The rookies after the preseason, and which roles look real

The preseason is over, and the second week of exhibitions added more evidence about the rookies than the first. Our earlier piece on the rookies' preseason minutes covered the opening games, and this one picks up the games it did not include, adds two rookies it did not cover, and sets each role against our projection and the analysts' consensus.

Our projections do not read preseason games, so every number below is the same one our boards carried before the exhibitions began. Ranks are from our points board under ESPN's default scoring and our 9-cat board, beside the analysts' points consensus, and every game line was confirmed in at least two outlets. AJ Dybantsa and Darryn Peterson are left out because we could not confirm a later line for either in two outlets, and Yaxel Lendeborg has a story of his own in the Warriors rotation piece.

Every player in this story is on the fantasy basketball rankings and the 2026-27 projections, and the NBA depth charts show where each one stands in his team’s rotation tonight.