Basketball
Keaton Wagler rises to the top six of 2026 NBA Mock Draft
Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman had Keaton Wagler a lot higher in his Mock draft than before
Keaton Wagler has been the talk of the national media after dropping 46 points in Mackey Arena over the weekend. Wagler, who is already in the midst of a stellar freshman season, affirmed that he is truly an NBA prospect after the performance that helped lift Illinois over Purdue. Prior to this, Wagler has been seen between the 15th and 25th overall pick in 2026 Mock Drafts. In fact, some were worried about Wagler’s physique, which led to Wagler being ranked in the teens in most mock drafts. However, that 46-point performance seemed to quell those concerns. Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman released his latest mock draft and had Keaton going sixth overall to the Utah Jazz.
Player Comparison…
Wasserman also compared Wagler to current Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray. Murray, at 6 foot 4 inches, showed the potential in college to play both point guard and shooting guard and is an electric shot maker. Keaton, however, is a longer prospect who is a far better decision maker and turns the ball over at a far lower clip than Murray. On the Armchair Illini Podcast, we discussed with Kevin Sweeney that a good player comparison for Wagler is 2025 league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander vs Atlanta Hawks guard CJ McCollum.
Both Gilgeous-Alexander and McCollum are below-the-rim athletes but are very good at getting to their spots and using angles and changes in speed to compensate for their more slender frames. Regardless of who the player comparison is, it still looks like Keaton Wagler will likely be a top-10 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
