2026 NBA Redraft: Acuff Climbs to No. 2 Behind Lendeborg
Darius Acuff Jr. jumps to No. 2 on the live 2026 NBA redraft behind Yaxel Lendeborg, who still leads at +10 over his draft slot through Nov. 6.
Darius Acuff Jr. just took over the No. 2 slot on the live 2026 NBA redraft, climbing one spot since Nov. 5 and sitting five picks above where Sacramento took him. Yaxel Lendeborg still owns No. 1, a full 10 spots above his Golden State draft slot, and the gap between them is still about efficiency and team context, not scoring volume.
Through games of Nov. 6 the board's performance weight sits at 0.8 with teams averaging about 8.8 games. Draft pedigree still matters as a prior, but the order has left draft night behind. Only Cameron Boozer among the top six sits where he was picked.
The top 10 through Nov. 6
| Slot | Player | Orig. pick | vs. pick | GP | Season line |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yaxel Lendeborg (GSW) | 11 | +10 | 9 | 21.0 pts, 7.1 reb, 4.1 ast, 62.4 TS% |
| 2 | Darius Acuff Jr. (SAC) | 7 | +5 | 9 | 25.2 pts, 3.7 reb, 7.1 ast, 50.2 TS% |
| 3 | Cameron Boozer (MEM) | 3 | 0 | 9 | 15.6 pts, 10.0 reb, 5.2 ast, 49.4 TS% |
| 4 | Caleb Wilson (CHI) | 4 | 0 | 8 | 19.5 pts, 6.5 reb, 2.4 ast, 51.0 TS% |
| 5 | Darryn Peterson (UTA) | 2 | -3 | 9 | 13.6 pts, 3.8 reb, 3.9 ast, 49.5 TS% |
| 6 | AJ Dybantsa (WAS) | 1 | -5 | 5 | 15.4 pts, 5.8 reb, 2.2 ast, 51.3 TS% |
| 7 | Keaton Wagler (LAC) | 5 | -2 | 8 | 12.0 pts, 4.1 reb, 3.3 ast, 53.9 TS% |
| 8 | Brayden Burries (MIL) | 10 | +2 | 9 | 10.2 pts, 5.2 reb, 2.0 ast, 54.7 TS% |
| 9 | Kingston Flemings (ATL) | 8 | -1 | 9 | 8.3 pts, 2.7 reb, 4.8 ast, 59.4 TS% |
| 10 | Morez Johnson Jr. (DAL) | 9 | -1 | 9 | 8.0 pts, 4.7 reb, 1.3 ast, 62.3 TS% |
Acuff's one-slot bump pushed Boozer down to third. Burries jumped two spots into eighth. The rest of the top six held night to night.
Why Lendeborg still sits ahead of Acuff
Acuff leads every rookie in points (25.2) and assists (7.1) and logs a class-high 36.8 minutes a night. That is real production on a Kings team that has asked him to carry the offense from day one. CBS Sports already graded him an A through the first two weeks and flagged his 34-point, 14-assist night against New Orleans as the kind of teen line almost nobody has posted in league history.
The board still has him second. Lendeborg's performance score (85.2) clears Acuff's (71.2) because the Warriors forward is at 21.0 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.1 assists on a 62.4 true shooting percentage. Acuff's true shooting sits at 50.2. Volume on a bad Kings team is loud. Efficient production next to Stephen Curry travels farther in a redraft that weights how a player is actually helping.
NBC Sports Bay Area's Nov. 4 Rookie of the Year watch had Lendeborg first for the same reason, and Warriors owner Joe Lacob told 95.7 The Game the rookie's breakout has already changed how the franchise sees its season. "We got this one right," Lacob said. "I was 100 percent sold that this was the guy we wanted in the draft."
NBA.com's Week 3 fantasy rookie rankings (Nov. 3) lined up the same way: Lendeborg at No. 1, Acuff at No. 4. Our redraft sits Acuff higher because he leads the class in two counting categories, but it will not ignore the efficiency gap.
The lottery that has not held
AJ Dybantsa is the No. 1 pick and sits sixth. That five-slot slide is mostly sample size. He has played five games. His line (15.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, 51.3 true shooting in 31.6 minutes) is fine. His prior is still 100 because he went first. His performance score is only 43.6 because five games cannot outvote nine. Panic is wrong. Wait until he hits eight or nine starts.
Darryn Peterson, the second pick, is fifth at -3: 13.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.9 assists on 49.5 true shooting across nine games. Solid starter minutes, not star minutes. Caleb Wilson holds fourth on his draft slot with 19.5 points and 6.5 rebounds, plus the class lead in steals at 1.9. Boozer still leads rookies in rebounding (10.0) and ranks second in assists (5.2), which is why a 49.4 true shooting percentage has not knocked him out of the top three.
Keaton Wagler is seventh at -2. Mikel Brown Jr., the sixth pick, is the biggest lottery faller: down eight spots to No. 14 on 12.0 points and 4.0 assists with a 47.4 true shooting mark in six games.
Late picks that rewrote the board
The clearest proof that performance now runs the order sits outside the lottery.
Trevon Brazile, the 35th pick, sits 13th with 8.0 points and 6.4 rebounds on 62.4 true shooting in seven games for Denver, matching Lendeborg's true shooting in a backup-frontcourt role. Meleek Thomas (34th pick) is 15th for Cleveland at 12.8 points on 61.3 true shooting in six games. Emanuel Sharp, pick 45, jumped 27 spots to 18th in Sacramento. Bryce Hopkins, pick 49, is up 22 spots to 27th in Denver on a 73.7 true shooting percentage in limited run.
Our Nov. 1 steals piece argued teams slept on Lendeborg, Brazile and Thomas. A week later the live board agrees. Brazile and Thomas are top-15 and mid-teen redraft value with the games to back it up.
How this compares to early looks at past classes
Early-season No. 1s do not always stick, but second-round value punching up is familiar. On the live 2023 NBA redraft, Victor Wembanyama still sits first years later. Toumani Camara, the 52nd pick that year, ranks sixth on that board today. Cam Spencer (53rd in 2024) sits fourth on the 2024 live redraft. The 2026 Sharp-Brazile-Hopkins-Thomas cluster is the same pattern: when the performance weight climbs, late picks with real minutes and efficiency climb with it.
What is unusual this November is how far the actual No. 1 and No. 2 picks have already slid relative to an 11th pick and a seventh pick. That was not true of Wembanyama's early months. It is true of this class through roughly nine games a team.
What to watch next
Acuff needs the true shooting to climb if he wants No. 1. Another week at 50% with 25-and-7 keeps him second. Lendeborg just has to keep doing what he is doing. Dybantsa's next three or four games matter more than anyone else's because every start raises the weight on his performance score. Brazile and Thomas are the test for whether second-round production holds once scouting reports catch up.
Track every slot change on the live 2026 NBA redraft, and stack it against the rookie stats leaders after each slate. The Oct. 31 redraft update already showed the board leaving draft order. This one shows it digging in.
The 2026 NBA redraft re-sorts every morning with the latest games.
