UNC guard Matt Able makes The Athletic’s early 2027 NBA draft radar as Tar Heels draw fresh attention

After the 2026 NBA Draft wrapped up, The Athletic’s first look ahead to the 2027 NBA Draft has already placed a Tar Heel newcomer on the radar in a big way. In its initial mock draft for 2027, the publication includes North Carolina guard Matt Able in the first round, setting up a long recruiting and development storyline for UNC that begins in the college offseason and runs into the spring of 2027.

The context matters because early draft projections can influence how fans, scouts, and future opponents think about a player’s ceiling, especially for programs with recruiting momentum. For North Carolina, that momentum has a recruiting-friendly appeal, and it also adds pressure. Able’s placement as a first-round candidate, even in a projection, indicates that scouts expect NBA-level traits from the position group he anchors for the Tar Heels.

The Athletic’s mock draft does not stop with Able. It also lists three more North Carolina players as “names to watch,” indicating that the program’s next-season picture is more than a one-player story. However, beyond the existence of those additional draft-watch Tar Heels, the specific names and roles were not detailed in the information available for this report, so it is best to treat those as a broader indicator of depth rather than a confirmed ranking of individuals.

For UNC, this kind of early attention often aligns with a familiar developmental framework in college basketball: a player is expected to translate offensive usage, shot quality, and decision-making into a pro-ready profile within a single season span. In Able’s case, the fact that he is being singled out in the first round suggests The Athletic sees a package that could translate quickly to professional evaluation, at least relative to the 2027 draft class.

Still, it is a reminder that mock drafts are not scouting reports and do not guarantee outcomes. Player status can change due to health, changes in team roles, production swings, and the natural reshuffling that happens as non-conference and conference schedules unfold. What follows for Able and the broader Tar Heels group is not a certainty but an opportunity, and the season provides the only real test of whether projections match on-court impact.

For fans watching the Tar Heels next year, the “watch list” angle sets up two parallel storylines. One is whether Able can justify first-round expectations with consistent playmaking and scoring threat. The second is whether the additional UNC names tied to the draft radar take steps that move them from “to watch” into more specific draft positioning as the draft calendar approaches.