The NBA Draft order is set after Sunday's lottery. Heading into the combine this week in Chicago, the pre-draft process is here in earnest.
For Alabama, the Tide will see two players competing and looking to work their way up draft boards in the coming weeks. Star sophomore guard Labaron Philon, a 3rd Team All-American this past season, is widely seen as a projected lottery pick as festivities begin.
Freshman Amari Allen is going through the process to determine whether he will stay in the draft or return to Alabama for his sophomore season. Allen is widely seen as a first-round pick in most mocks, but will look to creep his way into the Top 20 or so.
As much as Alabama fans want Allen back, Nate Oats considers it a win-win: either he's produced another first-round pick from off-the-radar, or he'll get one of the best players in the country back for 2026-27.
ESPN's Jeremy Woo released an updated NBA mock draft in the immediate aftermath of the lottery results, and the former Crimson Tide teammates could see themselves on opposite ends of a fierce modern-day rivalry.
Jeremy Woo projects Labaron Philon to Miami, Amari Allen to Boston in updated mock draft
Philon could work himself into the Top 10 range with a strong pre-draft process. His ceiling is likely Atlanta with the No. 8 pick, but he'll have his work cut out for him in a draft class that features a plethora of dynamite guards.
Other lottery teams that could covet Philon are the Mavericks (9th), Bucks (10th), Warriors (11th), Heat (13th), and the Hornets (14th). He should be in good shape to wind up somewhere in that range.
Woo projects him at No. 13 to the Heat, which will covet a guard who can create for himself. Philon can certainly do that.
The Tide star averaged 21 points per game during his sophomore season and was the best player on a Sweet 16 team. He could do a lot worse than landing in a stable organization like Miami. While the Heat haven't been a contender in the last few seasons, they have consistently been one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference for quite some time.
Allen's projection is a bit tougher to handicap, with a lot riding on his performance in Chicago and in any individual workouts he has with NBA scouts. Woo has him landing at No. 27 to the Boston Celtics, which, like Philon, would be hard to complain about.
The Celtics are always competitive and have one of the best developmental staffs in the league. It would be a perfect landing spot for him, and set him up to be rivals with his college teammate Philon.
Through multiple eras, the Heat and Celtics have gone head-to-head for supremacy in the East over the last nearly two decades.
Add us as a preferred source on Google