Northwestern's Nick Martinelli Among 73 Names Invited to 2026 NBA Draft Combine

Two-time All-Big Ten Northwestern University Wildcats sharpshooting forward Nick Martinelli has earned an invitation to this month's NBA Draft Combine in Chicago, a pre-draft workout for the best prospects of the year.

Opportunity earned 🤌@N_Martinelli1 has been invited to the NBA Draft Combine 🟣 pic.twitter.com/aLsDBd2HO9
— Northwestern Basketball (@NUMensBball) May 1, 2026

Kevin Lu of Roundtable reports that the Combine is slated to transpire from May 10-17 at Chicago's Wintrust Arena and Marriott Marquis.

Martinelli is just one of 73 young prospects to earn the honor, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. With 60 draft slots, he may be hard-pressed to make the cut.

Jeremy Woo of ESPN ranks Martinelli as the No. 64-best prospect on the Worldwide Leader's big board.

The 6-foot-7 combo forward out of Glenbrook South paced the Big Ten this season with his 23.0 points on .510/.417/.809 shooting splits, while also averaging 6.2 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 0.8 steals a night.

Martinelli had been one of the best scorers in the Big Ten across each of the past two seasons, but his teammates couldn't consistently emerge as offensive threats. The team faltered in 2025-26, stumbling to a mediocre 15-19 record on the year.

He did make a pair of March Madness berths during his first two seasons, although he was essentially still just a sixth man even by his sophomore year, 2023-24.

Boo Buie and future Oklahoma City Thunder two-way signing Brooks Barnhizer were the stars of that '23-'24 squad.

Northwestern head coach Chris Collins made Martinelli more of a focal point in his offense during the 2024-25 season, and although Martinelli thrived, the team regressed. That may be more of a reflection on the personnel around Martinelli than it is an indictment of his leadership abilities, or lack thereof.

“Obviously I don’t know what’s to come,” Martinelli told Colleen Kane of The Chicago Tribune of his draft prospects in March. “I could just be a 9-to-5er next year. You never know what’s going to happen... But hopefully I did enough. That’s obviously my dream to play in the NBA, but if not, I’m just going with the punches.”

Martinelli seems to have greatly improved his draft stock already with at least Woo, who had ranked him as just the No. 84-best prospect in the nation back in February. In fairness, the decision by several early-entry prospects to return to school rather than declare for the 2026 NBA Draft may have helped Martinelli's case a bit.

Whether or not Martinelli is actually drafted, he does seem likely to be named to an NBA training camp roster in the fall, if not get outright signed as a two-way contract this summer.

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