Now through June 2025, writers across the globe will eagerly anticipate an exciting upcoming draft class headlined by Duke forward Cooper Flagg, alongside other top talents. Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo of ESPN recently paired to provide an early look at the top 100 prospects before the college season tips off (Insider link).
Flagg ranked first, but Rutgers guards Ace Bailey (No. 2) and Dylan Harper (No. 3) aren’t far behind. Baylor’s VJ Edgecombe (No. 4) and France’s Nolan Traore (No. 5) remain among the top options as well, while Duke’s Kon Knueppel (No. 6) is an early riser after an impressive offseason and preseason.
UNC’s Drake Powell, Duke’s Khaman Maluach, Spanish guard Hugo Gonzalez and UConn’s Liam McNeeley round out the remainder of the top 10.
Collin Murray-Boyles is the draft’s highest-ranked returner after making the decision to come back to South Carolina, with the ESPN duo ranking him at 12.
We have more from around the basketball world:
- The top five of Sam Vecenie’s recent mock draft for The Athletic matches ESPN’s big board to a tee, with Brooklyn being slated to be the ones to land Flagg’s services in June’s draft. However, Vecenie’s mock draft deviates from there, with Illinois’ Kasparas Jakucionis coming off the board at No. 6 due to his ball and scoring skills. Vecenie mocks Georgia’s Asa Newell to the Hornets at No. 7 and Ratiopharm Ulm’s Ben Saraf at No. 8 to the Raptors, while ESPN has those players at No. 31 and No. 16, respectively.
- With such a talented draft class on deck, The Athletic’s John Hollinger suspects teams will return to tanking in 2024/25. While some teams greatly underperformed in 2023/24, as in any year, there wasn’t as much incentive to lose since there wasn’t a consensus top pick like in next year’s draft. Hollinger likens the 2025 class to the 2018 class that produced the likes of Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Brunson and Trae Young in terms of the depth of talent. Hollinger’s story addresses this, but I’d contend that while teams may be blown away by the talent of the 2025 class, the Hawks had a better record than nine teams but still landed the No. 1 overall pick. Meanwhile, the Pistons had their worst season in franchise history but didn’t pick until No. 5.
- The Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Houston’s G League affiliate, executed a six-team trade on Wednesday, per the team (Twitter link). Several picks swapped hands, but for simplicity’s sake, we’ll focus on the player rights that were moved. The Vipers acquired the returning player rights to Jermaine Samuels, who is currently in camp with the Rockets. The Valley Suns acquired Cassius Stanley‘s rights, the Indiana Mad Ants (Pacers) received Dakota Mathias‘s rights, the Memphis Hustle (Grizzlies) got both Malachi Smith and Devin Cannady‘s rights, the Mexico City Capitanes obtained Loudon Love, and Gary Clark‘s rights were re-routed to the Wisconsin Herd (Bucks). Mathias was already signed and waived by the Pacers, so this is an indication he’ll play for the Mad Ants this season as an affiliate player. It remains to be seen whether Stanley, Smith, Cannady or Clark will sign camp deals to be later waived and set up as affiliates. The Capitanes aren’t an NBA team’s direct affiliate, so while Love could still sign anywhere as an NBA free agent, his rights being moved aren’t directly correlated with him potentially being an affiliate player.