NBA mock draft 2025: Updated projection with NBA Finals now over
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Here’s our latest 2025 NBA mock draft with the season now over.
The 2025 NBA Draft class has spent the last year under the microscope. Cooper Flagg going No. 1 overall has been a forgone conclusion from the moment he reclassified to accelerate his pro timeline, and Rutgers’ Dylan Harper quickly emerged as the consensus No. 2 pick. After that, the rest of the lottery-caliber prospects have spent the last 12 months shuffling around the draft board. Now their moment of truth has arrived.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are champions after defeating the Indiana Pacers in the 2025 NBA Finals. The playoffs once again illuminated the value of high-feel players, winning the possession battle, and a strong bench that provides lineup versatility. It will be fascinating to see how those qualities inform this year’s draft choices.
This is the stage of draft discourse where it’s hard to parse legitimate rumors from smoke screens. The top of the first-round feels like it’s beginning to take shape, but there are a few inflection points that will determine how the board falls. A new domino fell with the Phoenix Suns acquiring the No. 10 pick in their trade with the Houston Rockets for Kevin Durant. The 2025 NBA Draft is right around on the corner, with the first-round taking place on Wednesday, June 25, and the second round following the next night. With the season now over, let’s dive into an updated mock draft.
We’ll have more analysis after the table.
Here are the biggest questions in the first-round as draft night approaches.
How far will Ace Bailey fall in NBA Draft?
Bailey was considered a front-runner for the No. 2 pick in the preseason as he entered Rutgers, and he maintained his status as a top-five prospect on mainstream boards all year despite a freshman season that was equal parts electric and rocky. Rutgers never came close to sniffing an NCAA tournament bid, and Bailey was inefficient in a volume scoring role that highlighted all the ways he’s potentially special alongside the deficiencies in his skill set he’ll need to address.
Bailey has refused to do private workouts in the pre-draft process, and just canceled a workout with the Philadelphia 76ers, who own the No. 3 pick. According to ESPN’s Jon Givony, Bailey “seeks a clear path to stardom, hoping to find a situation with ample minutes and usage to maximize his full potential.” Givony reports the Brooklyn Nets are believed to be his floor with the No. 8 pick. It feels possible a team trades up to get him before he gets to that point.
Bailey is reportedly the only domestic prospect to decline all workout requests. That could mean he has a promise from a team outside of the top-3, or it could mean he’s trying engineer a landing spot of his liking on draft night. There’s a popular thought that Bailey’s elite combination of length (call him 6’9 in shoes with a 7-foot wingspan) and explosiveness, mixed with his high-end shooting potential, could make him an ideal role player after a more skilled shot-creator. It sure seems like this isn’t the vision Bailey has his own career: he wants the ball in his hands to put himself on the path to stardom.
Perhaps teams will like the self-assurance from Bailey. It’s also possible his strange pre-draft process combined with his “low feel” tendencies at Rutgers could paint him as a delusional player who will be more about his own numbers than helping his team win. At a certain point, Bailey’s talent will be worth a swing regardless, and the only question is how far he falls before a team is willing to take that bet.
There are plenty of basketball reasons for Bailey to slide on draft night despite his lofty reputation. He is a totally reticent passer with poor court vision. He often settles for extremely difficult shots he can occasionally make but still feel like a win for the opposing defense. He is prone to mental lapses defensively, though he will often recover thanks to his fantastic tools.
Bailey slid to No. 9 in my “what I would do” mock draft last week, so I can’t say I’m too surprised by the idea that he could fall. Still, I pegged Bailey at No. 5 in this mock draft because that feels like the spot where teams could try to trade up. Even if the Jazz don’t pull the trigger, the three teams behind them — the Wizards, Pelicans, and Nets — could all trade up to land Bailey before his slide really begins. Bailey’s range feels like it’s 5-8 right now. Once he gets taken, the real work on his game and his mentality begins.
3 lower-probability stars bets with a wide range of outcomes
I’ve come to recently believe that the strength of this draft class will ultimately be determined by three prospects with star upside and scary low-end outcomes if everything doesn’t come together: Duke center Khaman Maluach, Oklahoma point guard Jeremiah Fears, and Maryland big man Derik Queen. All three players are projected as lottery picks this mock, with Queen having the widest range and potentially subject to a draft night fall.
Maluach’s NBA translation will be a bet on his ridiculous size (7’2+ with a 7’6+ wingspan), efficient interior scoring (73.6 percent true shooting), and defensive paint protection. To really hit his highest-end outcomes, Maluach will have to continue to develop as a shooter and switchable defender, two areas where he’s shown potential but lacks polish. Duke did not want Maluach to shoot threes this year, and finished the year only 4-for-16 from deep. Still, Maluach believes he will shoot it long-term, and he already has nice touch from the free throw line (76.6 percent) for someone his size. Duke switched him frequently, which his part of the reason why his block and rebound rate were a tad low. I’d take Maluach as high as No. 3 in this class, and I can’t imagine him slipping past the Raptors at No. 9.
Fears passed the eye test with flying colors during his freshman year at Oklahoma with tight ball handling moves, elite speed, and some flashes of deep shooting potential. There’s a statistical case to be made for him, too: despite only spending three years in high school, Fears took on a high-usage role in the toughest conference in the country and got his team into the NCAA tournament. His best moments were spectacular, and yet there are a few big questions about his translation. Fears shot 28.4 percent from three, posted a high turnover rate of 20.2 percent, and only converted 53 percent of his layups on the season. He also didn’t show a ton of potential to play off the ball, and he might get picked on defensively. To draft Fears with a top-10 pick, you have to believe adding strength will aid his shooting and finishing, and that his speed and handling will still be elite at the highest levels of the game. It feels like Fears’ range starts at the Jazz at No. 5 and goes to the Nets at No. 8.
Queen is a beefy big man with huge scoring upside. He has a fantastic handle for someone his size, showing the ability to string together dribble combos and cook opposing bigs away from the hoop. He has a stirring combination of power and quickness, he has great hands, and he can finish through contact with ease. Queen is one of the best driving prospects in this class, and he happens to be 6’10 shoes with a 250 pound frame and 7-foot wingspan. It’s thrilling to think about how he can pull opposing bigs away from the paint and smoke them off the dribble, but the projection is much less rosy if he doesn’t become a star. Queen is a true no-3, no-D prospect. He’s a zero position defender at the moment who plays with poor effort and doesn’t offer the type of rim protection you want out of a big. He only made seven three-pointers on the season, and will need to work a lot to become a reliable floor spacer. I think Queen would be an exciting fit next to Alex Sarr in the Wizards front court at No. 6, but more likely his range starts at No. 9 to the Raptors. He should be of interest to the Bulls at No. 12, too. I gave him to the Spurs at No. 14 in this mock draft on a purely ‘best player available’ projection, plus I like his scoring upside playing off Victor Wembanyama. I highly doubt he falls outside of the top-20, but he could slide a little bit.
Read my Collin Murray-Boyles draft profile
I write an in-depth draft feature every year. This year’s piece is on South Carolina sophomore forward/center Collin Murray-Boyles, who emerged as one of the best prospects in this class despite being an undersized big man who doesn’t shoot many threes. Murray-Boyles talked about how he’s prioritizing and attacking shooting improvement, while his former coaches bragged about his work ethic and versatility. Hope you enjoy. The Houston Rockets (No. 10), Chicago Bulls (No. 12), and Oklahoma City Thunder (No. 15) feel like his most likely landing spots.
Want to read some of my old draft profiles? I’ve written about Ron Holland, Amen and Ausar Thompson, Josh Giddey, Sharife Cooper, and Patrick Baldwin Jr., as well high school features on Cade Cunningham, Anthony Edwards, Zion Williamson, and Cooper Flagg. Also some Iowa sophomore named Caitlin Clark.
What do the Suns do with the pick they got for Kevin Durant?
Kevin Durant is a Houston Rocket (read my trade grades), and the best thing they gave up in the package was the No. 10 pick in this draft, which originally belonged to Phoenix. The Suns desperately need to hit on this pick because they don’t control their first-round pick until 2032. The Suns can go a lot of different ways here. Collin Murray-Boyles would be an excellent fit for a team that desperately needs more of a defensive presence. Derik Queen would be a high-upside gamble on starpower, and he could form a fun 1-2 scoring punch with Devin Booker. Noa Essengue would be a bet on a super young forward with great tools who can grow with the organization over time.
My bold prediction is that the Suns will target Jase Richardson, because their Michigan State bias is just that strong.
When is the 2025 NBA Draft?
What: 2025 NBA Draft first round
When: Wednesday, June 25 (the second round will be June 26)
Time: 8 p.m. ET
TV and streaming: ESPN/Watch ESPN
Where’s your big board?
It’s coming next. Check back on draft night as well for instant grades of every first round pick.
