The 2026-27 NBA season is underway, and among the hundreds of players chasing NBA Finals glory, a pair of them entered the league from the UCF Knights.
Below is a guide to both of UCF's alums in the NBA and how much impact they could have for their respective teams this season:
Mar 25, 2026; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Memphis Grizzlies forward Taylor Hendricks (22) drives to the basket as San Antonio Spurs center Bismack Biyombo (18) defends during the fourth quarter at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
After getting traded from the Utah Jazz to the Memphis Grizzlies last season, forward Taylor Hendricks is back with the Grizzlies to begin the 2026-27 season, his fourth season in the NBA.
Last season, between both of his teams, Hendricks played in 59 games, averaged 7.4 points per game and 3.7 rebounds per game and shot 45.9% from the floor. As for just his time with the Grizzlies, he started in 11 of the 26 games he played for them.
However, this time around, Hendricks is set to have some stiffer competition for playing time in the frontcourt thanks to several additions the Grizzlies made over the offseason, such as drafting Cameron Boozer third-overall in the 2026 NBA Draft and acquiring Jerami Grant in a trade with the Portland Trail Blazers.
During the Grizzlies season-opener, coincidentally against the Jazz, coach Tuomas Iisalo elected not to substitute Hendricks into the game, instead relying mostly on Boozer, Grant and Jaylin Wells, plus centers Zach Edey and Quinten Post.
Ever since he was drafted with the ninth-overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, Hendricks has not been an every-game sort of player, with last season's 59 total games being the most he's played in a single season of his career to date; and that was partly thanks to the Grizzlies acquiring them to get help in the frontcourt. Now, thanks to offseason acquisitions, Hendricks can resume a similar bench role he had in Utah in Memphis.
While this does not rule out Hendricks from every starting role, he made six for the Jazz last season before the trade, but unless the injury bug strikes the Grizzlies' frontcourt, they are likely to be few in number.
The same season that his former Knights teammate B.J. Taylor is getting inducted into the UCF Athletics Hall of Fame , center Tacko Fall is back playing regular-season basketball in the United States for the first time since 2022.
Since his last stint in the NBA, Fall has been mainly playing in the Chinese Basketball Association with the Xinjiang Flying Tigers, Nanjing Monkey Kings and, most recently, the Ningbo Rockets. Though he also played 18 games with the New Zealand Breakers, who compete in Australia's NBL, as well.
Fall initially signed an Exhibit 10 deal with the Philadelphia 76ers back in September, which reunited him with former Celtics teammate Jaylen Brown. However, mounting frontcourt injuries to players like Ariel Hukporti, Adem Bona and Dominick Barlow led to his contract getting converted to a two-way deal, allowing him to go back and forth between the Sixers and their G League affiliate, the Delaware Blue Coats. He signed similar deals during his last stint in the NBA with the Boston Celtics from 2019 to 2021 and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2021-22, which allowed him to check into 37 games across three seasons.
"Two-way players are ineligible to play in the postseason, so it's really just having another big body for 10 minutes here and there when there are fouls or injuries," ESPN reporter Dave McMenamin, who covers both the Sixers and Lakers, said in a Reddit AMA on Wednesday, answering a question about Fall.
However, unlike regular NBA contracts, a team can waive a two-way player and sign a different one as many times as it wishes, and Fall himself has not escaped the injury bug either. He was ruled out of the Sixers' first two games with a quadriceps injury, according to Rotowire. So, while Fall is currently in position to potentially check into an NBA game for the first time since Dec. 30, 2021, it could still end up being a short-term arrangement.
Fall played four seasons with the Knights from 2015 to 2019, earning an AAC Defensive Player of the Year honor in 2017 and an All-AAC Third-Team nod in 2019, the same season in which he helped the Knights earn their first NCAA Tournament win in program history.
Check out more UCF news below:
Halftime Check-In: UCF's Biggest Winners of 2026 (So Far)
What Riley Kugel Could Bring to the 2026-27 UCF Knights
UCF Opponent Review: Why BYU is Coming to Orlando as the No. 2 Team in the Nation
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/ucf as A UCF Fan's Guide to the 2026-27 NBA Season .
