NBL wing and 2026 NBA draft prospect Malique Lewis will work out for the Lakers on Tuesday, Olgun Uluc reports for ESPN. This will be the sixth and final team workout for Lewis, who previously auditioned for the Suns, Mavericks, Timberwolves, Celtics, and Cavaliers, according to Uluc.
Lewis, who is ranked 66th on ESPN’s big board, appears to be improving his stock as the draft nears. He had a strong performance in the adidas EuroCamp in June, which he was able to parlay into multiple workouts. Following the camp, he was medically cleared by the NBA’s fitness-to-play panel after a heart condition prevented him from participating in the G League combine.
Lewis has played in Australia for the past two seasons after spending the 2023/24 season with the Mexico City Capitanes in the G League, where he averaged 8.4 points and 5.8 rebounds in 25.3 minutes per game while shooting 49.2% from the field and 35.1% on three-pointers. At 6’8″ with a 7’1″ wingspan, Lewis has good size for a wing and has shown interesting defensive tools in the various stops of his pre-draft journey.
We have more notes from around the 2026 draft:
- Top prospect AJ Dybantsa credits his father, Ace Dybantsa, for helping him become the player he is today, Jay Drew writes for the Deseret News. “He’s done a good job of just being there, making a lot of sacrifices, obviously, since Day 1, just taking me to practices, games, camps, all that,” the younger Dybantsa said. “I’ve traveled around the world with him. He’s my full-time manager. Most of all, he’s super strict and straightforward. He just tells me the truth. Doesn’t sugarcoat anything.” Dybantsa Sr. that he and his wife expect to move to whatever city drafts his son. “I am his dad, I am his manager, I am his security, I am his disciplinarian,” Ace said. “I am everything.”
- While the Spurs don’t have a lottery selection in the 2026 draft, they do control Nos. 20, 35, 42, and 44, giving them plenty of options, whether drafting at their own spots or moving up. Karim Lopez, Chris Cenac Jr., and Allen Graves are three players who could be available at No. 20 that may fit what the Spurs value, LJ Ellis writes for SpursTalk in his Spurs-specific big board.
- The top of the draft order remains something of a question mark, due largely to the fact that while there are several true No. 1 options, there is no Victor Wembanyama-level prospect, John Hollinger writes for The Athletic in his top-75 big board. Hollinger goes somewhat against the grain, listing Duke’s Cameron Boozer as his top option while including Caleb Wilson (UNC) in his top tier of prospects. He notes that after the top 15 picks, no one has the outlier qualities of Graves, though he admits that there is a lot of potential outcome variance with a Graves selection.
