Welcome back to the West’s best source of useless amateur sports information, according to friends and family members of mine, at least.

Today’s post was inspired by last night’s opening round of the 2026 NBA Draft, which got me thinking about which draft classes have produced the most value in the Association when considering the teams that have (or will) call the Pac-12 home.

To do so, I looked at Basketball-Reference.com to scoop out as many players who competed for a team that was (or will) compete in the Conference of Champions, adding up their respective career win share totals to give us some data on which programs have made the biggest impact on the pro level.

I won’t waste any more of your time, dear reader. Here’s which Pac-12 programs have had the most success in getting top-tier talent onto the hardwoods of the NBA since 2016.

(All the data below comes from our good friends at Basketball-Reference.com.)

Ranking The Best Pac-12 Draft Classes By Win Share Totals: 

Ranking The Best Pac-12 Draft Classes By Win Share Per Pick: 

Ranking The Best Pac-12 Teams By Draft Pick Win Shares: 

Pac-12 Top 10 Draft Picks (By Win Share Total) 

What All That Data Tells Us

Well, for one, that Domantas Sabonis has put up a much better professional career than I thought. While the 6’10 center out of Gonzaga has been an everyday starter at the four or five position for a decade, I had no idea how many win shares the 11th pick in 2016 had racked up.

Over the last 10 NBA Draft classes, Sabonis’ 71.0 win shares nearly double the next closest Pac-12 player (that being Jakob Poeltl out of Utah, who’s another player that’s put up a surprisingly high win share total, at 48.5).

While Sabonis is a three-time All-Star (and two-time All-NBA member), I had no clue how dominant he’s been, thanks in large part to being resigned to playing the last five years of his career in the overgrown cow pasture that is Sacramento.

Aside from Sabonis, four other former OG or nouveau Pac-12 players have posted win share totals north of 40, including the much-maligned top pick out of Tucson in 2018 (Deandre Ayton, who has 43.8 of them in his career).

On a program-wide level, Gonzaga breezed past Arizona for the top spot, win share wise, thanks to Sabonis and his stat-stuffing figures.

Only two of the 17 teams that have or will call the Pac-12 home have not had a draft pick since 2016, in Texas State Bobcats, who are likely to finish in the cellar for years to come in their newfound conference home, and the Oregon State Beavers, who have resided there for years.

Aside from Gonzaga and Arizona, the only other team surveyed that posted a win share total in triple-digits was Washington, who had 104.3 of them, thanks in large part to the professional exploits of guys like Dejounte Murray and Jaden McDaniels, who finished ninth (26.8) and 10th (23.1) on our Pac-12 player win share list.

OK, But What If This Is All A Case Of Recency Bias?

Good question, reader that I definitely didn’t make up in my head as I wrote this newsletter.

While win share totals are something that’s earned over time, meaning draft picks from 2025, 2024 or even 2023 will obviously struggle to compete with their more veteran Pac-12 peers, we can glean a bit from how the most recent classes have fared on the professional level.

For one, it’s telling that each of the weakest Pac-12 draft cadres have come in the last three years, with Jaime Jaquez Jr. being the closest thing to a success story of the three classes.

That’s not a knock on Jaquez, who has been a solid backup point guard for Erik Spoelstra in Miami, but when your conference’s top player has 10.5 win shares over three seasons, you might need to assess the talent pool.

Aside from Jaquez, the top Pac-12 draft picks since 2023 (win share wise) are former CU forward Tristan Da Silva (5.8 win shares) and a trio of second-round picks from 2024 (in Pelle Larsson of Arizona at 5.5 win shares, as well as UCLA’s Adem Bona at 5.2 and Washington State’s Jaylen Wells at 5.1).

That level of NBA Draft class struggle means that the Pac-12 is obviously not pumping out pro-ready talent like it used to, which is why 2023 (4.1), 2024 (2.57) and 2025 (1.7) were the lowest ranking classes of the 10 that were surveyed for this story, win share wise.

While it’s too early to write off the 2025 class, obviously, it is telling that the Pac-12 had its lowest draft pick total (four) of the 10 years surveyed for this story, with the top performing player being the latest picked of the quartet, in Stanford’s Maxime Raynaud, who had 3.6 win shares after going 42nd overall to the Sacramento Kings.

At day’s end, it warrants a sincere hat tip to Mark Few and his Little Shop of Basketball Horrors in Spokane, as Gonzaga’s NBA impact dwarves the rest of the Pac-12, even when you factor in traditional powers like Arizona and UCLA into the equation.