UCLA’s next roster is starting to take shape, and the picture looks a lot different after the Bruins landed 5-star Serbian Nikola Kusturica.
That signing gave longtime college basketball analyst Jon Rothstein enough to map out an early projected starting five for 2026-27: Trent Perry, Jaylen Petty, Nikola Kusturica, Eric Dailey and Xavier Booker. Rothstein said UCLA should be “a consensus Top 15-20 team to start next season,” and he currently has the Bruins at No. 19 in his preseason rankings.
The core of that group already has some run together. Booker, Dailey and Perry are all back from the 2025-26 team, while Petty arrives after a freshman season at Texas Tech in which he averaged 9.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. He has three years of eligibility left.
Perry is the top returning scorer for UCLA after putting up 12.6 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game in 2025-26. He also carried a heavy workload down the stretch, logging 35.2 minutes per game in January, 33.0 in February and 34.4 in March.
Dailey was one of the Bruins’ most dependable pieces last season, starting 35 of 36 games and averaging 11.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists while shooting 48.6 percent from the field. Booker started 27 games, appeared in all 36 contests and averaged 7.3 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 20.1 minutes per game.
The projected rotation also points to a roster without any seniors. Booker, Dailey and Perry are expected to be the only juniors in the mix, which leaves Mick Cronin with a short window to build chemistry before UCLA opens the season on November 2 against Arizona in Las Vegas.
Petty and Butler transfer Azavier Robinson are expected to handle the main backup minutes behind Perry and help run the offense. In the frontcourt, Booker, Dailey, Auburn transfer Filip Jovic and Kusturica give UCLA real depth. Jovic averaged 6.3 points and 4.0 rebounds while shooting 64.0 percent from the field in 37 games with nine starts for Auburn as a freshman in 2025-26, and he is expected to be the first frontcourt player off the bench.
With Kusturica and Petty in the fold, Cronin’s next challenge is blending the pieces while keeping the Bruins sharp on defense and spaced properly on offense. The talent level is clearly rising, and the metrics crowd is buying in too - Bart Torvik has UCLA at No. 21 in his rankings.
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