With Jeremy Fears withdrawing from the 2026 NBA Draft and returning to Michigan State for at least one more season, that leaves just a couple of Spartan draft hopefuls in this year’s class.
Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper have been scheduling workouts with NBA teams over the past couple of weeks and that’s only going to heat up with the draft approaching in less than four weeks.
Kohler has had workouts with the Memphis Grizzlies and Indiana Pacers so far and Cooper has worked out for the Golden State Warriors. There’s also a guy like Trey Fort who could find his way onto an NBA Summer League team and show that 2025-26 was an anomaly, but he’s facing the biggest uphill battle of the three.
Cooper, too, is facing quite the uphill battle considering he’s not on any NBA draft big board that I’ve seen so far. Kohler, on the other hand, has been getting a little more love as a big who can rebound, score around the basket, and step out to hit threes at nearly a 40 percent clip. That’s a valuable asset in the NBA — there’s a reason he was nicknamed “Baby Jokic” in high school. He’s skilled.
That skillset has led to him making some of these NBA draft big boards, including ESPN’s latest which was updated after Wednesday’s withdrawal deadline.
Per ESPN’s Jeremy Woo, Kohler is one of the top 100 prospects in this year’s draft class. He comes in at No. 84, just ahead of a few Big Ten stars like Tucker DeVries, Lamar Wilkerson, Cade Tyson, and Fletcher Loyer. He needs to jump about 25 spots in order to hear his name called on draft night, but it’s more likely that he signs a deal for Summer League and tries to earn a two-way contract.
The big man from Utah is far too talented and skilled not to get a shot at the NBA.
Is Jaxon Kohler being overlooked in the 2026 NBA Draft?
I wish I could just say “yes” and leave it at that, but I’m not that lazy.
Michigan State’s senior power forward got better each season in East Lansing and that was with a setback that he suffered during his sophomore year. He missed almost half the season with a foot injury and that marred his sophomore season, but he gradually improved as a junior and then broke out as a senior.
Kohler’s ability to score around the basket as well as from the mid-range and from three is impressive. He had one of the most automatic top-of-the-key 3-point shots in the Big Ten for a good 2-3 months before hitting a little wall and then ending the season on a high note.
There’s going to be a team that sees a 6-foot-10 big man who can shoot threes, rebound, and who improved drastically on the defensive end and they’re going to take a chance on him.
The two Spartan bigs in the draft are being way too overlooked.
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