Just as the Chicago Bulls doubled up their first-round picks in the highly anticipated 2026 NBA Draft, the prospects on the board are starting to get thin.
Since Michigan raised the National Championship trophy, a number of projected first-round picks have announced that they’ll be returning to college rather than declaring for the 2026 NBA Draft.
Here’s who’s off the 2026 NBA draft board so far — and why it’s not all that surprising.
@ Rob Kinnan-Imagn ImagesWho is Off the 2026 NBA Draft Board?
The first domino to fall was Tahaad Pettiford, who could’ve easily been a first-round pick last year off the back of a Final Four appearance and a run as one of the best sixth men in the nation. He was a bit smaller than the preferred size for guards in the league, but he was also still a teenager.
Yet he chose to stay with Auburn for another season. This past season, Auburn didn’t make the NCAA Tournament but did win the NIT behind an improved season from Pettiford, who was still just 20. He slipped a bit in projected 2026 NBA drafts because it’s such a guard-heavy class, but he still looked like a near guarantee to be picked, until he announced on April 11 that he’ll be returning to Auburn for his junior season.
Tahaad Pettiford returns to Auburn ?A key piece for the Tigers will be back next season ? pic.twitter.com/Dk1THDijys
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 11, 2026Then, just a couple of days later, came the news about Aussie Alex Condon, the 2025 NCAA Champion, who also announced he’ll be returning for his senior year with the Gators. Condon built on his impressive championship-winning season on a one-seeded Florida team and was projected as a late first-round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. The 6’11” forward stood out in a class lacking forward depth and could’ve easily been picked earlier than mocked because of that. But he’s running it back for another year, so he’s off the board.
Alex Condon is spending his senior year in Gainesville ?The 2025 National Champion is back for Florida ? pic.twitter.com/OOAZtTepPG
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 15, 2026A day after that came what felt like a heart-attack notification: Boozer is returning to Duke for his junior year. Not Cam, but his twin brother, Cayden. Cayden was arguably the second-best player on Duke during their tournament run, even if it was cut short. He’s still young, and being one-and-done is basically the Duke playbook. But Cayden went against the grain, ignoring his late first-round projection in the 2026 NBA Draft and choosing to run it back with the Blue Devils.
Duke gets Cayden Boozer back ?The guard returns to Durham for his sophomore campaign ? pic.twitter.com/psdMjp1JO1
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 16, 2026And Saturday, Braylon Mullins — a projected lottery pick who hit the biggest shot of the 2026 NCAA Tournament — also announced he’ll be returning for another season with the UConn Huskies. He didn’t have the prettiest tournament overall, but it only dropped him a few spots on the board, still leaving him as a very attractive pick in the 13–20 range. But it looks like he’s got more to give UConn before making the jump.
So that makes it four players off everyone’s 2026 NBA draft board, with less than a week to go before the deadline for declaring.
BRAYLON MULLINS IS BACK ?UConn’s Elite 8 hero will return for his Sophomore season in Storrs ? pic.twitter.com/znTBQW0rbZ
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 18, 2026 © Scott Wachter-Imagn ImagesWhy are Some of the Best College Players Not Declaring for the 2026 NBA Draft?
There are a couple of reasons why this is happening, but here are the three most important ones.
Run It Back: The four players mentioned so far didn’t quite achieve what they set out to do this past season, but they got close enough to want another shot. Auburn made the Final Four last year; this season, Duke and Florida were No. 1 seeds before getting knocked out; and UConn fell just short in the national championship game.
All four guys have some real “unfinished business” with their teams. And honestly, if they hadn’t been that close to the finish line, they might not have stayed. That same mindset is why a ton of players from the Fighting Illini are returning, and why next season could be just as competitive, if not more.
“It’s not the result that we wanted at the end of the year,” said Condon. “I think we’re a better team than that… We left a bit of unfinished business with the Gators. So to go back to school and compete, we know what it’s like to win a national championship, and that’s the No. 1 goal for me.”
© Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn ImagesDraft Quality: Being part of one of the “deepest” projected draft classes, the 2026 NBA Draft, comes with its pros and cons. The pros are for the teams, they can draft genuinely good talent no matter where they pick. The cons fall on the players further down the class. Guys who might’ve been top-10 picks in most years are now sliding into the late first round.
And while people love to say draft position doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of legacy conversations, that’s mostly true, there’s one very obvious exception: money. The gap between the first pick and the 30th pick is massive, nearly 4x.
If you’re a top-10 level talent and actually get picked in the top 10, you’re looking at anywhere from $27 million to $62 million on a rookie-scale deal. But if that same level of talent ends up closer to the back end of the first round, say picks 20–30, that number drops to around $14–17 million.
So, in theory, if you wait and enter a weaker class, you stand to make a lot more money.
And yeah, we’re still talking about millions, you or I aren’t turning that down. But if there’s still competitive money on the table, and a chance to boost your stock even higher, maybe you would.
And that leads to the final point.
NIL: NIL money in 2026 is no joke. It might not touch NBA supermax contracts, but it can absolutely go toe-to-toe with rookie-scale deals, and that’s a big deal.
That’s part of what swayed a player like Braylor Mullins to return instead of declare for the 2026 NBA Draft. With UConn literally one win away from a third national championship in four years, you already know the alumni are going to dig deep to make another run happen.
“Mullins, currently projected as a mid-first-round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, can earn around $4–5 million annually if he declared. UConn plans on matching that figure,” reported Evan Sidery.
And that’s the underlying reality now. For players projected to be drafted, staying in college isn’t really a financial sacrifice anymore. They can earn comparable NIL money while also giving themselves another year to improve, and potentially boost their draft stock, which in turn raises their rookie-scale deal.
Woah!!! Staying in college when you could’ve possibly been a lottery pick Times have changed t.co/Uy7v2Eguc3
— Matt (@sixringsofsteeI) April 18, 2026It’s kind of crazy when you think about it. Not that long ago, players were skipping college altogether, going straight from high school to the league. Now? Some are choosing to stay.
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