Derek Rucker's Top 15: Young star soars into ranking

16 Apr 2026

sydney kings

Sydney’s Jaylin Galloway has been rewarded for his strong end to the season, named in Derek Rucker’s Top 15 for the first time.

By

NBL.com.au

Plenty of the talk around Derek Rucker’s Top 15 has been around who claimed the number one spot between Adelaide’s Bryce Cotton and Sydney’s Kendric Davis, and rightfully so.

But there has also been plenty of discussion around one of the competition’s rising stars, who jumped into the Top 15 for the very first time.

That is none other than Sydney’s Jaylin Galloway, who recently helped the Harbour City club win its sixth NBL Championship.

>> Free Agency Tracker: Rolling updates, signings and reported moves

During the Hungry Jack’s NBL26 Championship Series, the now three-time champion averaged 15.2 points and 3.6 triples a game, while shooting 55.6 per cent from the field.

Not only that, the 23-year-old was regularly used, alongside Matthew Dellavedova, Makuach Maluach and Torrey Craig, as the primary defender on six-time MVP Cotton during the Series.

This didn’t go unnoticed by 1990 NBL MVP Rucker.

“At number 14 [on my list] is Jaylin Galloway,” Rucker said.

“[He had a] brilliant Championship Series, and because of that, he has catapulted himself into the Top 15 for the first time.

“He has the ability to be the best two-way player in the NBL, [and is] a real threat to reappear in the NBA.”

These sentiments by Rucker echo those of three-time NBL champion Casey Prather.

“I’m always thinking in my head like, man, this dude should be in the NBA … I think he has so much more to his game that he hasn’t been able to showcase just yet,” Prather said on a recent episode of NBL Now.

“I’m not sure if it’s just because of the role that he’s on or the self-confidence, but I’m a huge fan of his game, and I think he’s one of those guys who can take that next step to the NBA.”

Other big risers since the last Top 15 in December are Perth’s Kristian Doolittle (14th to 3rd), South East Melbourne pair Nathan Sobey (9th to 4th) and John Brown III (unranked to 9th) and New Zealand’s Sam Mennenga (unranked to 13th).

The NBL27 Free Agency period opens at 9am AEST on Friday, April 17.