The 2026 NBA Draft will be historic, but it could've looked different if Cooper Flagg didn't reclassify

The top of the 2026 NBA Draft is shaping up to be an all-timer. Case and point? The NBA season started just over a week ago, and fans of teams who have no shot at competing for the title are already starting to think about the lottery balls that will rattle around in mid-May that will decide who gets the right to select the next future superstar of the league.

By now, you're probably familiar with the "Big Three" in this upcoming draft class: Kansas' Darryn Peterson, Duke's Cameron Boozer and BYU's AJ Dybantsa. All three of those players are in contention to go No. 1 in about eight months. But there's another name that should've hypothetically been in contention: Cooper Flagg.

The 2024-25 CBS Sports Player of the Year put up a historic one-and-done season at Duke after reclassifying to the 2024 recruiting cycle to join the Blue Devils in time for the 2024-25 campaign. There was little doubt that Flagg was going to be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft from the moment he decided to reclassify to play college basketball a year early.

In fact, the term "Capture the Flagg" made its way around social media throughout the NBA season from fans of teams hoping they would get to root for him one day. It didn't matter who got the pick because Flagg's versatility as a two-way player made him a perfect fit for anyone picking at the top. It just so happened to be that the Dallas Mavericks -- months removed from trading face-of-the-franchise Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers -- were the team that won the lottery.

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The main difference between this year's class and last year's is that there isn't a player who has separated himself from the pack ... yet. That's not a bad thing because the race for who ends up going No. 1 is brewing to be one of the most intriguing races we have seen in some time.

It's a stark contrast to the 2024 NBA Draft, when there was collective doubt in the weeks and months leading up to draft night on who would be the No. 1 pick. Bluntly, the top of that class lacked true star power. If any of the three players mentioned were in that class, they would've been the clear-cut No. 1 pick. The Atlanta Hawks ended up selecting Zaccharie Risacher from France over fellow countryman Alex Sarr.

Once upon a time, Flagg was a member of the 2025 high school recruiting class alongside Boozer and Peterson. Dybantsa, who was originally in the 2026 recruiting class, reclassified just months after Flagg, which put him in a position to enroll in school a year earlier and be eligible for the 2026 draft.

From the moment Flagg reclassified, it was almost a moot point on who was going No. 1 in 2025. Whether you wanted to call the race from the moment he reclassified in 2023, or went the conservative route and waited until he played a game at Duke, there was little doubt about who NBA commissioner Adam Silver would announce as the No. 1 pick. Dylan Harper, who was the No. 2 overall pick this past summer, was certainly regarded as one heck of a consolation prize, but he truthfully wasn't on the same level prospect-wise as Flagg.

If Flagg had never reclassified, there might have been some debate -- unlike previous years -- on who was going to be the No. 1 pick. That's not a knock on Flagg whatsoever. It only proves how strong the upcoming class is. 247Sports Director of Scouting Adam Finkelstein, who has seen all of these players play extensively over the years, still thinks Flagg would've still gone No. 1 in a loaded class.

"Short answer -- yes he would," Finkelstein said. "He's still the prospect who has the best combined overlap of offensive and defensive impact and potential. Simultaneously, he checks the more intangible boxes as a hyper-competitor, high processor of the game, and proven history of continued improvement."

247 Sports Director of Basketball Eric Bossi agrees that Flagg would still be No. 1 in 2026 if all four players were hypothetically in the same draft class.

"Flagg would still be my No. 1 player if he hadn't reclassified," Bossi said. "I think that Darryn Peterson would have made it very interesting, but given what Flagg did in college last year and what he's already doing in the NBA, he would have been scary against high school kids last year."

Flagg being in the 2026 NBA Draft would've been a fun hypothetical to ponder. It also would've created a potential ripple effect in college basketball. Does Boozer, who committed to Duke over Miami with his brother Cayden Boozer, still head to Durham? How would Flagg look with this current Duke roster? The possibilities are endless to think about.

The question that remains heading into what is expected to be an incredible 2025-26 college basketball season is, who will go No. 1 this summer? Ask 10 different people who follow and cover the draft closely. You might get 10 different answers on how picks No. 1, 2 and 3 play out this summer.

Peterson and Dybantsa have certainly been the prospects talked about most when the question "who should go No. 1?" comes up. If those two players are off the board with the first two picks this summer, it would mark the first time since 2017 that players from the same conference, on different teams, went No. 1 and 2 in the same draft. Markelle Fultz from Washington and Lonzo Ball from UCLA went off the board with the first two picks back in 2017.

Still, when having the conversation about the No. 1 pick this year, it's important not to forget about Boozer. He looks like someone who can make a legitimate case to challenge Peterson and Dybantsa for that title because of his skill set. In an exhibition game against Tennessee last weekend, Boozer finished with 24 points, 23 rebounds and six assists. Boozer was dominant and imposed his will on both ends of the floor.

"The big thing for me in 2026, and this dates back to the way I talked about the 2025 recruiting class, is that it's a big three," Finkelstein said. "It's not a big two. Rationale minds can disagree about how those players measure up against each other, both now and in the long-run, but I think it's become very clear already that Boozer is very much in the same conversation."

The hype around this class has exploded in recent weeks because teams finally played scrimmages that are not a secret. In Peterson's first showing at Kansas against Louisville, he finished with 26 points, four rebounds and shot 6 of 10 from the 3-point line. In Dybantsa's first game against Nebraska, he scored 30 points on 10 of 19 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds.

Those performances should give fans of bad NBA teams hope for a better tomorrow. For Mavericks fans who are still grieving the loss of Dončić being traded, they're lucky to reap the benefits a year earlier than originally scheduled because of Flagg's reclassification to the 2025 draft.

There's still a conversation to be had about who actually goes No. 1. Right now, the current favorite appears to be Peterson, who is lauded as one of the best guard prospects of this generation. Kansas coach Bill Self, who has coached a No. 1 overall pick before (Andrew Wiggins), has given extensive praise to Peterson from the moment he committed to the school. Self went as far as to say that Peterson is the best player the program has recruited during his tenure.

Even though 247Sports Recruiting Analyst Travis Branham says Flagg would be the No. 1 player in the draft class, there's reason to buy into the Peterson hype.

"Trying to exclude Cooper's year at Duke for this exercise, I think Cooper would hold the slight edge as the No. 1 player in the class but I think the separation is very thin between him and Darryn Peterson," Branham said. "Cooper's two-way impact, particularly on defense is a key factor but Darryn is continuing to prove himself as the future focal point of an NBA franchise. With Peterson's size, athleticism, IQ and skillset, he makes for an elite scorer and playmaker both at the collegiate and NBA levels. Every team looks for a guy who can have the ball in his hands to create advantages on the floor and I think that's exactly the type of player Peterson can be."

We won't be able to answer the hypothetical question about what the 2026 NBA Draft could've looked like with Flagg in it. The consolation prize is that fans -- whether it's college or NBA -- will still be able to sit back and enjoy a historic race toward deciding who goes No. 1. Enjoy it while you can, because chances are, we might not see something like this again.