2025 NBA Draft

Honestly, the 80% from the FT line may be the most surprising and impressive stat. Here are the FT% of some other recent bigs while at Duke:

Flip - 72
Lively - 60
Williams - 66
Paolo - 73

Chet Holmgren - 72% (Gonzaga)

And the best shooting big man in the NBA not named Wemby...
Karl Anthony Towns - 81% (Kentucky)

So to get that lob threat and rim protection with the strong outside shooting potential? I'll call it again. Top 6 pick. Maybe top 3 pick if he keeps trending upwards.

Edit: just to square the circle, Wemby shot 80% in International play and is shooting 81% in the NBA
 
Good article about how Rutgers may miss the tournament despite having two top five draft picks: https://www.cbssports.com/college-b...-despite-having-two-top-five-nba-draft-picks/

"Those two are incredibly talented young men with very bright futures in the NBA but they don't try hard defensively," a high-major assistant who faced Rutgers this season told CBS Sports. "In college, any time any team is built around two freshmen and those freshmen don't necessarily have the maturity or intangibles of what goes into winning yet, it's going to impact your team. That's not saying they're bad young men, they just don't have what it takes to win yet."
 
MChambers said:
Good article about how Rutgers may miss the tournament despite having two top five draft picks: https://www.cbssports.com/college-b...-despite-having-two-top-five-nba-draft-picks/

"Those two are incredibly talented young men with very bright futures in the NBA but they don't try hard defensively," a high-major assistant who faced Rutgers this season told CBS Sports. "In college, any time any team is built around two freshmen and those freshmen don't necessarily have the maturity or intangibles of what goes into winning yet, it's going to impact your team. That's not saying they're bad young men, they just don't have what it takes to win yet."
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Meanwhile, the number of articles about Cooper, Kon, and Khaman not working their butts off on every single play on defense = 0
 
New ESPN mock is also out. Every Duke player except Coop dropped down. Foster and Evans are now both undrafted.

Confusing, since Khaman (#11), Kon (#7), and Proctor (#42) have all been playing really well lately.
 
I'm very surprised so many draft experts are still this high on VJ Edgcombe. I'm totally out on him. First of all he can't shoot. Second, he is NOT 6'5". He's 6'3". Next, his is defense is not good. All the numbers say he is pretty mediocre on that end. Maybe eventually he'll improve there, but since he's actually not 6'5" and doesn't have great length, his tools on the defensive end are actually not that great. Finally, for someone as quick and athletic as he is, the kid doesn't attack the rim . . . that's just not what he does for some reason, despite his incredible speed and leaping ability.

1 year ago at this time, I was upset that Duke sort of took Kon Kneuppel over VJ Edgecombe. I don't know if that was really the case, but at the time, they were both considered small forwards, so it made sense in my head. I could not have been more wrong about that. Kon is a way, way better player, and a much better fit for this Duke roster. Without Kon, we would really be deficient in passing and playmaking, and probably be forcing Coop to take on even higher usage (he's already at 30%, which is really high). There's just no way we would be this good if we swapped out Kon for VJ.
 
I, for one, am excited to see Evans fall out of the mock drafts. He might fit that sweet spot of being a sophomore or junior pro prospect. Those are kind of rare and can help solve a few issues for Duke related to player retention and helping to elevate the overall quality of the team. Players like Grayson Allen, Luke Kennard, Tre Jones, and Mark Williams were great players for Duke that have gone on to success in the NBA. That gives future recruits the vision that sticking it out for a couple years can be worth it.

The downside is someone like Hunter Sallis, who is dropping in these mock drafts. Coming back comes with risk, too. I just wanted to recognize that.
 
DavidBenAkiva said:
Sam Vecenie released his latest mock draft for 2025.

www.nytimes.com

2025 NBA mock draft: After Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper, a whole lot of questions

All told, this is not shaping up to be the monstrous class that was projected in some corners.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

1. Flagg
9. Kon
25. Maluach
42. Tyrese Proctor

Vecenie has been pretty low on Maluach relative to the other mock drafts and that continues here.
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I think Vecenie's blurb on Khaman is comically bad. Assist rate? Really? What's Man Man supposed to do, pass out of lobs?

JasonEvans said:
Sorta surprised Sion is not showing up in any 2nd round mocks. I can certainly see him as a 3&D (mostly D) piece on a NBA team at some point.
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I think he was in the second round on Givony's.
 
SkyBrickey said:
Yeah maybe. On the flip side, every other team in the country would probably kill for that 3-man backcourt. The country gets a year younger next year so all these 24 year-old grown men will disappear. That will matter.
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If we want to be a top 25 team sure. If we have national championship aspirations I don’t see that cutting it. My guess is we look for another guard in the transfer portal.
 
scottdude8 said:
With the 2024 Draft behind us, we can start looking ahead to the "Cooper Flagg Draft" this time next year!

As they tend to do, ESPN has already released a "way too early" 2025 mock draft, unsurprisingly led by Cooper. Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo don't seem willing to write that down in pen, though, discussing how either of Ace Bailey or Dylan Harper could potentially challenge Cooper for the top slot. We'll see about that.

Other notes relevant to us:
  • Tyrese is listed as one of their "top returning prospects" who can earn his way back into the first round conversation, helped by the fact that he's still just 20 years old. He's mocked at the end of the first round.
  • Khaman is mocked at #6.
  • Fascinatingly, K2 is mocked at #17... if he plays like a first rounder, oooh boy is it going to be a fun year.
  • Caleb is listed as a mid second round pick, but interestingly so is Sion James. Seems Jason isn't the only one on the James train.
  • UNC's two star freshmen are both listed as first rounders: Drake Powell at #11 and Ian Jackson at #25. Elliot Cadeau also finds himself in the second round.
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Lol Cadeau will for sure b a 4 or 5 year player for the cheats.
 
kAzE said:
I'm very surprised so many draft experts are still this high on VJ Edgcombe. I'm totally out on him. First of all he can't shoot. Second, he is NOT 6'5". He's 6'3". Next, his is defense is not good. All the numbers say he is pretty mediocre on that end. Maybe eventually he'll improve there, but since he's actually not 6'5" and doesn't have great length, his tools on the defensive end are actually not that great. Finally, for someone as quick and athletic as he is, the kid doesn't attack the rim . . . that's just not what he does for some reason, despite his incredible speed and leaping ability.

1 year ago at this time, I was upset that Duke sort of took Kon Kneuppel over VJ Edgecombe. I don't know if that was really the case, but at the time, they were both considered small forwards, so it made sense in my head. I could not have been more wrong about that. Kon is a way, way better player, and a much better fit for this Duke roster. Without Kon, we would really be deficient in passing and playmaking, and probably be forcing Coop to take on even higher usage (he's already at 30%, which is really high). There's just no way we would be this good if we swapped out Kon for VJ.
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I am as well. Someone messed with his jump shot. He shoots different than when I saw him at the Hoops Summit and the shot isn't going in. He also measured in at 6'2 I believe w/o shoes which basically makes him a point guard which he isn't at this moment. He reminded me of a young Russell Westbrook.
 
MChambers said:
Good article about how Rutgers may miss the tournament despite having two top five draft picks: https://www.cbssports.com/college-b...-despite-having-two-top-five-nba-draft-picks/

"Those two are incredibly talented young men with very bright futures in the NBA but they don't try hard defensively," a high-major assistant who faced Rutgers this season told CBS Sports. "In college, any time any team is built around two freshmen and those freshmen don't necessarily have the maturity or intangibles of what goes into winning yet, it's going to impact your team. That's not saying they're bad young men, they just don't have what it takes to win yet."
Click to expand...
W
mattyoung18 said:
Lol Cadeau will for sure b a 4 or 5 year player for the cheats.
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Aren't they all 4+ year players over there?
 
DavidBenAkiva said:
The downside is someone like Hunter Sallis, who is dropping in these mock drafts. Coming back comes with risk, too. I just wanted to recognize that.
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Well, I don't see Sallis and Evans as having the same decisions. Sallis was generally projected as mid or possibly early-2nd rounder last year. He came back in the hope of being assured of being in the multi-year guaranteed contract kind of range (first round or first 10 or so picks of the second round).

Evans, at least according to these mocks, does not face the same decision. His decision is to maybe be a late 2nd rounder but more likely a free agent versus coming back to school and showing with more minutes and responsibility that he is worthy of a multi-year guarantee.

I also suspect Duke's NIL program is significantly more robust than Wake's and I bet Evans gets a pretty decent offer to come back to Duke versus taking a significant risk by entering the NBA draft.
 
JasonEvans said:
...

Evans, at least according to these mocks, does not face the same decision. His decision is to maybe be a late 2nd rounder but more likely a free agent versus coming back to school and showing with more minutes and responsibility that he is worthy of a multi-year guarantee.

I also suspect Duke's NIL program is significantly more robust than Wake's and I bet Evans gets a pretty decent offer to come back to Duke versus taking a significant risk by entering the NBA draft.
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Wouldn't this depend on what the planned roster construction will be... kinda like what happened to Stewart, Power, and Schutt?
 
gep said:
Wouldn't this depend on what the planned roster construction will be... kinda like what happened to Stewart, Power, and Schutt?
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Not really. Those three guys I'm pretty sure were told that they may or may not be a bigger part of the rotation than they were last year, depending on their improvement and the rest of the roster's construction. In Evans's case, I don't see a scenario, with the way the roster looks like it's going to be constructed, where he is not a major piece of the puzzle.
 
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