After an injury-filled Kentucky season, Jayden Quaintance is selected in NBA draft

Cameron Drummond, Lexington Herald-Leader on Jun 23, 2026

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — For the first time, a player who Mark Pope has coached in college has been selected in the first round of the NBA draft.

But this milestone will carry an asterisk alongside it.

On Tuesday night, former Arizona State and Kentucky basketball player Jayden Quaintance was selected by the San Antonio Spurs with the 20th overall pick in the first round of the 2026 NBA draft, which was held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Quaintance is the third player from Kentucky to be selected in the NBA draft with Pope as the program’s head coach. Koby Brea and Amari Williams were both second-round NBA draft selections from Pope’s first UK team in 2025.

Brea and Williams were also the first NBA draft picks produced by Pope. Previously, Pope hadn’t produced an NBA draft choice over nine combined seasons as the head coach at Utah Valley and BYU.

The 6-foot-10 Quaintance spent two seasons in college basketball, starring as a freshman at Arizona State during the 2024-25 season before suffering a torn ACL late in that campaign. Quaintance transferred to Kentucky — the school he had initially committed to during his high school recruitment when John Calipari coached the Cats — ahead of his sophomore year.

But Quaintance’s surgically repaired right knee limited him to just four games at UK during the 2025-26 season. He played in four consecutive contests from Dec. 20 to Jan. 7. Quaintance’s debut for Kentucky came nearly nine months following his major knee surgery and led to a marquee nonconference win over Rick Pitino’s St. John’s team in Atlanta. Quaintance had his best performance in that victory over the Red Storm, totaling 10 points, eight rebounds and two blocks in 17 minutes off the bench.

Quaintance’s on-court effectiveness dropped off from there. His final appearance for Kentucky came in a home loss to Missouri on Jan. 7 in which he scored just one point while grabbing four rebounds in 18 minutes.

“You know, things don’t always go as planned. You’ve got to keep a level head. Keep your eyes forward,” the 18-year-old Quaintance said last month at the NBA combine in Chicago. “And keep the outside noise on the outside, and keep connected with your guys and the people that are on the inside trying to improve and trying to win.”

Most of Quaintance’s body of work for his draft profile came from his dominant freshman campaign at Arizona State. During the 2024-25 season with the Sun Devils, Quaintance averaged 9.4 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2.6 blocks, 1.5 assists and 1.1 steals per game while being the youngest player (17 years old) in college basketball. Quaintance was named to the Big 12 Conference All-Freshman and All-Defensive teams.

Last offseason, 247Sports ranked Quaintance as a top-10 transfer in the country. He was also viewed as a potential top-five pick in the 2026 draft, a projection that didn’t pan out.

Quaintance is the 144th player from Kentucky to be selected in the NBA draft.

During the pre-draft process, Quaintance didn’t fully participate in running, conditioning and other high-impact drills. But Quaintance did take part in some live play and completed full workouts for NBA teams. At the NBA combine, he was measured to have a 7-5.25 wingspan. In addition to taking part in the NBA combine in May in Chicago, Quaintance took part in a pro day showcase hosted by his agency.

As Tuesday night’s NBA draft grew closer, mock drafts widely projected Quaintance to be a first-round pick who would be taken outside of lottery pick range, which covers the draft’s first 14 picks. A majority of the CBS Sports mock drafts predicted that Quaintance would be the 25th overall pick, while Yahoo Sports had him as the 27th overall pick and ESPN projected Quaintance to be taken with the 30th overall selection.

Quaintance wasn’t invited to attend the NBA draft in person in the green room in Brooklyn.