I am going to be completely honest, I dropped the ball and had no idea that the NBA Draft was today (Wednesday),June 25th 2025. Usually, I look forward to the Draft every year, but for some reason this year I just completely spaced and forgot all about it. Nonetheless I have done a little bit of research and have some thoughts and opinions about this year’s draft. Before we dive into my opinions/thoughts I want to give a little background for the draft. We already know the draft is today, but it is being held in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York where it has been since 2013 (besides 2020 due to Covid). Last year’s draft was the first draft where Round 1 was the first night and round two was the second night, this year follows the same schedule where we see the first round take place tonight and concluding with the second round tomorrow. Personally, I am not a big fan of having two nights for the NBA Draft, I just feel it is better to have both rounds in one night that way you may maintain some of your viewers instead of having two nights where people may not tune in since its the second rounders on a different night. Usually we see 60 players in total drafted over the two night (two picks for each of the 30 NBA teams), however this year we will see 59 players drafted due to a second round pick having to be forfeited by the New York Knicks. So now that you have a little background let’s get into the 2025 NBA Draft. 

First and foremost, I am going to include one of the many first round mock draft boards that we see online below. I am not going to get into every team and every player but we will hit some of the popular names and maybe some sleepers this year. 

1.Dallas Mavericks

Cooper Flagg

2.San Antonio Spurs

Dylan Harper

3.Philadelphia 76ers

VJ Edgecombe

4.Charlotte Hornets

Kon Knueppel

5.Utah Jazz

Jeremiah Fears

6.Washington Wizards

Ace Bailey

7.New Orleans Pelicans

Khaman Maluach 

8.Brooklyn Nets

Tre Johnson

9.Toronto Raptors

Noa Essengue

10.Phoenix Suns

Carter Bryant

11.Portland Trail Blazers

Kasparas Jakucionis

12.Chicago Bulls

Collin Murray-Boyles

13.Atlanta Hawks

George Demin

14.San Antonio Spurs

Joan Beringer

15.Oklahoma City Thunder

Derik Queen

16.Memphis Grizzlies

Cedric Coward

17.Minnesota Timberwolves

Thomas Sorber

18.Washington Wizards

Danny Wolf

19.Brooklyn Nets

Asa Newell

20.Miami Heat

Liam McNeeley

21.Utah Jazz

Hugo Gonzalez

22.Brooklyn Nets

Nolan Traore

23.New Orleans Pelicans

Walter Clayton Jr

24.Oklahoma City Thunder

Will Riley

25.Orlando Magic

Jase Richardson

26.Brooklyn Nets

Nique Clifford

27.Brooklyn Nets

Rasheer Fleming

28.Boston Celtics

Maxine Raynaud

29.Phoenix Suns

Ryan Kalkbrenner

30.Los Angeles Clippers

Noah Penda 

Like I said before we are not going to go into every player/team on this mock draft boards but why don’t we start with the obvious players. Starting off with this year’s number one pick Cooper Flagg going to the Dallas Mavericks. Flagg has been considered the number one pick for this year’s draft since he was a junior in high school. He was the number one player in high school basketball who picked the Duke Blue Devils (Horrible option coming from a North Carolina Tarheels fan) where he went on to have a great freshman year averaging 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 4.2 assists on a stacked Blue Devils team. He quickly asserted himself as the number one player in college basketball but as you can see did not have the crazy numbers we are used to seeing from the best player in college. Although he did not have super flashy numbers I feel he separated himself by being one the of the best defensive and playmaking players in college basketball making him a coveted two way player for the NBA. Personally I feel drafting Flagg number one overall is a no brainer for the Dallas Mavericks where he has potential being one of the best players on both ends of the floor. He will be teaming up with Kyrie Irving (out with ACL injury) and Anthony Davis (Assuming he stays healthy) giving Dallas that “Big 3” potential. Overall, I like the fit of Cooper Flagg in Dallas with his playmaking ability along side another “big” in Anthony Davis and another savvy veteran playmaker in Kyrie Irving. 

Moving on to the second projected pick in this year’s draft, Dylan Harper. Yes, Harper is the son of a former NBA player Ron Harper who played with my Chicago Bulls. Harper was kind of “hidden” from the college basketball world since he played at Rutgers but he made his name known after the first few games into the season. He ended up with averaging 19.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 4.0 assists last season where he was definitely the star at Rutgers. Harper had several games where he scored over 20 points and two where he scored over 30. He is definitely a scorer with some playmaking ability making him a coveted candidate. The San Antonio Spurs are the second team in this year’s draft and their eyes have to be set on taking Dylan Harper at number two having the NBA pedigree from his father and his elite scoring ability. I see Harper as a good fit for the Spurs, I know a lot of other “experts” do not see it but how could you not? You have De’Aaron Fox running at point guard, Victor Wembanyama being the center or power forward and Dylan Harper inserting himself in at the shooting guard what a great young core for the best developing NBA team in the league in the Spurs this might be the next super team and next all generation “big 3” just like they had in Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Tim Duncan. 

So we could go in order down this mock draft and talk each and every player and team but I do not think anyone would be interested in that, and to be honest I am do not know a lot of these players. Let’s get into some sleeper picks in this year’s draft. First sleeper player I like who may not technically be a sleeper since his projected draft number is at fourth right now is Kon Knueppel from Duke. Kon was Cooper Flagg’s running mate at Duke and showed at some points he was the go to scorer at times during the season. Knueppel average 14.4 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 2.7 assists during last season also shooting 40.6% from three point range and 47.9% overall for field goals. Again, not a super flashy player or numbers but I feel he is going to be a “3 and D” guy. He will develop his jumper even more and become an elite three shooter with the ability to guard the opposing team’s best player. 

Second sleeper in the draft this year I am going to give to Ace Bailey. Ace was a big time name coming into the season and was running mates with Dylan Harper at Rutgers. In the beginning of the year everyone thought Bailey would be the best player on this Rutgers team and would be a top 5 draft pick for this year. Bailey averaged 17.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 1.3 assists. Yes, you read that correctly Bailey’s stat line is better than Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper, and Kon Knueppel yet he is projected lower in the draft. This could be because his pre draft decisions by not working out for any of the NBA Teams and even cancelling on one. Personally, I feel that is a bold strategy however I get the point as well of being all these teams saw Ace play in college and knows what he brings to the table but will they like the attitude shown of not wanting to work out for any teams? Maybe, but that is why I have him as my number two sleeper with the potential of either being the best of the draft or possibly the biggest bust. 

Last sleeper pick for this year’s draft which may be my favorite sleeper for this year is Walter Clayton Jr from the National Champion Florida Gators. Clayton Jr averaged 18.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 4.2 assists this past season. He led the Gators to win the National Championship and had an unbelievable March Madness run. Clayton Jr just seems like a no brainer and yet he is going 23rd to the New Orleans Pelicans which is an absolute steal for the Pelicans. He is a playmaking guard who has played four years of college basketball who can absolutely score the basketball. Also not to mention he definitely has the clutch gene, so much so that everyone in the gym knew once the five minute mark in the second half happened the ball was always in Walter Clayton Jr’s hand. That is one of the main reasons I think Clayton Jr will be one of the best players in this year’s draft that a lot of teams slept on probably due to his age. Why punish a kid for playing multiple years in college basketball? I will never know but give me Walter Clayton Jr to be the biggest surprise of this year’s draft. 

Ok time to finish this article up, I am going to talk a little bit about my Chicago Bulls. Looks like according to the mock draft above the Bulls are going to pick Collin Murray-Boyles. To be honest, no shade to this kid, I have no idea who this player is so I am not going to even pretend to know if this is a good pick or not. I would like the Bulls to maybe go after Derik Queen from Maryland. He averaged 16.5 points, 9 rebounds, and 1.9 assists. Those numbers got him the second best center in this year’s draft. I wouldn’t mind the Bulls trading Nikola Vucevic for either a role player and future picks or just future picks and drafting Derik Queen. Queen showed he can score and rebound the ball very well this season however the one thing I like most is that he was one of (if not the best) passing center in all of college basketball this past season. 

I feel with Derik Queens scoring and rebounding ability and his top notch passing ability he would be a great fit for the Bulls to pair with our other young talent in Coby White and Matas Buzelis who both took a big leap talent wise this past year. I hope everyone enjoys the draft tonight and hope your team picks who you want but let’s be honest we all know they won’t and think the players we would draft would be so much better!