When Brayden Burries had his name called at the 2026 NBA Draft on Tuesday, one of the people he hugged immediately afterward was Tommy Lloyd. Dressed in a tan blazer and slacks, while the rest of Burries’ family donned black, Lloyd looked like as much like a proud parent as anyone else in the room.
Burries was the first of three Wildcats drafted this week, along with Koa Peat and Jaden Bradley, while two others—Tobe Awaka and Anthony Dell’Orso—signed free agent deals. All ended up in great spots in the opinion of Lloyd, who was as much in the dark about how the draft would play out as anybody.
“There’s a lot of intel flying around, sometimes you don’t know what’s true, what’s not true,” Lloyd said Friday via Zoom.
Burries went 10th overall to the Milwaukee Bucks, while Peat was the last pick of the 1st round and ended up getting picked by the Phoenix Suns. Bradley was a second-round pick of the Toronto Raptors, while Awaka signed a 2-way deal with the Chicago Bulls and Dell’Orso inked a deal to play for the Sacramento Kings in the NBA Summer League next month.
Burries became the 18th lottery pick in program history, third in five seasons under Lloyd. And while a few teams before Milwaukee were considering Burries it was a pretty good bet he wouldn’t have lasted much longer had the Bucks passed on him.
“There might have been a certain guy that has a lot of interest in Arizona basketball that was picking right after the Bucks,” Lloyd said, eluding to the Steve Kerr-coached Golden State Warriors, who picked 11th and ended up taking Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg.
Peat, who many draft experts thought should have returned to Arizona for his sophomore season, almost fell out of the first round before the Suns made a last-minute trade to get him. He was technically drafted by the New York Knicks, who had gotten the pick via trade from the Dallas Mavericks, but they selected Peat and then swapped him to Phoenix for three 2nd-round picks.
“We’re thankful for the Suns for choosing him in the first round,” Lloyd said. “I know they started to try to work trades for Koa a lot earlier than the 30th pick. They really wanted him.”
Bradley, who was the 50th selection, ironically was the only played drafted in the second round by a team that was using its own pick. All 29 other selections that round had been swapped at least once, some two or three times.
Lloyd said he’d thought Awaka was going to get picked by the Bulls in the 2nd round, with the 38th pick, but Chicago ended up trading that choice to the Indiana Pacers (who took Purdue’s Braden Smith). After that didn’t happen, though, conversations began about signing Awaka to a free agent deal that will have him split time with the Bulls and their G League team.
“He didn’t get drafted there but he ended up in a situation where I felt he was at the top of their board in the second round,” Lloyd said.
Lloyd said situation can often matter more than draft number, and he feels each of those players ended up in a place where they were both wanted and needed. Burries is going to a team that prior to the draft traded face of the franchise Giannis Antetokounmpo and thus are going in a new direction, which often means focusing on its younger players.
“It’s kind of a restart there,” Lloyd said of Milwaukee. “Brayden’s a guy that we think is ready to play in the NBA, and he ended up in a situation where they have a need.”
Lloyd believes Toronto took Bradley because they feel he can contribute immediately. Immanuel Quickley started 70 games at point guard last season, with Jamal Shead starting the other 12, but minutes should be there for Bradley.
“Jaden is a ready-to-play guy,” Lloyd said. “He impacts winning. Toronto feels like he can come in and carve out a role for him for a long time. All the success that JB’s had and will have in the future is a testament to him.”
The least likely to immediately get into the NBA as a rookie is Dell’Orso, who has no guarantees beyond playing exhibition games this summer. Lloyd doesn’t know if the Australian native plans to try and make a go of it in the G League or head overseas to carve out a career, as have so many other former UA players. Whatever Delly does, though, Lloyd expects it will be successful.
“I know this: Delly is someone I would never bet against,” he said.
