NBA rookie impact rankings: 10 first-year players who will make presence felt immediately

Entering the 2025-26 college basketball season, the hype around the incoming freshmen class was palpable. Led by the likes of Darryn Peterson , AJ Dybantsa , Cameron Boozer and Caleb Wilson , that group departed college basketball as one of the best freshmen classes of this generation.

Now, as those players enter their rookie seasons in the NBA , there is even more hype surrounding what could be one of the best rookie classes this century. Peterson and Dybantsa are joining unique situations: the Jazz and Wizards both missed the playoffs, but there is infrastructure in place for those teams to…