The 2026 NBA Draft is on the mind of every Michigan State fan right now as Jeremy Fears Jr. navigates the process and faces a huge decision within the next two weeks.
Will Fears stay for his junior year or keep his name in the NBA draft? That’s the question that everyone is asking after a strong NBA Combine performance has some draft experts talking about a potential second-round pick. Is that really enough to pry him away from a budding legacy at Michigan State? I’d find that really hard to believe.
All the talk right now is about Fears, but Coen Carr’s name recently came up in regards the NBA draft. Thankfully for Spartan fans, it has nothing to do with June’s draft, but rather the 2027 edition.
Per NBADraftRoom, a site that focuses on mock drafts for the NBA and WNBA, Carr is going to be a prospect for the 2027 NBA Draft as a second-round prospect.
They have him going No. 40 overall to the Atlanta Hawks, citing that he’s one of the greatest dunkers that you’ll ever see and that he’s still rounding out his game. An added jumper would drastically improve this stock and I could see him sneaking into that first-round range if he shoots somewhere in the ballpark of 30-35 percent from deep and works on his defense.
This may be a hot take but I’ve been saying this since the start of the NBA Playoffs: Ausar Thompson is laying out the exact blueprint for Carr. No jumper? No problem. Just be an elite defender, rebounder, and motor guy with exceptional athleticism.
I’ll be writing more on that later.
Coen Carr is on track to becoming an NBA player
Everyone knew that Carr was an athletic freak who was mostly known for dunking and huge momentum-changing blocks on the defensive end, but I’m not sure anyone really took into consideration that he would need a few years to really develop a shot.
Carr went from not making a single three as a freshman to shooting about 30 percent over the past two seasons from deep. He took a slight step back in 2025-26 on a higher volume.
The soon-to-be senior forward has improved drastically since his freshman season, averaging 12 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 1.3 stocks (steals + blocks) per game. If he can improve all of those this season while shooting 50ish percent from the field and 30ish percent from deep, I think we could be looking at Ausar lite.
What is going to benefit Carr most isn’t going to be his improved jumper (although that will help), but rather improvement defensively.
Like I said, Ausar Thompson is the blueprint. Become a stocks machine and NBA teams will be throwing money at you. Carr has the ability and the motor, he just needs to put it all together.
Add us as a preferred source on Google