2025 NBA Draft Thread

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Pacers got 38th pick from Spurs for a future 2nd rounder.

Hey… I got something right on my mock!!!

I laughed when mocks had Kon at 4 but they were proved right. Surely there was a trade up for someone wanting a shot at Ace or Tre.

Ainge has got Ace, did we really think the guy with that much talent was going to slip past wily Danny Ainge.

Tre is a good fit for Washington. But Fears will soon hear his name called. No doubt very clearly with his amazing ears.

Ace looks unhappy with where he landed.

I’m liking the Fears pick here.

Demin is a pretty good fit… little rich for me, but we’ll see…

Leave Maluach for the Suns, take Cedric C or Queen please Toronto.

I’m so sorry Oh Canada, maybe CMB will end up with a jumper someday…

Some mocks had CMB that high but surely Maluach, Queen, Noa, Coward made more sense.

Maluach and Mark Williams to the Suns!!!

We got Maluach, we got Maluach, shots will be blocked, we got Maluach!

And relax, looking forward to who Spurs take with the 14th pick.

Mark Williams too we needed a big man now two come along at once like British buses.

Cedric Coward going to Memphis

Cedric is a good choice for Portland. Surely Chicago takes a big at 12.

Good deal for Memphis.

Essengue to the Bulls – don’t like the fit…

Atlanta trades their pick 13 to NOP for way too much… pick 23 and a 2026 1st.

Essengue is potentially BPA but I’d have thought a legit big with made sense as Vucevic is about 35 now.

If Giannis is traded that 2026 pick could be gold dust.

Queen, Asa, Sorber or Carter Bryant… so many to choose from.

Carter Bryant to the Spurs could be interesting.

Carter Bryant gives them options at 3 or 4. A prototype NBA 3 and D guy. I trust the Spurs brains trust so a good pick.

Cedric Coward to help fill Desmond Bane void looks a great move by Memphis too.

I wonder how Sorber feels about being on OKC.

Sorber is a sound choice by Presti and co. Gives them the big body to go alongside Chet if Hartenstein moves on in due course when new deals for key players kick in. But I think that is now 14 guys under guaranteed contracts and two team options on useful rotation guys for next season.

They surely move 24th pick now.

The Yangsta!!! oMfG!!!

Hansen Yang to Portland then. They already have Clingan as a long term big plus Ayton still under contract.

We talked about Yang being of interest to the Lakers could they trade for him?

Drake Powell to the Nets from the Atlanta trade… interesting what Brooklyn’s doing…

Finally Nique Clifford’s off the board… Kings are a great fit too.

How is Fleming still on the board?

finally Wolf

I can’t believe Fleming’s on the board still… Raynaud and Kalkbrenner too… all high demand type guys that check a lot of boxes.

Nets have gone full Nellyball but Wolf is a good pick for them.

Charlotte have certainly added perimeter shooting win Kon and McNeeley.

Atlanta made a canny move and still came out with Asa Newell for next season before we consider the 2026 pick they got.

Utah with Ace and Clayton have added a very good duo.

Heat getting Kasparas at 20 is a bargain.

YKN going ahead of Raynaud and Kalkbrenner was a slight shock.

Rasher Fleming is the night’s big loser and Nansen Yang the big winner.

Danny Wolf gets over $5.2 million guaranteed over 2 years conpared to rumoured $4 million for staying in college. I still think he was quids in declaring as next year he’d have been auto eligible and there will be a lot of returning guys who will be in next year’s draft.

But it must have been getting tense for him when it got to last few picks but I think Boston or Clippers would likely have taken him.

Main interest for tonight see how soon Fleming, Kalkbrenner and Reynaud get picked and when does Zikarsky become great value low risk?

Looks like the Lakers just traded up to pick 45 for pick 55 and cash from the Bulls…

Johni Broome will be another very low risk pick. Philly at 35 would be a good spot if Kalk and Reynaud have gone by then.

Lakers must have a player in mind if they have traded up.

fantastic choices… hope the Lakers get a steal at 45… someone’s bound to drop…

Zikarsky would be a project but is still 7ft 3ins. He could be wheeled out for certain match ups.

The Raptors still have Chomche to return as their big man project. But taking a proven college senior big on a two way contract would be low risk – high reward.

There are now rumours that Ace Bailey’s representatives told a team in the top 5 not to draft him. I doubt it was Mavs and unlikely to be the Spurs as their picks were pretty much set in stone. So was it Utah and Danny Ainge has decided to play hardball. If he has Ace’s rights and Ace doesn’t sign Ainge could leave Ace in limbo for years in theory or trade him to some other small market. Having Ace’s rights but not having him on court improves their chances in the AJ sweepstakes too.
Just a thought but still a fun idea. Ace and co tried to cross Ainge and he has hardballed them.

Raptors won the title with Marc Gasol and Danny Green who were both 2nd rounders too, Siakam was 27th pick and OG 23rd in their draft years. Even Kawhi was only 15th pick so you get very good players further down the draft.

I had Boston nailed on to take Kalk, Raynaud etc at 32. But they have got some useful 2nd rounders and I wonder what the long term plan for next season is now.

Orlando got a couple of good players with their two picks.

Kalkbrenner pick is good.

Yep the Incredible Kalk could be a real draft bargain.

Boom! Broome goes to Philly. If T-Wolves get Raynaud at 36 they have made a clever trade.

Raynaud should be picked already… Lakers got good value in Thiero… Chaz Lanier is a good fit at Detroit. Not sure about the Kam Jones fit.

Solid Alijah Martin pick for Toronto…

Sacramento is drafting pretty well.

Wizards just got Watkins. Pretty good value.

Markovic to the Bucks was a steal

Taelon Peter’s gotta be the biggest shock in the 2nd getting drafted.

Lots of good UDFAs… Chucky Hepburn on Toronto’s pretty solid. Phoenix picked up CJ Huntley. Eric Dixon to the Lakers. Tamar Bates to the Nuggets is a homerun for an UDFA.

I did not have Yang, Powell, and Niederhauser as 1st rounders. I thought Fleming could go in the lottery, and had Raynaud and Markovic in the 1st. With Fleming and Raynaud, the timing of their growth as players clearly was held against them. Fleming is only turning 21 next month and Raynaud just turned 22. In a lot of ways, Fleming is the frontcourt version of Coward. The physical makeup, and where his game is at now, matters more than where they were at as a 17 or 18-year old. If the league likes the prospect of Essengue, and the prospect of Beringer, then why is someone with the same physical makeup and has successfully improved his game be regarded so much lower? At best, at very peak outcome, Fleming can be another Jaren Jackson. I have a hard time envisioning him having a lesser career than Taj Gibson. It would likely require either a character/injury issue, or the 39% three point shooting on 159 attempts being completely imaginary. I like Raynaud, but am less surprised he dropped. I liked Filip Petrusev, and the league had little interest Raynaud is a bit taller and longer and didn’t have his best games against the top of the ACC, but think he is a better prospect than Yang. Raynaud will have an uphill battle for a chance in Sacramento with Sabonis and Valanciunas, but I would expect the Kings to give him one of those two-years plus two-options on the minimum that teams value for low cost guys at the back of their roster. Markovic in Milwaukee seems like a good long-term flier. Him staying in Europe for at least one year would do him well. Doc Rivers has never had a lot of time for young developmental guys, so keeping him off the roster until he is ready is likely the best move for him to work out.

Raynaud only really seemed to go up the mock boards in the last few months. He was a mid to lower 2nd round guy for a long time and I’m pretty sure Kalk was always ahead of him. Some of the guys on here liked Raynaud at 14 and then he seemed to move up a lot of draft boards so I moved him up mine to reflect this.

Fleming did seem to have slipped down mocks and did he get a green room invite? But I fully expected him to go first round.

YKN and Kalk were only 4 spots apart in the draft so they were regarded pretty equally really.

Yang was still the surprise and I don’t know what Portland’s mandarin is like. He’ll generate a lot of media coverage in China so will make the franchise useful commercial money. How far away from being able to play regularly in the NBA is I don’t know. Zach Edey’s speed was considered an issue but he’d played more at a higher level than Yang.

If a team was going to take a flyer on a big I thought the Thunder might have taken Zikarsky with 24th pick and left him overseas until they had a roster spot. They have their title now so could have taken a risk.

I’d have not wanted to trade back to 23 with an outside chance of a lottery pick higher than 10th pick this year. This would hinge on Giannis maybe getting traded and NOP not improving. Fears and Queen give NOP nice extra depth and I don’t see them being worse than us next season.

If Maluach hadn’t landed in our laps than I’d have been more interested. But I had him as potential 5 to 8 pick so falling past Raptors we couldn’t not draft him IMO.

Next years top 10 could potentially be as good as this years. I have a decent knowledge of the top few freshmen and draft eligible guys like Jayden Quaintance but how the rest of the guys stack up I don’t know. There are a lot of good returners who will use up their college eligibility or will declare after 2nd or 3rd year but some of this is factoring in improvements.

I have to question how many teams in that range were offered a similar deal because Portland traded #11 for #16, a 2028 Orlando 1st rounder, and some 2nds. I have to believe if New Orleans was shopping their 2026 1st (an unprotected one) with #23 when Portland was apparently targeting Yang that the Blazers would have jumped. I suppose it is possible they thought they could not have gone down as far as #23 to get Yang, but that wouldn’t be my thought. If the Suns were offered such a deal for #10, I think they forego Maluach. My hesitancy would be whether Ishbia would have the patience to wait a year to see what comes of it. The Raptors at #9 and Bulls at #12 would have been foolish to not take it. Now, I would have preferred Rasheer Fleming over CMB or Noa Essengue purely on potential, much less if there was a 2026 unprotected 1st included.

With an offer to drop to 16th or 23rd I can see Portland favouring the Memphis offer over that from NOP. There had been talk that the Hawks were looking to move up possibly to get Maluach. but that was when they possibly thought he was going higher.

I’m guessing NoP started with Toronto and then went via every team until they got the Hawks to take the deal. Raptors and Suns likely weren’t budging. Portland had Memphis deal on the table which they preferred. I wonder how close Chicago was to biting as with Maluach off the board the deal made more sense for them.

I wonder how closely the Thunder were monitoring the situation as Maluach would have been a perfect fit for them too and they has 15th,24th, Topic and other assets to offer?

Thomas Sorber has torn his ACL and will miss the entire season for the Thunder. I don’t know how much he would have been in rotation next season so if he can come back sound it shouldn’t be a major setback for the team.

That’s a bummer for Sorber though… like DaRon Holmes last year, he’ll have to start developing a year later coming off an injury… that’s an unfortunate uphill battle, but who knows?

I guess OKC would have wanted to have a look at him as they have Hartenstein’s team option next summer which they may not really want to take up as Jaylen and Chet’s new deals kick in.

I just hope this doesn’t affect Sorber’s longtime prospects with the team as they might look to draft another young big man next year as a safety neck and they still have numerous future picks due.

With Denver signing Jonas V it means DaRon won’t see many minutes at C as JV will soak up minutes that Jokic doesn’t play. Maybe DaRon can get minutes at PF?