2026 NBA Rookie Risers and Fallers: Meleek Thomas Jumps Six Spots, Lendeborg Climbs Again
Meleek Thomas jumped six spots in two nights and Trevon Brazile is up 15 slots on his draft pick. Here are the 2026 NBA redraft's biggest risers and fallers through Oct 28.
Two nights of games, and the live 2026 NBA redraft already has a new set of winners and losers. The board below runs through the games of Oct 28, and it moved in two directions at once: a pair of second-round guards and forwards kept climbing, while a handful of first-rounders who haven't played yet slid simply by standing still.
A quick reality check before the names. The board blends each rookie's pre-draft value with what he's done on an NBA floor, and right now the performance side carries only about 27% of the weight. Teams have played roughly four or five games each. So the order is still mostly draft slot, and every number here comes with a tiny-sample warning label. That's also what makes the early movers interesting: to move at all this soon, a rookie has to stand out.
The biggest jumps since Oct 27
Meleek Thomas is the headline. The Arkansas guard was the 34th pick, and he climbed six spots since the Oct 27 update to land at No. 25. He's only played two games, but they've been loud ones: 13.0 points in 19.5 minutes on a 72.7 true shooting percentage, with 4-of-6 from three. His RR performance score of 36.1 already sits well above his pre-draft score of 14.2, which is why he's now nine slots above where he was taken.
Yaxel Lendeborg keeps stacking big nights. He went 11th to Golden State, moved up two more spots this update, and now sits sixth overall, five places above his draft slot. He leads all rookies in scoring at 22.6 points per game, ranks second in rebounding at 9.2, and adds 4.0 assists in 33.6 minutes. His performance score of 83.9 is the best on the board by a wide margin, and his +4 plus-minus is one of the few positive marks among the high-minute rookies.
Trevon Brazile rose three spots to No. 20. Another Arkansas product, he was picked 35th, so he's now 15 slots above his draft position, the largest gain on the board. The line is quiet but efficient: 9.5 points and 7.5 rebounds in 23.8 minutes, 50% from the field and a 61.1 true shooting percentage. His 7.5 boards per game are third among all rookies.
AJ Dybantsa also ticked up one spot to No. 1, after his first game: 19 points in 27 minutes on 66.7% shooting.
| Player | Pick | Slot now | Change since Oct 27 | vs. draft slot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meleek Thomas | 34 | 25 | +6 | +9 |
| Braden Smith | 38 | 39 | +4 | -1 |
| Trevon Brazile | 35 | 20 | +3 | +15 |
| Yaxel Lendeborg | 11 | 6 | +2 | +5 |
| AJ Dybantsa | 1 | 1 | +1 | 0 |
Who slipped
The drops this update were small, and most came from the same place: efficiency.
Darryn Peterson slipped one spot to No. 2 as Dybantsa passed him. Peterson is getting real minutes, 28.6 per night across five starts, and he's averaging 12.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists. The shot hasn't come with him yet: a 46.3 true shooting percentage and 34.9% from the field.
Darius Acuff Jr. is the rookie volume king, logging the most minutes in the class at 35.3 per game, and he's second in scoring at 21.5 points with a class-best 4.8 assists (tied with Cameron Boozer). But he's shooting 34.4% from the field and 7-of-34 from three, for a 42.4 true shooting percentage. He dipped one spot to No. 7 and is level with his draft slot.
Mikel Brown Jr., the sixth pick, fell one more spot to No. 8. He's averaging 10.3 points and 4.3 assists off the bench in 22.7 minutes, but at 28.6% from the field.
Hannes Steinbach dropped two spots to No. 16. He's logged one game, 6 points and 5 rebounds in 12 minutes, and hasn't played since Oct 23.
The DNP slide
Here's the quiet trend worth watching. Rookies who haven't logged NBA minutes yet carry a performance score of zero, so as the weight on performance grows, they sink even without doing anything wrong.
Karim López went 21st and is down two more spots to No. 28, seven below his draft slot. Jayden Quaintance, the 20th pick, is six spots under his slot at No. 26. Further down, Cameron Carr (pick 24, now 33rd) and Richie Saunders (pick 32, now 40th) are the board's biggest fallers versus draft position, at nine and eight spots. None of them has played yet, so this is about opportunity, not performance. A few good nights would send them right back up.
What to watch next
The weight on real games keeps rising each night, so Lendeborg's case for a top-five slot gets stronger with every game he keeps this up. Thomas and Brazile need bigger samples to prove their efficiency holds. And the zero-minute group needs any minutes at all.
You can follow every move as it happens on the live board, and check the per-game leaders on the rookie stats page.
The 2026 NBA redraft re-sorts every morning with the latest games.