On Tuesday, Stanford freshman point guard Ebuka Okorie was selected by the Oklahoma City Thunder with the 17th overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. Okorie was briefly traded to the Memphis Grizzlies before then getting traded to the Detroit Pistons, which is where he finally settled.
While I was highly confident Okorie would get selected, I was pleasantly surprised to see him go in the top 20. Going as high as he did, he definitely made the right decision in leaving The Farm after his freshman season. No question about it.
As far as what he’ll bring to the Motor City, Okorie will bring an electric scoring ability and ability to get to the basket. He is explosive with the basketball and super quick, doing a great job of slicing through defenders while also having a wide array of moves. He can finish with ease using either hand and knows how to score in a variety of ways around the rim. He’s definitely a throwback player in terms of his elite finishing ability.
On top of his ability to finish around the rim and get to the cup, Okorie is a solid 3-point shooter and defender. He gets after it on both ends of the floor and can really make plays in the transition. There’s a lot to like about the way he plays the game.
During his freshman season, Okorie averaged 23.2 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 1.6 steals per game on 46.5% shooting from the field, 35.4% shooting from 3-point range, and 83.2% shooting from the foul line. He was by far and away the best player on the Cardinal and many a night, he was the best player on the floor.
The biggest concern with Okorie is his size at just 6’2”, 185 pounds. While he is an explosive athlete that can dunk with ease, he’s still small for today’s NBA. He’ll have to prove that he can play the point guard position in terms of facilitating and doing other things besides scoring. If he can prove himself able to do that, he could end up being a big time steal for the Pistons.
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