Should Cameron Boozer be in play for the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft?

The 2026 NBA Draft is absolutely loaded, particularly among the top, where the consensus top three are BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, Kansas’ Darryn Peterson and Duke’s Cameron Boozer.

Of those three names, Boozer should be the final one selected, but that’s not necessarily an indictment of his skills and playing style.

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So, why shouldn’t he be in play for the top pick? Let’s explore and try to gauge Boozer from a nuanced point of view.

The superstar angle

For all of his strengths, and he has many, Boozer is slightly trapped in his own game. Despite being in the 94th percentile in the country in scoring efficiency, and in the 100th percentile in PER and WARP, Boozer stands in front of two major issues his 22.7 points, 10.2 rebounds and 4.1 assists can’t yet overcome:

He’s not an elite creator in the open floor, and he’s a one-position player.

In today’s NBA, for any one-position player to become a genuine star, he needs to be as multifaceted as possible. Boozer is 6-foot-9, 250 pounds and basically tailored for the power forward position, much like his father, Carlos.

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Boozer is very much stuck within the Paolo Banchero conundrum. He is superbly talented and a fine playmaker for his position, but not otherworldly in that department, nor does he project as a particularly strong rim protector (17 blocks on the season in 1,012 minutes), which means his primary influence will lie on offense.

That’s not a bad thing, as long as expectations align with who he is.

The path to success

Boozer is one heck of a scorer near the rim and a strong, physical presence whose body should draw comparisons to Banchero, as well as Julius Randle. There is value in such a player, especially when you consider Boozer chooses his shots far more wisely than the aforementioned players.

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The pathway for Boozer to become a player who excels in his role is for him to become a team’s primary play-finisher and a second-to-tertiary playmaker. Said differently: Boozer will need to play alongside an elite playmaker who is a clear-cut star and play off that guy. A name like Tyrese Haliburton comes to mind.

Boozer shouldn’t be viewed as a franchise savior, nor someone who can lead a team to a championship as the primary player. If anything, Boozer in a role where he isn’t forced to make constant decisions should aid him at the NBA level.

He is smart in the short roll and can make quality decisions from that spot, be that making a quick pass over the top of the defense or attacking on his own. That should be his bread and butter. It’s a two-read system, where he only occasionally ventures outside to take 3-pointers (oh yes, he can do that too, at a 40.7% clip, no less) and make plays from further away.

This isn’t to say Boozer can’t occasionally take the ball off the backboard and go the length of the floor. He can, and he will, but he’s not likely to look like Jalen Johnson anytime soon. He isn’t as athletic or nimble, so his freedom to create should be under a set of rules to optimize his abilities.

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No. 1 every other year

If it hadn’t been for Dybantsa and Peterson, Boozer would have been the top pick, and that would have been fine.

You can’t always get a franchise-altering superstar at No. 1 every single season, and picking Boozer — who has genuine All-Star upside — would have been perfectly reasonable had there not been two guys on the board who actually could turn into superstars.

For Boozer, getting picked at No. 3 just makes sense, and it’s a fitting slot for him, all things considered. He’s going to become a high-level NBA player, and it wouldn’t even shock me if he’s walking away with the Rookie Of the Year trophy next season.

Boozer could be an instant 20/10 guy, but the context of how he gets those numbers will be crucial, and it’s those layers teams have to understand as they evaluate him accordingly.