2026 NBA Rookie Forward Rankings: Lendeborg, Boozer and Wilson
Yaxel Lendeborg leads the 2026 rookie forwards at 21.2 points on 63.0 TS%, while Cameron Boozer's 10.0 rebounds come with 33.9% shooting. Our ranking through Nov. 8.
The best rookie forward in the 2026 class was the 11th pick. Yaxel Lendeborg is scoring 21.2 points a night for a 7-3 Golden State team, per TalkBasket, on a 63.0 true shooting percentage, and he sits No. 1 on the live 2026 NBA redraft. Behind him, the three forwards picked first, third and fourth are producing in very different ways, and only one of them is doing it efficiently.
The board now runs through games of Nov. 8, about 9.7 team games in, and production carries a weight of 0.8. That is enough for the numbers to drive the order, but nine or ten games is still a small sample. A cold week can move a shooting percentage five points.
The rookie forward board through Nov. 8
| Board | Player | Team | Drafted | Line |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yaxel Lendeborg | GSW | 11 | 21.2 pts, 7.2 reb, 4.0 ast, 63.0 TS% |
| 4 | Cameron Boozer | MEM | 3 | 15.6 pts, 10.0 reb, 5.2 ast, 49.4 TS% |
| 5 | Caleb Wilson | CHI | 4 | 19.3 pts, 6.3 reb, 2.1 ast, 50.7 TS% |
| 6 | AJ Dybantsa | WAS | 1 | 16.0 pts, 5.8 reb, 2.3 ast, 51.7 TS% |
| 11 | Morez Johnson Jr. | DAL | 9 | 7.6 pts, 5.1 reb, 57.9 TS% |
| 14 | Trevon Brazile | DEN | 35 | 7.4 pts, 6.1 reb, 61.7 TS% |
| 16 | Nate Ament | MIL | 13 | 7.8 pts, 2.5 reb, 57.7 TS% |
| 17 | Allen Graves | TOR | 19 | 4.3 pts, 2.4 reb, 50.9 TS% |
| 19 | Zuby Ejiofor | ATL | 23 | 5.7 pts, 3.5 reb, 66.0 TS% |
Minutes vary a lot down this list, so here is scoring on a per-36-minute basis, calculated from each player's points and minutes per game:
1. Yaxel Lendeborg is the best forward now, and it isn't close
Lendeborg's board score is 76.9, more than six points clear of anyone in the class. He has made 23 of 57 threes (40.4%), is shooting 50.4% from the field and adds a steal and 0.8 blocks a game. He is starting at small forward while Jimmy Butler finishes his ACL rehab, per CBS Sports and The Athletic, and he has already had a 31-point game in Denver and 37 in a win over the Clippers.
The flaws are easy to find, because he says them out loud. "I suck at off-ball defense right now," he told The San Francisco Standard while breaking down film. Steve Kerr said the same thing more gently: "Defensively, he's got a lot of work ahead of him."
The dynasty question is age. The Standard lists him at 24, five years older than Boozer, so there is less growth left to price in. In a redraft league he's the forward you want today. In dynasty, he's a top-three rookie but not automatically the No. 1 asset.
2. Cameron Boozer: the best all-around line, the worst shooting
Boozer is the only rookie averaging double-digit rebounds (10.0), and his 5.2 assists are second in the class behind Darius Acuff Jr. He had an 18-point, 12-rebound, 12-assist triple-double at Portland on Oct. 29, and he's the only player in this top four with a positive plus-minus (+11).
Then there's the shot. Boozer is at 33.9% from the field and 18-of-57 from three. In Friday's 128-97 loss to Oklahoma City he went 2-of-14 with eight missed threes, as Roundtable's Grant Afseth reported. Two nights earlier against Indiana he was 4-of-14 with five turnovers. "I would just say sometimes it's just playing a little rushed," Boozer said afterward. "Just got to slow down."
Context helps him. With Isaiah Stewart out with a knee bone bruise, coach Tuomas Iisalo said Boozer "plays a lot at the five," often against centers who sag off him and wait near the foul line. That is a hard assignment for a rookie who turned 19 on July 18. A 19-year-old producing 10 and 5 while shooting this badly is a better long-term bet than a 24-year-old shooting well, and he's the forward I'd take first in a dynasty startup.
3. Caleb Wilson: big volume on a losing team
Wilson leads all rookies in steals (1.9) and is second in blocks (1.0). He's scoring 19.3 points a game, and Sunday's 18-point night against Philadelphia pushed him past Derrick Rose for the most points by a Bulls rookie through nine games, 167 to 166, per ClutchPoints.
The efficiency sits in the middle. He's shooting 40.6% from the field and 21-of-69 from three (30.4%), and his 50.7 true shooting percentage is below Lendeborg's by more than 12 points. He has also been streaky, with 23 points on 6-of-11 threes against Boston and five points on 2-of-12 against the Knicks, per the Bulls' player page. Chicago has started 1-8, and his -84 is the second worst among rookies, behind only Acuff.
Wilson's two-way counting stats are the most fantasy-friendly in this group. Category leagues should value him close to Boozer. Points leagues and real-basketball arguments still favor Boozer's passing.
4. AJ Dybantsa: six games, a moving target
The No. 1 pick has dropped to sixth on the board, but almost all of that comes from missed time. Dybantsa sprained his left ankle in the preseason finale and missed Washington's first four games, ESPN reported. Coach Brian Keefe lifted his minutes restriction on Nov. 4, per CBS Sports.
Here's the honest part. Dybantsa averaged 19.0 points in his first three games on the restriction. He's at 16.0 through six, which means 13.0 a game in the three since, with full minutes. He's 5-of-18 from three. His production score (45.2) is the lowest among the top six, and his perfect pre-draft prior (100) is what's holding him up.
Six games aren't enough to tell us much about him. If you're in a dynasty league and someone is selling him off this stretch, buy.
The next tier: Johnson, Brazile and the bench forwards
Morez Johnson Jr. has come off the bench in all 10 games for Dallas and is +25 in 17.1 minutes. That's 10.7 rebounds per 36, which makes him the best rebounder here after Boozer. He's two spots below his draft slot only because his role is small.
Trevon Brazile is the biggest riser among the forwards, 21 spots above his No. 35 draft slot, with a 61.7 true shooting percentage and a +27 for Denver. We covered why teams passed on him in our draft steals piece.
Further down, Zuby Ejiofor is at 66.0 true shooting in 12.3 minutes, and Allen Graves is +41 for Toronto in only 13.2 minutes a game. Baba Miller, a second-rounder, jumped 10 spots to No. 23 since Nov. 7. Nate Ament has the scoring touch (17.6 points per 36) but a -38 in Milwaukee's bench minutes. He's three spots below his slot.
How fast forwards can slide: the 2025 lesson
The live 2025 NBA redraft shows how quickly a forward class can reorder itself. Cooper Flagg went No. 1 and sits No. 2 in the re-rank, and he's averaging 24.0 points through nine games of his second season. Ace Bailey, the No. 5 pick, is down to No. 31 on our estimate, which uses EFF-based win shares and VORP for this season. Collin Murray-Boyles, taken ninth, is No. 6.
The point for 2026 is that first-month efficiency matters. It isn't destiny. Boozer's shooting is the number to track, because it's the one thing standing between him and the top spot in this class long term.
What to watch this week
Boozer and Memphis play at Toronto on Monday night, and Stewart's return would likely move him back to power forward. Dybantsa needs a few full-minute games to show whether the 13-point stretch is noise. The live board refreshes every morning, and our Nov. 7 redraft update covers the guards climbing behind Lendeborg.
The 2026 NBA redraft re-sorts every morning with the latest games.
