2025 NBA Draft Class

[azcatz11]

So I said it on this board after he transferred from Iona to Florida, but Walter Clayton Jr will play on an NBA roster, even if he has to start as a second round pick. I'd rather have someone like him over guys like Bones Hyland.

What’s the biggest difference between Clayton jr and Sears in your opinion?

[Chuck Everett]

So I said it on this board after he transferred from Iona to Florida, but Walter Clayton Jr will play on an NBA roster, even if he has to start as a second round pick. I'd rather have someone like him over guys like Bones Hyland.

What’s the biggest difference between Clayton jr and Sears in your opinion?

Size. Clayton also can play without the ball and would play well off of a dominant wing/big facilitator, while Sears is useless off the ball. Clayton is 6'3. Sears is 5'10.

[azcatz11]

So I said it on this board after he transferred from Iona to Florida, but Walter Clayton Jr will play on an NBA roster, even if he has to start as a second round pick. I'd rather have someone like him over guys like Bones Hyland.

What’s the biggest difference between Clayton jr and Sears in your opinion?

Size. Clayton also can play without the ball and would play well off of a dominant wing/big facilitator, while Sears is useless off the ball. Clayton is 6'3. Sears is 5'10.

I think you’re right. Idk if anyone can beat Florida. It’s a perfectly crafted team. Idk what weakness they have except maybe Clayton shooting them out of games.

Duke
Florida

[Chuck Everett]

What’s the biggest difference between Clayton jr and Sears in your opinion?

Size. Clayton also can play without the ball and would play well off of a dominant wing/big facilitator, while Sears is useless off the ball. Clayton is 6'3. Sears is 5'10.

I think you’re right. Idk if anyone can beat Florida. It’s a perfectly crafted team. Idk what weakness they have except maybe Clayton shooting them out of games.

Duke
Florida

So last tournament, my two darkhorses were Florida and Auburn. They both lost in round 1 and now this year they're #1 seeds. I don't trust Auburn to not get emotional in a close game, so I think those two are the favorites, for sure. Florida has so many bigs and their bigs are versatile too. Some of the teams in the 8-9 position (at least according to projections) look tricky though.

[azcatz11]

Size. Clayton also can play without the ball and would play well off of a dominant wing/big facilitator, while Sears is useless off the ball. Clayton is 6'3. Sears is 5'10.

I think you’re right. Idk if anyone can beat Florida. It’s a perfectly crafted team. Idk what weakness they have except maybe Clayton shooting them out of games.

Duke
Florida

So last tournament, my two darkhorses were Florida and Auburn. They both lost in round 1 and now this year they're #1 seeds. I don't trust Auburn to not get emotional in a close game, so I think those two are the favorites, for sure. Florida has so many bigs and their bigs are versatile too. Some of the teams in the 8-9 position (at least according to projections) look tricky though.

I don’t like auburn this year. Too much iso with Broom down low. They don’t move the ball around.

I like Michigan st. Not a dark horse but they have a bunch of guys who can shoot and they’re good down low also.

[NO-KG-AI]

Call your shot: who shoots up the draft board after an unexpectedly big tournament?

[165bows]

Call your shot: who shoots up the draft board after an unexpectedly big tournament?

Feels like Nique Clifford may be doing that already.

[SeattleJazzFan]

So I said it on this board after he transferred from Iona to Florida, but Walter Clayton Jr will play on an NBA roster, even if he has to start as a second round pick. I'd rather have someone like him over guys like Bones Hyland.

What’s the biggest difference between Clayton jr and Sears in your opinion?

Size. Clayton also can play without the ball and would play well off of a dominant wing/big facilitator, while Sears is useless off the ball. Clayton is 6'3. Sears is 5'10.

yeah, no. clayton not that big (he's tiny) and sears not that small. they are going to measure nearly identical height.

[Chuck Everett]

What’s the biggest difference between Clayton jr and Sears in your opinion?

Size. Clayton also can play without the ball and would play well off of a dominant wing/big facilitator, while Sears is useless off the ball. Clayton is 6'3. Sears is 5'10.

yeah, no. clayton not that big (he's tiny) and sears not that small. they are going to measure nearly identical height.

Mark Sears
Measured: 5′ 10.25” barefoot, 192.4 lbs, 6′ 2.00” wingspan, 8′ 8” standing reach, 32 standing vert, 39 max vert at the 2024 NBA Draft Combine

Walter Clayton Jr
Measured 6′ 2.50” barefoot, 8′ 1.50” standing reach, 188.8 lbs, 6′ 4.25” wingspan, 28.5 standing vert, 37.5 max vert at the 2024 NBA G-League Combine

This happened last year. So Sears grew and Clayton shrunk in a year?

[God Squad]

Maluach is just showing why he is a NBA top pick. Truly elite defense.

He's certainly grown on me in the past few weeks/month. I still have concerns about the stocks, but he's somewhat alleviated my problem with his limited playing time.

[azcatz11]

Size. Clayton also can play without the ball and would play well off of a dominant wing/big facilitator, while Sears is useless off the ball. Clayton is 6'3. Sears is 5'10.

yeah, no. clayton not that big (he's tiny) and sears not that small. they are going to measure nearly identical height.

Mark Sears
Measured: 5′ 10.25” barefoot, 192.4 lbs, 6′ 2.00” wingspan, 8′ 8” standing reach, 32 standing vert, 39 max vert at the 2024 NBA Draft Combine

Walter Clayton Jr
Measured 6′ 2.50” barefoot, 8′ 1.50” standing reach, 188.8 lbs, 6′ 4.25” wingspan, 28.5 standing vert, 37.5 max vert at the 2024 NBA G-League Combine

This happened last year. So Sears grew and Clayton shrunk in a year?

I was surprised when you posted that also. They look the same size to me. Maybe that's what SeatleJazzFan was thinking also.

[God Squad]

Call your shot: who shoots up the draft board after an unexpectedly big tournament?

Alex Condon

[Chuck Everett]

Call your shot: who shoots up the draft board after an unexpectedly big tournament?

Alex Condon

He's a good call. He's improved by leaps and bounds this season.

[The-Power]

Not sure where the consensus is on him, but I suspect Thomas Haugh will be looked at quite closely by a lot of NBA teams and shoot up on draft boards.

In general, I expect a lot of the physically stronger Forwards/Wings to rise on the draft boards as the draft approaches. Carter Bryant, Adou Thiero, Rasheer Fleming, and perhaps Collin Murray-Boyles (I say perhaps because it depends on where the consensus is on him). Though this might also in part just reflect my belief that these players are intriguing NBA prospects.

Still, NBA teams tend to love players with good size, athleticism and defensive upside and those players can really make big jumps once the season is over and measurements plus workouts (where they shine due to their athleticism and perhaps offer more reasons to believe in their jump shot) become more of a focus, and people search for promising flashes in certain areas of their games rather than following the day-to-day performances of dozens of players where production still reigns supreme.

[The-Power]

I must say, though, that this class has disappointed me a bit for the second half of the season. It's certainly a draft class that has lost some appeal as the season went on as opposed to one that finishes strong.

This is due to some players seriously dropping off or not rising up. Demin and Kasparas are two prospects to mention here, as is Kam Jones (at a lower level of the draft). Fears really struggled for a long stretch before picking up some steam again. Traore and Bailey never really picked it up, Fland got injured and leaves a lot of question marks in place. That's not outweighed by the few risers such as Edgecombe (though even he only raised his stock compared to the first half of the season – not compared to how he was rated before the season) and Flagg, who raised his stock during conference play and left no doubt that he should be the consensus #1 pick.

[vincecarter4pres]

Call your shot: who shoots up the draft board after an unexpectedly big tournament?

Will Riley.

[CptCrunch]

Tourney scouting is bad business. It has been shown time and time again that reactionary drafting can only hurt a team.

[FarBeyondDriven]

I'm embarrassed to say that I was pretty far off with my initial take on this draft class. Right now, it's looking to be the worst since 2015. And that's before it loses 1/4 to a 1/3 of the guys when they decide to return.

Having 2 clear cut franchise players in Flagg and Harper already makes this take nonsense

Harper is not a "clear cut franchise player" though. And even if we pretend that he is, does two franchise players in a draft necessarily mean it's a great draft class overall? It just seems obvious that people rate draft classes based on the popular names at the top and really don't know much else about them. It happens every year. Casual takes.

[FarBeyondDriven]

I must say, though, that this class has disappointed me a bit for the second half of the season. It's certainly a draft class that has lost some appeal as the season went on as opposed to one that finishes strong.

This is due to some players seriously dropping off or not rising up. Demin and Kasparas are two prospects to mention here, as is Kam Jones (at a lower level of the draft). Fears really struggled for a long stretch before picking up some steam again. Traore and Bailey never really picked it up, Fland got injured and leaves a lot of question marks in place. That's not outweighed by the few risers such as Edgecombe (though even he only raised his stock compared to the first half of the season – not compared to how he was rated before the season) and Flagg, who raised his stock during conference play and left no doubt that he should be the consensus #1 pick.

agree. Not sure why there's push back for saying so. The class isn't good. Even a guy like Edgecomb people are high on because he supposedly played well (meh) is still a small shooting guard who's going to lose much of his athletic advantage once he gets into the NBA. And Harper, a supposed franchise talent, is so good, that with another top 5 talent from this class couldn't even get his team to the tournament. Yet he's going to lead an NBA franchise? So much of his advantages in college is just being bigger than most guards defending him. That goes away at the next level. With his less than stellar athleticism, weak defense and low shooting release, he's going to struggle to duplicate his production at the next level more than people think.

[BigGargamel]

This class stinks. I tried doing a mock draft for the first time in a month or so and struggled to fill out the entire first round. After like pick 18 I was reaching hard.

There was no Cooper Flagg in the 2024 draft, but the depth of that class seemed a lot better than this one. Flagg is great, Harper is decent enough, but after those two - who?

The 2nd and 3rd best prospects in this class teaming up and not even posting a winning record is a really bad look. I know the coaching was a mess but that should have been enough to do better.