Klay Thompson (son of Mychal) remain key rotation players at a time when most NBA players their age are shaving strokes off their golf game.

The younger NBA “sons” are doing just fine. At 21 years old, Reed Sheppard, son of Kentucky legend Jeff Sheppard, who made a brief stint in the league, was among the top vote-getters for Sixth Man of the Year and Most Improved Player of the Year. Second-round picks Nic Claxton (son of Charles), Trayce-Jackson Davis (Dale) and Jabari Walker (Samaki) continue to punch above their weight.

Beyond that, the story of the NBA Finals was not just Brunson’s ascension, but also the emergence of San Antonio Spurs rookie Dylan Harper. Turning just 20 years old on March 2, Harper became the Spurs’ go-to scorer at the guard position, averaging 18 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3 assists per game. He showed strength and feel well beyond his years, scoring more Finals points than any age-20 player since Magic Johnson in 1980, according to Stathead tracking.

Maybe we shouldn’t have been too surprised by Harper’s marvelous play. After all, he is the son of 15-year vet and five-time NBA champion Ron Harper.

Drafted second in the 2025 draft, Harper is already making some experts wonder whether he should have gone No. 1 overall over Cooper Flagg, who won Rookie of the Year. If history holds, we could be looking at the same conversation for Cam Boozer this time next year.

Jalen Brunson. Kobe Bryant. Stephen Curry. Al Horford. Devin Booker. Kevin Love. Klay Thompson. Domantas Sabonis. Darius Garland. Jaren Jackson Jr. Wally Szczerbiak. Andrew Wiggins.

These are the 12 All-Stars who were sons of NBA players and selected in the NBA draft since the modern era that began in 1989. If that sounds like a lot, that’s because it is.

Of the 2,155 players drafted since 1989, 9% of them went on to become All-Stars. But if your dad played in the NBA? That percentage nearly doubles to 16.4%. Players who have NBA fathers being nearly twice as likely to become All-Stars is partly due to the fact that some of them were drafted high and therefore somewhat expected to reach all-league status. Wiggins was No. 1 overall and Horford was No. 3 overall. Is making an All-Star that big of an accomplishment?

But then there’s Brunson at No. 33 who has made three All-Star squads. Bryant at No. 13 made 18 All-Star teams. Booker, drafted 13th overall in 2015, missed this year’s All-Star festivities, but has five to his name. Same with Thompson (11th overall in 2011) and Sabonis (drafted 11th in 2016). When we account for draft slot, we’d only expect nine All-Star players out of the pool of 73 draftees of second-generation prospects. Boozer will attempt to be the 13th on the list.

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Something’s going on here. I’ve argued that second-generation players fight a reputation that they’ve been handed a silver spoon and therefore don’t have the same drive as other prospects. But as we saw with Brunson and Harper in the Finals, the opposite can be the case. When other players wilt under the bright lights, Brunson and Harper seem unmoved by the pressure.

In his postgame press conference, Brunson said he didn’t feel overwhelmed by the moment and even pointed to his father’s experience bouncing around the league as an example of true pressure.

“No pressure, no pressure whatsoever,” Brunson said. “My dad being on eight or nine unguaranteed contracts throughout his career and not knowing when you’re going to get cut, when a team is going to move on from you, while your family is on the East Coast and you are wherever you are in the country. That’s pressure.

“Working out three times a day in the summertime and watching him push himself just to get a training camp deal, that’s pressure. I’m very fortunate to be in the position I am and I definitely think I worked pretty hard. So when the opportunity presented itself like it did (in Game 5), I just trusted my work. … I’m just never afraid to fail.”

During the Finals, Harper said he picked his father’s brain about performing on the biggest stage as a rookie. Ron Harper’s message?

“Be you,” Dylan Harper said his father told him. “You don’t have to switch who you are.”

As a matter of identity, Harper and Brunson are members of an exclusive club of the NBA bloodline, something that should give Boozer a clear edge on draft night.

But as my colleague Kevin O’Connor points out in his Draft Guide, Boozer faces questions that might keep him from going No. 1: “The worry is that he’s not a vertical athlete and the foundation of all that production — overpowering smaller defenders — gets diminished against NBA length.”

Again, the concerns sound eerily similar to Brunson, who blasted through every slight he heard leading up to the draft and throughout his career (Becky Hammon was far from the only one who questioned how his size would fare at the highest level). O’Connor has kept Boozer at No. 1 on his big board, but has predicted in his latest mock draft that Boozer will go lower on Tuesday.

To me, Boozer is the power forward version of Luka Dončić and Nikola Jokić — basketball savants who don’t need sky-high verticals to dominate the game. Washington and Utah shouldn’t think twice about drafting him.

If Boozer falls to Memphis at No. 3, there’s a good chance it would be a mistake, not unlike when second-gen Curry fell to No. 7 due to similar size concerns. A team like the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are armed with the 12th and 17th pick, would be wise to try to move up and target Boozer, who brings the playmaking and power that they lacked in the San Antonio series. Chicago, which holds the No. 4 pick, should also attempt to jump up and bring Boozer, whose father starred for the Bulls for four seasons, to the Windy City.

With Brunson sitting atop the basketball world, one would think we have learned our lesson of respecting the second-gen star. But time and time again, legacy prospects like Brunson and Boozer are not taken as seriously as their credentials suggest. Is having an NBA father considered a feature or a bug on the résumé? If Boozer falls to No. 3, we have our answer.

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