Player card
- Team/status: official Memphis roster rookie; final standard-contract and rehab assignment details pending.
- Position: official roster label F; wing platform eligibility pending.
- Age/experience: 24 during the season; rookie.
- Depth role: rehabbing 3-and-D wing, zero base minutes; 16 minutes in a cleared branch. He has said he expects to be ready at the start of the season.
- Pre-NBA baseline: 18.1 PTS, 5.9 REB, 2.1 AST and 1.8 STL in 31.3 minutes, with .489 FG, .376 3P and .817 FT before the ACL injury. NBA prospect file, accessed 2026-07-18
2026-27 projection
| State | GP | MPG | FG% (FGA) | FT% (FTA) | 3PM | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Representative rotation | 0 | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Cleared at or near opening night | 40 | 16 | .430 (5.0) | .800 (1.2) | 1.1 | 6.4 | 2.4 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.8 |
Correction 2026-07-18 The conditional branch rises from 20 games at 10 minutes to 40 at 16, and the framing changes from "development-only" to a real, gated rotation role. The prior version was more pessimistic than any sourced reporting: Saunders told John Hollinger of The Athletic that he thinks he will be ready at the start of the season, and Memphis spent the No. 32 pick on him with the February ACL tear already known. The base line stays at zero because no team clearance has been published and he cannot play Summer League, but the gate is now "clearance," not "a late-season runway." Deseret News, 2026-06-24
Nine-category/points: no redraft value until an official clearance and role appear, but he is worth a late-camp watchlist slot rather than being ignored. Dynasty: injury-discount stash for threes and steals; being a 24-year-old rookie lowers the long development runway.
Range and risks
- Strengths: shooting, steals, rebounding for a wing and experienced decision-making.
- Liabilities: ACL recovery, age-adjusted upside and low projected assists/blocks.
- Floor/base/ceiling: rehab extends and he misses most of the season / cleared in-season for limited development games / cleared near opening night and earns 18-20 minutes once the wing room thins, providing 1.3 threes and a steal.
- Branches: rehab progression dominates, but roster consolidation is a real second lever — Memphis must cut six standard players, and a Grant buyout would open exactly his minutes.
The NBA prospect file and BYU's draft coverage document the college performance and February 2026 ACL tear. Saunders's own stated timeline is the most optimistic input available and is not a team clearance; the two are held apart here rather than merged. Any source placing him in a normal October depth chart as a settled fact is still ahead of the evidence. BYU, 2026-06-25 · Deseret News, 2026-06-24
Confidence
| Component | Label | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Roster | Medium-high | Official roster tile, final contract bucket pending. |
| Minutes | Low | Rehab and crowded wing room. |
| Rate | Low-medium | College translation plus post-ACL uncertainty. |
| Availability | Low-medium | February ACL tear with no official NBA return date recovered, against the player's own opening-night expectation. |
Sources
- Official Memphis roster — accessed 2026-07-18.
Career record
Pre-NBA: Four seasons at BYU, after a church mission served in Seattle (originally assigned to Madagascar, reassigned during COVID-19). A genuine slow build rather than a late bloom in one year.
| Season | GP | GS | MPG | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | 34 | 2 | 15.9 | 5.5 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.3 | .453 | .333 | .684 |
| 2023-24 | 34 | 1 | 20.7 | 9.6 | 4.1 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.2 | .523 | .364 | .712 |
| 2024-25 | 35 | 35 | 29.5 | 16.5 | 4.5 | 1.6 | 1.2 | 0.4 | .518 | .432 | .835 |
| 2025-26 | 25 | 25 | 31.4 | 18.0 | 5.8 | 2.1 | 1.7 | 0.3 | .489 | .376 | .817 |
Big 12 Most Improved Player and first-team All-Big 12 in 2025; second-team All-Big 12 in 2026. Finished with more than 1,500 points across 128 games and sits top-20 in BYU history in three-point makes, three-point attempts, steals, 20- and 30-point games, and free-throw percentage. Draft: 2026, second round, 32nd overall, Memphis — selected with the ACL tear already known.
Saunders has never appeared in an NBA game. His most recent season is the injury-shortened 2025-26 BYU line above.
Durability: The controlling fact of his profile. He tore his ACL 45 seconds into the February 15, 2026 game against Colorado, ending his college career after 25 games. No team-published return-to-play window has been located. He was not able to play Summer League. His own stated expectation, to John Hollinger, is that he will be ready near the start of the season; that is a player's expectation, not a clearance, and the two should not be merged.
Trajectory: The college arc is unusually clean — scoring, rebounds, assists and steals all rose in each of four seasons, and he shot .432 from three on real volume in his junior year before settling at .376 as the primary option. That is a 3-and-D wing profile with better steal production than most, and Memphis paying a 32nd pick for a player with a known ACL tear is a meaningful vote. The discount is age: he turns 25 in September 2026, so there is no long development runway and what you see is close to the finished product. He becomes fantasy-relevant only on a published clearance plus a wing-room opening — Memphis must cut six standard players, and a Jerami Grant buyout would clear precisely the minutes he projects into.
Career sources: Wikipedia · ESPN ACL report · NBA prospect file · BYU draft release
Open questions
- What return-to-play window does Memphis publish?
- Will Saunders spend his rookie season primarily rehabbing and in the G League?