Last Tuesday, Noam Yaacov, the 21-year-old Israeli-Danish point guard and Utah basketball commit, shared photos on an Instagram story that showed he was in Salt Lake City.
That included pictures of downtown Salt Lake City, then another inside the Huntsman Center.
The next day, Yaacov shared a photo of himself dressed in a Runnin’ Utes jersey.
For fans starving for the once-proud program to make a turnaround under former Ute great Alex Jensen, seeing Yaacov in Utah red was a welcome sight.
Could Yaacov’s expected arrival move the Utes closer to breaking their NCAA Tournament drought that now extends over a decade?
Yaacov has yet to officially sign with Utah, though there’s optimism that he will end up in Salt Lake City playing for the Utes in the 2026-27 season, even as he’s being mentioned as a potential second-round selection in next week’s NBA draft.
Because he’s an international player who will turn 22 this year, Yaacov is an auto-eligible prospect for the draft, and last month, he was invited to the G League Draft Combine, then participated in scrimmages at the NBA Draft Combine.
On June 9, after Yaacov’s positive performance at the combines, KSL Sports’ Steve Bartle reported that it’s expected Yaacov will join the Runnin’ Utes program, given his current draft prospects — ESPN’s Jeremy Woo projects Yaacov will be selected in the second round, No. 59 overall by Minnesota, while On3’s James Fletcher III gives him a more favorable projection, going No. 37 to Oklahoma City.
Bartle also reported that the “current belief” was that unless Yaacov was guaranteed a 15-man roster spot in the NBA, he was expected to be at Utah for the 2026-27 season.
There’s a belief that the international prospect could be a draft and stash player at Utah, allowing him to further develop his game before moving to the NBA level.
Because of all this, Yaacov’s future has become a focal point, particularly amongst the Utah fanbase, and he’s become a point of conversation recently for several basketball experts.
What basketball experts are saying about Noam Yaacov
No matter what happens next, it’s already been quite a year for Yaacov.
He was one of three finalists for MVP honors in the BNXT League, a first-tier league in Belgium and the Netherlands. Yaacov led Filou Oostende to the Belgian playoff championship series, which it lost in a five-game thriller against Windrose Giants Antwerp.
In that decisive Game 5, Yaacov scored 19 points.
His most impressive effort in the championship series came in Game 2, when he scored 34 points, made five 3-pointers, hit 15 of 16 free-throw attempts and added seven rebounds, six assists and a steal in helping Oostende win to even the series at one game apiece.
Yaacov averaged 17.4 points, 5.8 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game for Oostende during the 2025-26 season, while shooting 46% from the field, 38.3% from 3 and 76.8% at the free-throw line.
In between the end of the regular season and the playoffs, he made that trip to the United States to participate in the combines.
Woo took note of Yaacov after his performance at the G League and NBA combines.
“Yaacov looked the part of an immediate-impact point guard for next season. He’s excellent in pick-and-roll situations, can initiate offense and control tempo and finds openings in the defense to score or create,” Woo wrote.
“His jumper needs work, but he should provide a massive boost to Utah’s point guard play.”
In Yaacov’s draft profile on NBA.com, he’s projected as a “pick-and-roll guard who can run an NBA offense, push the pace in transition, and keep his teammates involved,” while also earning comparisons to Goran Dragic and TJ McConnell.
“Yaacov runs pick-and-roll with patience, changing speeds before slinging the ball to the open man while keeping his assist-to-turnover ratio positive. The point guard gets downhill with a low handle and a start-stop game that keeps bigger defenders guessing and draws fouls at a rate that points to craftiness inside the arc,” the profile reads.
“He knocks down threes at a respectable clip with room to grow as a pull-up weapon. Defensively, Yaacov plays with active hands and competes on the ball, also jumping in passing lanes when defending off the ball.”
Less than a week ago, CBS Sports’ Isaac Trotter took an extended look at the Big 12 basketball scene for the upcoming season, and while Trotter unsurprisingly had the Utes in his bottom tier of league teams one year after they went 2-16 in Big 12 play, he spent a good portion of his Utah segment explaining about how Yaacov could energize the program.
“Utah will have one of the best guards in the Big 12 in 2026-27. Yes, you heard that right,” Trotter wrote. “Israeli star Noam Yaacov will turn 22 before the season-opener, and the sturdy lead guard will be a floor-raiser due to his ability to navigate pick-and-rolls, create easy shots and consistently bend the defense.
“Yaacov will be in the conversation for All-Big 12 honors and is the engine who will make the Utes go.”
The most in-depth look at Yaacov and his skills came from The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie, who has the point guard as the No. 47 overall prospect in his 2026 NBA Draft Guide.
Yaacov lands under a “priority two-ways” player subsection and is ranked near a pair of familiar Big 12 guards, Arizona’s Jaden Bradley (No. 45) and Iowa State’s Tamin Lipsey (No. 57). Bradley was named the conference player of the year this past season, while Lipsey was an All-Big 12 second-teamer.
“There are few players whose tape I’ve enjoyed watching this year more than Yaacov’s,” Vecenie wrote. “He was so clearly a level ahead of his opponents in the Belgian league from athletic and creativity standpoints. The guy is an absolute hooper, and it’s fun to experience.”
“Will any of that work in the NBA? I don’t know. He’d certainly need to rein in some of his wilder qualities as a ballhandler and find a way to create easier shots for himself. A midrange floater would be a massive counter for him.”
Vecenie discussed the possibility of Yaacov being a draft and stash this year if he ends up being a second-round pick in next week’s NBA draft, which runs Tuesday (first round) and Wednesday (second round) at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
“Essentially, a team could choose to stash Yaacov at Utah and then sign a similar-quality player after the draft to the two-way contract they would have given to someone in that slot,” Vecenie wrote.
“Being a stash pick is a benefit, not a negative, in a draft that lacks depth after the first round.”