With 7-8 professional NBA games under their belt, the rookies of the stacked 2026 NBA Draft Class have started to settle into their roles on their respective teams.
Building off from our Week 1 ranking, here’s a look at the rookies to collect two weeks into the season.
Tier 1: The Current Big Three
Tier 0 (really just Yaxel Lendeborg) and Tier 1 from last week have been combined into what we’ll call the current “big three” for this season’s rookie class. At the top of the list is none other than Cameron Boozer, who’s really looking like everything we’d expected from him coming out of college.
As the only rookie averaging a double-double with 17.4 PPG and 10.3 RPG, Cameron Boozer has reached the number one status for a good chunk of the basketball community — and the card collectors as well.
This Bowman U Best Refractor is one example of Cameron Boozer’s card market steadily gaining traction. It sold for only $6.50 on October 14 and has since jumped in price more than four times, with its most recent sale closing at $28.
Caleb Wilson and Yaxel Lendeborg are the two other rookies whose card markets are identical to that of Boozer’s.
Lendeborg exploded for a career-high 37 points on 68% shooting against the Los Angeles Clippers, while Caleb Wilson has remained incredibly consistent each game and has remained one of the best rookie scorers with a 21.6 PPG average.
Tier 2: Darius Acuff Jr
Darius Acuff Jr. deserves his own tier because right after the top three, he’s in a league of his own. Best known in these early games for his high-volume shooting, Acuff Jr. is the #1 scorer of every single player from the 2026 class, and the numbers really aren’t close.
His 26.1 PPG split leads all rookies by a significant margin, and as things stand, Acuff Jr. is the tenth-best scorer in the entire league. He’s no slouch when it comes to distributing the rock either, and that’s evident with his 6.3 APG, which is also the most of any rookie.
Acuff Jr’s Gold Kaboom! /10 is the prime example of just how much the public perception around him has increased from a collector’s perspective. This exact PSA 8 card originally sold for $4,560 in late September, and on the very first day of the new month, it became his second card to go for five figures at exactly $10,000.
Tier 3: Welcome to the League, AJ
AJ Dybantsa gets his own tier (again) too, and the reason why he’s lower on this list is that his collectibles are generally still more expensive than those of Darius Acuff Jr.
Dybantsa has finally played his first set of games with the Washington Wizards, and with the sample size we currently have, it’s looking great so far. His game has clearly translated to the NBA with 19.0 PPG, 4.7 RPG, and a 50% shooting clip, which should ease the worries of people who were looking to invest in him early.
Top Dybantsa sales since his NBA debut include a 2025 Topps Chrome McDonald’s Red Wave Golden Patch Auto /5 for $7,500, this 2025 Bowman Chrome University Orange Shimmer Refractor /25 in PSA 10 for $5,000, and a 2025 Bowman U Now Red Foil /5 RC in a PSA 10 for $3,750.
Tier 4: Establishing Their Roles
Tier 4 is for the players who haven’t really been standing out compared to the rest, but have been valuable to their respective teams given the roles they currently play. As a result, they’re way cheaper to collect than the others above them in this article, with one exception.
That exception is none other than Darryn Peterson himself. A decent contributor with 13.4 PPG, 4.3 RPG, and 3.3 APG, Peterson’s card market in the lower-to-mid-end has been pretty quiet lately. His high-tier market? Still active as ever.
This Anime Red Refractor /5 from 2025 Bowman Chrome, graded a PSA 10, just became Peterson’s fifth-most valuable individual card of all time before Halloween. It sold for $8,325.60 and is his most valuable sale for any card of his since debuting with the Jazz.
Keaton Wagler, Meleek Thomas, and Mikel Brown Jr. are right there alongside Peterson as some players who have been doing well in the league so far, all things considered. Cards considered to be high-end for all three of them are still incredibly affordable and definitely worth it, especially for fans of the teams they play for.
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JOAQIN VALENCERINA
Joaqin is a journalist with a strong passion for the Hobby. He has published work for HLTV.org, Rappler.com, and DLSU Sports. A decade-long Pokémon TCG collector, he recently shifted into sports cards to collect Lakers, Dodgers and Chargers players with growing PCs of Shohei Ohtani and Justin Herbert.
