Mikel Brown Jr. Is Now Medically Cleared and Working Out for Lottery Teams. His Stock Is About to Explode
Mikel Brown Jr. is back. The Louisville guard who lost 14 games of his freshman year to a back injury just got the green light from NBA doctors and is now working out for lottery teams. ESPN’s Jeremy Woo currently projects Brown to go seventh overall in the 2026 NBA Draft. That projection is going to climb fast.
Brown worked out for the Jazz on Wednesday. He has another workout coming with the Bulls. He’s also expected to visit the Clippers. The teams picking in the top eight are all getting a look at the same player, and every team that sees him is going to bump him up their board.
What the Injury Was
Brown strained his back in November and missed more than a month starting in mid-December. He returned for parts of conference play but sat out the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament. The lower back issue plagued him through the rest of the season and lingered into the predraft process.
The fact that he’s now fully cleared changes everything. Teams hate drafting injury risks in the top 10. They hate it more in the top five. Now that he’s healthy, Brown can be evaluated on what he actually does on the court instead of on what the medical reports say.
What He Does on the Court
Brown is a 6-foot-3 lead guard with three-level scoring, real handle, and elite passing vision. He’s not the most explosive athlete in the draft but he is one of the smartest. He competes defensively. He has the size to play either guard spot at the next level.
The Louisville year was solid but interrupted. When healthy, he showed flashes of being a top-five prospect. The combine measurements were positive. The film backs up the projection. The only thing that was holding him back was the back issue and now that’s resolved.
Which Teams Should Want Him Most
The Utah Jazz at No. 2 is the most interesting fit. They already have a young core and need a true lead guard. Brown alongside Keyonte George could be a real backcourt of the future. But Utah is more likely to take Darryn Peterson at that spot, leaving Brown for somebody else in the top eight.
The Bulls have the No. 4 pick after a brutal season. They need a foundational piece. Brown could be their long-term answer at point guard. The Pelicans, Wizards in the middle of the lottery, and Hornets all have legitimate cases too. He’s not going to slip past seven. He might not slip past five.
The Risk Question
Back injuries are scary in basketball. They don’t always go away cleanly. Even with full medical clearance, a team taking Brown in the top five has to make peace with the possibility that he sits 10 to 15 games in his rookie year. That’s a real risk and one that may push some teams to other options.
The flip side: if you let injury concerns scare you off, you don’t take Joel Embiid in the top three. You don’t take Anthony Davis. You don’t take a lot of guys who turned out to be franchise players. Talent wins out over caution most of the time.
The Verdict
Brown is the biggest stock riser of the predraft process. He’s healthy. He’s working out for lottery teams. He’s going to drop the kind of pre-draft workout videos that lock in his top-eight status. By draft night, he might be a top-five lock. Look for the Bulls or Pelicans to make that decision.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
