The 2027 NBA Draft is nearly two years away, but it’s never too early to look ahead in the world of basketball.
On Tuesday, Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman dropped a first look at what his mock draft projections look like for the 2027 cycle. Wasserman only included the first round (30 picks), but his list featured plenty of need-to-know names for the Big Blue Nation — including one player about to begin his freshman season with the Kentucky Wildcats.
Of the 30 picks, 10 of them hold a connection to Kentucky. Nine of those 10 are still in the high school ranks as 2026 recruits (and we’ll talk about them more in a minute), while the lone incoming college prospect to make the cut is 6-foot-4 guard Jasper Johnson. Wasserman has Johnson going 22nd overall in the 2027 NBA Draft to the Golden State Warriors.
“Jasper Johnson could enter the one-and-done conversation with his potent shotmaking and touch shots,” Wasserman wrote. “Depending on how he looks as a playmaker and if scouts question his 175-pound frame for a scoring guard, he may also have something to prove after his freshman season.
“Whether it’s in 2026 or 2027, there should be interest in Johnson’s confident shooting, uptempo pacing and instant offense. He came off USA’s bench this summer at the U19s to average 8.0 points in 15.4 minutes while draining multiple threes in four-of-seven games.”
Johnson is expected to compete right away for minutes in Kentucky’s backcourt as the program enters year two of the Mark Pope era. Wasserman believes it will all begin to click for Johnson once he enters his sophomore season.
But Johnson isn’t the only name to pay attention to on this list. The nine aforementioned high school recruits are all being recruited by Kentucky in some capacity. Below is where Wasserman has them going in his mock draft, along with their current player rating in the 2026 Rivals Industry Rankings.
Of this group, Stokes has already taken his official visit to Kentucky. His recruitment isn’t ending anytime soon, but at this moment, the Wildcats reportedly hold the momentum for the potential No. 1 overall draft pick. Keita also snuck in a recent one-day visit to UK. Holt, Smith Jr., Williams, Howard, Collins, and Thompson all have OVs to Kentucky on the schedule for this fall. As for Muurinen, he included the ‘Cats in his top seven list last month, but does not currently have any future official visits set up.
Now it’s time for Pope and Co. to start reeling them in.
