{"id":742402,"date":"2026-05-24T02:45:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T02:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/742402\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T02:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T02:45:14","slug":"up-and-coming-squad-takes-iowa-pg-bennett-stirtz-in-cbs-nba-mock-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/742402\/","title":{"rendered":"Up-and-coming squad takes Iowa PG Bennett Stirtz in CBS NBA mock draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>May 23, 2026, 6:45 a.m. CT<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Bennett Stirtz is a polarizing figure in the 2026 NBA Draft. Is he as purely athletic and able to jump out of the gym as some of the other future first-round picks in the draft class? No.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Is he arguably the most seasoned point guard who can step in and be an immediate plug-and-play pick for a team ready to contend? You absolutely could argue, yes, there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">After leading the <a href=\"\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Iowa Hawkeyes<\/a> to an unforgettable Elite 8 run in the 2026 NCAA Tournament, Stirtz appears to be destined for the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft, with it being just a matter of where. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nba\/news\/2026-nba-mock-draft-first-post-combine\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">CBS Sports&#8217; recent NBA mock draft<\/a>, Stirtz is headed to the East Coast to join the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/charlotte-hornets\/5312\/\" data-autotag=\"e256e96c-b58f-4300-a36c-9b2c6d336797\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Charlotte Hornets<\/a>, a young and feisty team looking to contend soon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Round 1 &#8211; Pick 18<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Charlotte Hornets: Bennett Stirtz, PG, Iowa<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Stirtz is a highly skilled true point guard with an elite feel for the game. He&#8217;s not an overwhelming athlete or defender, but he&#8217;s a big-time shooter, ultra-reliable and always in the right spots. Stirtz has an understanding of the game beyond his years. If Charlotte goes big at 14, they&#8217;ll likely look for perimeter depth here with Coby White&#8217;s upcoming free agency. &#8211; Adam Finkelstein, CBS Sports<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Charlotte finished the 2025-26 NBA Season 44-38 overall, which saw them earn a spot in the NBA&#8217;s play-in games, where they took down the Miami Heat before falling to the Orlando Magic.<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The young roster is led by Brandon Miller, LaMelo Ball, and Kon Knueppel, a trio of young stars that could allow Bennett Stirtz to come in and be a facilitator as well as play with not nearly as much pressure as he had on his shoulders commanding Iowa&#8217;s offense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Contact\/Follow us\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/hawkeyeswire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">@HawkeyesWire<\/a>\u00a0on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hawkeyeswire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0to follow ongoing coverage of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/ncaaf\/teams\/iowa-hawkeyes\/3434\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Iowa<\/a>\u00a0news, notes and opinions.\u00a0Follow Riley on X:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rileydonald7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">@rileydonald7<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"May 23, 2026, 6:45 a.m. CT Bennett Stirtz is a polarizing figure in the 2026 NBA Draft. Is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3777],"tags":[72400,7,684,473,3878,685,6,91598,90715,83199,73480,72404,72457,72580,72859,72468,72452,73012,74106,74104,83632,72444,72422,72570,72405,72526,72406,72403],"class_list":["post-742402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-charlotte-hornets","tag-accessfree","tag-basketball","tag-charlotte","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-charlottehornets","tag-hornets","tag-nba","tag-sourcecollege-sports-wire","tag-sourcehawkeyes-wire","tag-sstssportscollegehawkeyesmens-basketball","tag-sstsnmens-basketball","tag-tagbasketball","tag-tagbig-10-hub","tag-tagbig-ten-conference-mens-basketball","tag-tagcbs-corp","tag-tagcharlotte-hornets","tag-tagcollege-sports","tag-tagiowa","tag-tagiowa-hawkeyes","tag-tagiowa-hawkeyes-mens-basketball","tag-tagkon-knueppel","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnba","tag-tagnba-draft","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsmg-timely","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}