2025 NBA Mock Draft: Mavs luck into Cooper Flagg, Blazers shake up backcourt

Good day, draft connoisseurs! Now that the ping-pong balls have fallen and the envelopes have been opened, the real mock drafts can begin. This draft lottery saw the four worst teams of the 2024-25 season see significant drops in positioning, with all but six of the lottery teams dropping at least one spot.

Your Portland Trail Blazers fell just one place, from the most likely 10th to the second most likely 11th. Thankfully, there are plenty of options for a Blazers team that may be out of the tanking reeds in short order. Come along as we take a look at what the road to 11 and beyond looks like.

01. Dallas Mavericks: Cooper Flagg, Duke

In shocking fashion, the Dallas Mavericks have defied the odds and jumped up ten spots in the draft lottery, the fourth-biggest jump in NBA lottery history.

Flagg has been the number one pick since August 11, 2023, when he reclassified into 2025’s draft, and barring some truly heinous peripheral factors, he will join Anthony Davis on the Nico Harrison redemption campaign.

Flagg isn’t so much a great player as he is an incredible floor-raiser; there isn’t much of a weakness to any facet of his game, be it by advanced metrics, raw stats, or the simple eye test. 

02. San Antonio Spurs: Dylan Harper, Rutgers

Once again, the Spurs find themselves near the top of the lottery, and now, suddenly flush with guards, they have a decision to make. And shockingly, the decision involves whether or not to trade De’Aaron Fox, a player they just acquired prior to the 2025 trade deadline.

Make no mistake; Harper is the pick here: a highly-skilled point guard who played like a man amongst boys for an otherwise arid Rutgers team.

Victor Wembanyama has been outspoken about his desire to compete, and the Spurs are armed with two lottery picks, but the dilemma remains: do they keep Fox and trade Harper, or do they do the opposite? Is Wembanyama going to be in game shape next year following his DVT diagnosis? Do they draft someone else entirely?

It may take until the start of next season before these questions are answered. 

03. Philadelphia 76ers: Ace Bailey, Rutgers

Prior to the reclassification of Cooper Flagg, 2025 was “the Ace Bailey draft.” It’s easy to see why; squinting one’s eyes with a little head tilt makes Bailey look a little like Kevin Durant. And though Bailey passes the eye test in that regard—while still being older than Durant was at this stage—there are still many question marks.

For as many question marks as Bailey carries, there are twice as many for the 76ers franchise itself: What is this team doing? Do they really have three all-stars and the third pick in the draft? Why is that, exactly? How many years does Embiid have left? Will their three best players ever share the court again?

With so many questions looming, the situation sure seems like the prologue to the Process 2.0, and Bailey is the exact player to kick off such a journey; he will need a couple of years to realize his full potential, and if he realizes that sooner than later, the rebuild may turn into a slight detour rather than the truly lowly basketball of the Process 1.0 era.

04. Charlotte Hornets: V.J. Edgecombe, Baylor

Anything less than pick five would have spelled disaster for Charlotte, where 2025’s prospects start to become insufficiently rewarding for how truly bad teams had to be to realistically have a shot at Flagg. The Hornets have been searching for a true LaMelo backcourt partner for as long as they’ve had him, and Edgecombe is about as good as they come.

Fresh off the first day of the combine, where his anthro measurements exceeded expectations, Edgecombe is the kind of above-the-rim athlete who serves as a perfect counterweight between Ball’s playmaking and Brandon Miller’s understated bucket-getting.

Edgecombe is a force in transition, something a young team like Charlotte would love to build an identity around; for a team that’s filled with young players, the Hornets ranked just 23rd in pace last season.

05. Utah Jazz: Tre Johnson, Texas

The Jazz need help just about everywhere, which is unfortunate because they received none of it from the ping-pong balls in the lottery, dropping four spots despite being the worst team in the league. As frightening as that is, the Jazz have not yet begun to tank properly; Lauri Markkanen is still on the roster.

With the somewhat surprising emergence of Isaiah Collier at the point, the Jazz should feel comfortable grabbing Johnson here; his combination of scoring and measurables should be enough to challenge Collin Sexton for the starting two-guard spot right away.

While the defense is a work in progress, Johnson’s impressive wingspan gives him room to grow in that regard, but expect him to be a force from behind the arc—Johnson took seven threes a game and connected on 40 percent of them. 

06. Washington Wizards: Khaman Maluach, Duke

Perhaps no team had its hopes dashed against the proverbial rocks more than the Wizards in the draft lottery. The Jazz have only begun their rebuild, while Washington has been languishing among the league’s worst for years. Due to four teams with better records jumping into the top 4, the Wizards and Jazz both dropped four spots.

There is hope on the horizon, though; the Wizards have drafted smartly and now suddenly have a near-full starting lineup of capable home-grown talent. Duke’s Khaman Maluach could very well be that missing piece.

Maluach is a rim-running big with obscenely long arms, solid defensive timing, and some semblance of an outside shot; playing him at the five would allow some future lineups of Carrington, Coulibaly, George, Sarr and Maluach—an enticing combination of offense and defense that’s as solid a foundation as any team in the NBA. 

07. New Orleans Pelicans: Jeremiah Fears, Oklahoma

To put it bluntly, no current team yearns more for some youthful backcourt exuberance than the Pelicans, having just completed a lost season in which most players found themselves injured. Aging combo guard CJ McCollum had to pick up the offensive reins for much of the season, as new acquisition Dejounte Murray tore his Achilles tendon after just 31 games.

Nothing the Pelicans were trying seemed to be working; Zion Williamson missed his seemingly scheduled number of games, Herb Jones and Trey Murphy III both missed significant time, Brandon Ingram was traded for some spare parts, and Yves Missi was thrust into a starting role despite being relatively raw.

On the other hand, Jeremiah Fears may well end up being the best guard prospect in this draft; he’s a well-rounded, malleable guard with an insanely quick first step and excellent size for the position, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see him starting on opening night.

08. Brooklyn Nets: Noa Essengue, Ulm

The Nets have engaged in “ethical tanking” for some time now, in which they completely deplete their roster instead of sitting their stars with one malady or another. All of this work is coming to a point in the 2025 draft where Brooklyn has the luxury of four first-round picks.

Because of the near-complete personnel excavation, the Nets are starved for talent at every position, with past lottery picks still in the “figuring it out” stage. And with just four guaranteed contracts on the books for next season, it’s easy to see that this trend will continue.

France’s Noa Essengue is a case study in risk analysis that could pay off big: Like most Euro players, he needs a bit of seasoning that the Nets can afford to give, especially since they have three safety nets further down the ladder and a fourth in the form of next year’s draft. Essengue is a long and lean forward prospect who plays bigger than his frame, absorbing contact and getting to the line at a heavy clip.

09. Toronto Raptors: Derik Queen, Maryland

Every draft has a player that nobody quite knows what to do with; Zach Edey was last year’s example. This year, Queen is that guy who plays like a wing trapped in a center’s body.

Let’s start with the good: Queen is an excellent passer for his position, making reads that defy his size and game. On a team full of guys that need the ball in their hands, Queen’s passing skills would go a long way in ensuring the ball goes where it needs to go. His big body makes it easy for him to box out and gobble up rebounds, and he’s not afraid to go up strong with it and draw contact.

Among Queen’s weaknesses is his outside shot—the form is a bit funky and the release a bit slow, but the foundation is there and may develop over time. With a little coaxing, Queen could turn into the five-out solution that the Raptors have been dreaming about for some time. And while his conditioning isn’t the greatest, Queen’s abundance of question marks amounts to a surplus of moldability.

10. Houston Rockets (via PHX): Egor Demin, BYU

If a book existed on how to build a roster in the modern NBA, the Rockets have followed it nearly without deviation. Size, length, and positional fluidity reign supreme on this roster, but there are still a couple of missing pieces, namely finding those attributes in a point guard. Amen Thompson was supposed to fill that role, but his complete inability to shoot the long ball found Amen giving Jabari Smith Jr. the Wally Pip treatment and replacing him at either forward position.

Enter: Egor Demin, a point guard who may finally fulfill the prophecy. Though he will be nearly 20 on draft night, Demin is still a bit raw; the raw stats are there, but the percentages are lackluster. One look at his shooting form tells you that he has the edge over Thompson, but luckily, Fred VanVleet has another year left on his deal, giving Demin and the Rockets’ brass time to figure it out.

11. Portland Trail Blazers: Kasparas Jakucionis, Illinois

As Blazers fans, we’ve memed Portland’s penchant for drafting guards instead of competent wings and bigs into the ground. Suddenly, however, the Blazers find themselves on the other side of that spectrum, having picked Donovan Clingan in 2024 and suddenly flush with capable wings.

Now, in 2025, the Blazers are back to bolster the guard rotation in the likely event that Anfernee Simons is traded elsewhere and the far less likely event that the franchise has more questions than answers regarding Scoot Henderson. The emergence of Amen Thompson—who was picked immediately after—may force the front office’s hand, but in either event, the Blazers could use some help at the position.

That help comes in the form of Kasparas Jakucionis, a smooth-shooting, crafty combo guard who has all the tools to be a three-level scoring threat with some time. While his defense isn’t anything to write home about as of yet, he posted a 6’8” wingspan at the combine, which will prevent him from being played off the floor in important games.

12. Chicago Bulls: Thomas Sorber, Georgetown

It feels like Nikola Vucevic has been on the trade block for a decade across two different teams. On the trade deadline of the 2021 season, Vucevic was traded to the Chicago Bulls, and the trade rumors began swirling shortly thereafter.

The big gripe with his play is that the defense isn’t great; he’s constantly on the wrong end of drives, a little undersized for the position, and he’s too slow to play anything but center. Thomas Sorber, on the other hand, is not.

Coming off some truly ridiculous combine measurements, Sorber is a stout 6’10” in shoes with a 7’6” wingspan and plays a distinct throwback-esque brand of bully ball with some semblance of an outside shot.

Further cementing his lottery status is a solid foundational passing game, and with Chicago’s supporting cast more skilled at putting the ball in the hole than his Georgetown teammates, it’s easy to imagine Sorber emerging as the best big in this class. 

13. Atlanta Hawks (via SAC): Kon Knueppel, Duke

Duke’s Knueppel wasn’t going to wow anyone with his anthro measurements or his athleticism; his proponents argued that everything was going to come down to his combine shooting prowess in determining his spot in the first round. Both measurement and drill days have come and gone, and Knueppel didn’t participate in either of them due to injury.

While that’s a bit disappointing, there’s plenty of tape to study out there up to and through the NCAA tournament. Although he performed well on a stage bigger than a regular season game, he measured a near-even wingspan-to-height ratio at the combine, and some might wonder if Knueppel’s stats were a casualty of Cooper Flagg’s incredible floor-raising ability.

However, the free-throw percentage doesn’t have a thing to do with Flagg, and that mark is one of the stats community’s favorite three-point projection metrics. Simply put, Knueppel is a high-level connector with a killer three-ball and an extremely high floor; he doesn’t really hurt teams in any one way. 

14. San Antonio Spurs (via ATL): Rasheer Fleming, St. Joseph’s

As we near the end of the lottery, it’s important to note that Fleming’s combine measurements were pure madness: he measured a plus-9 on his wingspan and posted the second-fastest shuttle run time among all players (the first, inexplicably, belongs to Alabama’s Grant Nelson).

Like Kneuppel, Fleming is another floor raiser—no obvious weaknesses to his game, but middling in most; Kneuppel just has fewer middling attributes.

Fleming, however, played in the Atlantic 10 conference, and St. Joseph’s faced off against exactly zero ranked teams while missing the NCAA tournament before being sent home from the first round of the NIT by UAB and Yaxel Lendeborg. In that game, Yaxel, who was matched up with Fleming, dominated him en route to victory.

Fleming’s physical toolset is too great to ignore, and it’s believed that prolonged exposure to higher levels of competition will greatly accelerate his development. 

15. Oklahoma City Thunder (via MIA): Carter Bryant, Arizona

There may not be a more “Thunder” pick in this draft than Carter Bryant. Coming on late at Arizona, Bryant flashed the rare combination of athleticism, defense, and shotmaking that every team covets. While the “shotmaking” part may be fool’s gold due to his suspiciously low free-throw percentage in conjunction with low minutes, the potential is definitely there.

The Thunder, who own a gazillion draft picks in the foreseeable future and who is already the league’s best team, are simply on autopilot drafting for potential and depth. Taking Bryant at this spot casts an eye to the future of the franchise, and in three or four years, pundits at ESPN will be arguing about who should have taken him ten picks earlier, but Bryant is one of the bigger gambles still left at 15, likely being chosen by a team unafraid to take them.

16. Orlando Magic: Liam McNeely, UConn

The Magic aren’t going to overthink this; their shooting is awful, and that’s McNeely’s bread and butter. Though the percentages aren’t extremely encouraging, McNeely was among the country’s best free-throw shooters, and he took six threes per game.

17. Minnesota Timberwolves (via DET): Ben Saraf, Ulm

Last year’s Dillingham experiment hasn’t exactly panned out, and Mike Conley has only so much tread left on the tires. Ben Saraf is as close to a bet-hedger as anyone at this point in the draft, a crafty point guard with exceptional size and feel.

18. Washington Wizards (via MEM): Asa Newell, Georgia

The Wizards jettisoned Kyle Kuzma at the deadline and were starting the demure Kyshawn George in his stead. Newell pairs up far better with Alex Sarr (and Maluach from earlier in the draft) than George, allowing Washington to have a true big rotation.

19. Brooklyn Nets (via MIL): Collin Murray-Boyles, South Carolina

CMB’s tweener status causes him to slide a bit. Brooklyn lacks nearly everything, but identity is one of them, and they could parlay that into plugging CMB into the right situation immediately and putting him in a position to succeed at the next level.

20. Miami Heat (via GSW): Nolan Traore, Saint-Quentin

In the 2025 Playoffs, the Heat paid dearly in the playoffs for trotting out lineups without a true point guard. Traore, who at one time was considered a top-5 pick in this draft, will need some seasoning but could be ready to contribute sooner rather than later.

21. Utah Jazz (via MIN): Jase Richardson, Michigan State

After measuring just 6’1” at the combine, the shifty Richardson slides down to a point where a team can’t afford to let him slip further. Richardson would battle Collier for the starting point guard position while playing a smidge of two-guard for lineups lacking offensive weaponry.

22. Atlanta Hawks (via LAL): Walter Clayton Jr., Florida

March Madness’s success story, Clayton guided the Gators to a national title in heroic fashion, and as the saying goes, “big-time players make big-time plays.” Clayton did it all on the biggest stage and eyes a late first-round selection as a reward.

23. Indiana Pacers: Danny Wolf, Michigan

Rick Carlisle has willed Indiana to some seriously impressive postseason victories, all the while using Thomas Bryant as a backup center. Danny Wolf is a true outlier, a true seven-footer who has point-guard handles and a great shooting stroke.

24. Oklahoma City Thunder (via LAC): Yaxel Lendeborg, University of Alabama Birmingham

Projected as undrafted just months earlier, Lendeborg has rocketed up draft boards in recent months.

Shockingly, this may not be his final stop, as he possesses a very Flagg-like set of attributes, with the only difference being five years of age.

25. Orlando Magic (via DEN): Will Riley, Illinois

With Orlando being as bad at shooting threes as they are, look for them to infuse their percentages in a major way. Riley is a young, high-level shotmaker who will breathe (even more) life into an area of Orlando’s game that needs a defibrillator. 

26. Brooklyn Nets (via NYK): Adou Thiero, Arkansas

Thiero, a wrecking ball of a human being with a jumper that’s a work in progress, would jump about 20 spots if the three-ball didn’t look broken. As it is, he’s mocked a little high here, mostly because he looks so much like an NBA player when he’s not shooting threes.

27. Brooklyn Nets (via HOU): Miles Byrd, San Diego State

Finding players that can defend at an extremely high level and shoot is exceedingly rare. Byrd’s shooting splits don’t exactly jump off the page, but the free throw shooting is excellent, and he takes several per game; he must nail them in practice. He shot much better in high school, so perhaps the shot will come around.

28. Boston Celtics: Nique Clifford, Colorado State

Clifford is just about as NBA-ready as any player in this draft. Clifford profiles very much like an alternate-dimension Josh Hart, a plus player in every category except draft night age. Nevertheless, he should be ready to contribute on day one.

29. Phoenix Suns (via CLE): Joan Beringer, KK Cedivita

Beringer will have played the game for fewer than four years on draft night, but his unbelievable explosion and athleticism jump off the tape.

There are some questions about how he will fare against the physicality of the NBA, but he’s a perfect swing for a team desperately in need of help in the frontcourt.

30. Los Angeles Clippers (via OKC): Labaron Philon, Alabama

The Clippers made it very far with James Harden playing point guard, but it’s only for lack of a better option. Philon excels in the pick-and-roll with excellent court vision; he would slot right into an offense with an abundance of legitimate three-level scoring threats.